daddyville

In recent months, our four year old daughter Shayla has really, quite successfully, retooled her entire early morning stealth exploration. She wakes before her mother and I, and then we wake upon hearing her, or she wakes us up outright. Most of the time she lays back down with us and sleeps for another hour or two. Well, she did until recently...

Now, as the 'wisdom' in her little head grows, she realizes that this is potentially 'her' time to do and eat what she wants if she is quiet enough. I think she finally now gets that sound really does travel, and is starting to take full advantage of that knowledge.

Upon hearing her this morning, as slight as it was, I identified the sound of a dining room chair sliding ever so gently and slowly across the tile: scaffold construction was underway. A scaffold that would no doubt help her achieve a height that was tall enough for her to reach on top of the dining room 'hutch' where we stow all the 'goodies' that are only seldom given to her as treats on special occasions. I walked out into the living room to find her actively devouring a bag of yucca chips and a bulk container containing a 1/4 pound or so of Jordan Almonds. She looks up at me and says, running to me with the Jordan almonds so as to appear 'pro-active' about it "Daddy, I got these down for you. I thought that you might want some". Nice try.
"Yeah, right. No thanks. I don't want any Jordan Almonds and you know that those are not your's for the taking. We've told you about scaffold building before Shayla, and that you could slip and really hurt yourself by climbing on things like that." At this point I sound like a broken record because I cannot count the number of times that her mother and I have told her this.
"Are you going to hide all that stuff again", she asks?
"How'd you guess?(sarcastically) You know that I am", I reply.

My little four year old daughter is now smart enough to know that it's sometimes beneficial to lie on the spot to save your own butt. Yes, I guess I suppose that's progress. It was bound to happen and well,....here we are. Yay?

My four year old daughter cracks me up! She takes it upon herself to make sure that all inter-familial information and communications is dispersed throughout the house to all members involved and uninvolved, at all times, and in all places---bar none. The lack of meter for what's important and what isn't is comical. Of course, at this age (four years old) if you happen to be standing around within close proximity, she will likely share it with you as well. Why? Because it's her job to inform the people about everything from the spider web in the upper corner of the living room to how many times she went to the bathroom that day. She's the 'information dispenser' and she's excited about it!!

Sometimes I use her to share information with her mom because, let's face it, it's faster than text messaging: not quite as accurate, but cuter. She tells everything like it's a breaking news story. It's quite fun to listen to. The other thing is that she repeats every thing on a continuous loop until you acknowledge it. This is a little on the other side of amusing, but even that has it's own endearing quality.

Toddlers speak their own kind of koans. Sometimes it's rather direct and contextual and other times it sounds more akin to coming in on a conversation halfway through--in a foreign language no less-- in which you have to listen to for a while just in order that you might understand the gist of what's being talked about by catching every third or fourth word of significance. While it is funny it is also tiring. Oh yes! Sometimes I just say "Uh-huh" in order to give her audience because I have learned that asking questions about her material will sometimes get you even deeper into that hole of oblivion and mystery and any attempt to untie the knot of rationale will just work like quicksand and leave you walking away wondering what happened.

She's always been a talker. Even when she was younger, before she had words, she was telling stories in phonics. This reminds me of my travels in Central America years ago and how I used to really love aloneness and silence: looking forward to not having to practice my Spanish speaking and cognition skills every moment of the day. This was because while any interaction with the locals signified a lot of work in language, specifically Spanish, the inevitable out come of conversations was nothing short of a remarkable Spanish lesson, it also conditioned my behaviors in a way that permitted my sanity while still learning a whole new language from the roots up. Teaching your child English can create a similar feeling as they try everything they know on you, everyday. It's fun, but at the same time enervating. It's replenishing and draining. What's always amazing to me is how quickly we parents rebound and are ready for another round of riddles. It's fun.....and challengeing....to fully understand and communicate with your offspring.

This is a Journey rife with laughter, joy, and a lot of love.

My four y.o. daughter says "Daddy, do you want to play 'wands' with me?" as she hands me a green wand. "Don't worry daddy, it's not pink", she says. I think: Why on earth would she think that I'd mind the color pink; I've never indicated anything of the kind. It's funny the things that four year olds come up with. :)

@reneritchie UStream has had iPhone Live listed as 'live' for almost the past hour now. I think that mis-information has led to my live viewing snafu. They should have better organization for dealing with the airing of shows throughout the time zones. All the same, I'm thankful for the service. Although I've missed your show entirely the past couple of wks. simply b/c of this one small detail.

@reneritchie UStream has had iPhone Live listed as 'live' for almost the past hour now. I think that mis-information has led to my live viewing snafu. They should have better organization for dealing with the airing of shows throughout the time zones. All the same, I'm thankful for the service. Although I've missed your show entirely the past couple of wks. simply b/c of this one small detail.