Yesterday Skylar was playing a computer game and asked me to watch. It's a lot like Super Mario Brothers, for those of you that played that. She has a little character and she has to collect as many coin things as she can. There's a lot more exploration involved than Super Mario--she has to climb on things and do a lot of roaming to find them all, and I was struck with a thought while I watched her. If that was me playing the game, I'd be going full speed ahead, trying to get to the end as fast as possible. Sure, I'd grab whatever coins I could see, but would I be climbing up things that were off the top of the screen to see if by any chance there were coins up there (there always were)? Heck no! And isn't that telling that Skylar does, and I wouldn't? Doesn't that speak to something bigger?
She doesn't have the desire to make a mad dash to the finish line of any kind. She's still content to amble around (do I even know what amble means? dunno) and take her time and have fun with the game. Why don't I? And wouldn't I be happier if I did?
Case in point: I LOVE magazines. I have a stack of them that need read because I've been a little short on time lately LOL, but they sit there like little pots of gold. I even picked up about 10 at the library last week because clearly I need MORE to read. But I can't help myself! And yet, when I sit down to read them, while I'm enjoying myself, my goal is to get through it. I think that with all I have to do and how overwhelmed I can be, I like getting little bits of positive reinforcement of ACCOMPLISHING something. Finished that. Check. Finished another one. Check. So much so that I'll introduce *more* of them just to *finish* them and get them out of the house. Hmmm. Fascinating. :P But shouldn't I be just slowing down and soaking up every word? Can't. Don't have time. I'm not exactly liking the conclusions I'm finding with this tirade....
Now on to this little daughter of mine. Have I ever seen a girl more in love with her father? Here's some recent examples I can think of:
~Michael had to work pretty late one day this week and when he got home, hours late, she literally giggled to see him. Giggled! To get her to laugh, we have to work!! Lots of tickling, kissing, bouncing, etc and nothing ever works for more than a few minutes. But she saw Dad and she was so beside herself that she laughed and laughed.
~This morning I brought her in to wake up Michael and she looked over at him and cooed and talked and smiled to get him to wake up.
~When he left for work yesterday, she did this new thing where she's lying on the couch and she'll crane her head back and turn it around trying to look for him. It looks terribly uncomfortable. And she fussed and then she'd do it again trying to see him. :(
