Child-like enthusiasm

My niece's sitter was ill today, so I had the opportunity to spend the day with a delightful not-quite-two-year-old. It's delightful to enjoy her increasing verbal skills, and the avid way she absorbs the world around her. After nap time was quiet, sleepy observation, but that only lasted until the first car drove past our window.

"Car!" Emily squealed. And the narration continued as she bolted around the house. We've been doing quite a bit of home improvement, so Emily had quite a few changes to inspect. "Books!" "Colors!" "Cat! Meow, Kitty!" (And Kit promptly ran off. Emily's cats are accustomed to her enthusiasm, but our Kit prefers a more subdued greeting.) She and Samuel had a ticklefest. "Tickle me funny?"

I remember now why I waited for naptime to get things done when my kids were young.

Thanks to my teenage support team, I was able to clear my email and get an evaluation sent out today. And there was always someone to share a conversation with Emily and her bunny or dolly.

Samuel and I had a wonderful quiet morning while the girls celebrated the day off school by sleeping in. He wanted to play Trivial Pursuit, but I wasn't up for that long a commitment to a game. We settled on one round each of two family favorites: SET and Skip-bo. Samuel has become quite a whiz at SET, and if you've never played, I highly recommend the game. We get some serious competitiveness going, since everyone is trying to identify sets of three cards at the same time. Once in a while an obvious set (like red, green and purple solid diamonds in a row) pops up, but we have more fun trying to make less obvious sets, especially when the "duh!" factor creeps in. It's great for mental flexibility and training visual acuity. I appreciate the way Samuel's persistence in looking for sets has improved over the last few years. I just checked, and Amazon.com does stock the game. I'll get my affiliate account set up so I can get a direct link from this text to the order page. (See I'm still learning!)

Which brings me to my thought for the day. . .How do you relate to the world around you? Is everything predictable and even a bit hum-drum? Or do you celebrate the leaves dancing in the breeze, kicking your way through the piles of leaves in the yard with a squeal of delight? Is a challenging situation a frustration or a puzzle to be solved? When something is not immediately obvious, do you puzzle it through or pass it on to someone else?

Until next time, relate to the world with child-like enthusiasm!

Aloha,
Mary