“What are you doing?”
This was my three year old. She had been bouncing around the basement and was now at my elbow, looking at the screen. What I was doing wasn’t much; catching up on email, Hacker News, the Well, some twitter, paying a couple bills, wondering why my auto-pay wasn’t automatically paying. Usual nonsense.
“Nothing honey, just a little work.”
“Play with me.”
I almost blew her off. She didn’t say it in the way you are imagining, drawing the meeeeeeeee out to scratch your ears. It was matter of fact, simple, a statement. “(Hey, how about you) Play with me (instead of the computer).”
And I even said “Ok,” and kept doing what I was doing for another minute. She’s three. She won’t care. Heck, she won’t even notice. Jerk.
I came to my senses. And I unassed myself and got on the floor.
“What’s this?”
She was holding a metal cable management contraption I took off my home theater setup. It consisted of a couple brackets and a nut and bolt.
“Here, let me show you.”
I grabbed my crescent wrench and showed her how the bolt screwed on. “What the heck!” (All day long at our house lately it’s What the heck! I’m saying it all the time now too. What the heck! Our six year old brought it home from first grade. Better that than Wizards of iLizzie Castle or whatever that junk is on Disney Channel.) I showed her how the crescent wrench shrinks and grows with the thumb wheel. “What the heck!” I showed her how to construct a new creation with four L brackets and a nut and bolt. “That’s crazy!” (If it’s not raising heck, it’s crazy).
The L bracket thing was christened Spiderey.
I grabbed my orange Swingline and made it talk. Then I showed her how to open it with the little button in the base (“What the heck!”). The Swingline was renamed Orangey Orange.
“Orangey Orange, what are you doing?”
“Eating dinner!”
“I’m looking for my web. Have you seen it?”
Luckily the spider web was nearby. Some people put magazines in it and call it a magazine rack but it was obviously a spider web.
“Here it is Spidery!”
“Oh thank you!”
Then Mr. Hammer Head came by to visit. It was a busy night at the Spidery pad.
“Mr. Hammer Head, what are you doing!”
“Nothing Spidery, look how I walk.”
“Wow, I wish I had a hammery head.”
“Here’s your hat!”
Someone had accidentally clipped Spidery’s hat on some papers and hung them on a line. Silly mistake, I can see how you could think it was a spring loaded hanging clip.
“Oh, what a nice hat!”
“Thank you Orangey Orange!”
There are lots of exclamation points when the family has a reunion.
I looked around. There she was, in her black stretchy pants and shirt, with her Cinderella princess outfit on top. The parent/child relationship is complex. We can forget, or force ourselves to ignore, the rotating teacher and student roles. Within throwing distance was $10k worth of digital entertainment. We had $4 in random hardware, a stapler and a crescent wrench. What the heck! Thanks little one for reminding me, again, about real life. And getting me back on the floor.
Heartwarming! I’m reminded of how a cardboard box, a paper towel tube, scissors and lots of tape resulted in a way cooler fortress for my Star Wars figures than you could buy at the store.