simple headband

Little Things

Isabel loves to read. And she loves when we read to her even more. She grabs her books from the shelf and assumes the position in our lap, without fail. But for some god forsaken reason, she has been insisting that we read to her the minute she wakes up at 6:30 am. We can barely comprehend walking down the hallway, and she’s ready to go!

Oh, and she is in the “read the same book 5 gajillion times” phase. So while we read several books a night, we’ve really only like three different books over the last two weeks. I can recite, “I Know an Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly” with my eyes closed (including the clever quips included on each page, that you probably skim over), and have memorized “Polar Bear, Polar Bear.”

As adults, we complicate everything. We figure out ways to over-analyze the simplest tasks, and worry about things that don’t have any importance. We use five words when we could use three. We write lengthy emails instead of picking up the phone. And we try to provide our children with amazing experiences, when a box and some stickers occupy them for hours.

Isabel’s recent obsession is a Lil’ Libros book that has the same ten words in English and Spanish, so twenty words total. And since we’re trying to expose her to as much Spanish as possible, I don’t even read the English. So I’m reading ten words. TEN WORDS! We have read this book countless times since we brought it home on Saturday, and each time she listens as if she’s never heard it before.

simple wrist bandRecently, our cat was sick and had a feeding tube. When our vet (aka her aunt) came to remove it, she brought those annoying bandages that we get after giving blood. Annoying to us, but ecstasy for a toddler – who now has wrist bands and a Rambo-style headband that she doesn’t want to remove. A product that signifies injury to adults, is fantasy to a child.

Need to occupy Isabel for a few minutes to get dinner ready? Give her a napkin and you’ve just bought yourself a solid five minutes of uninterrupted time, while she cleans any surface she can see, including the cats. That may not sound like a lot, but any parent knows that five minutes might as well be 20. And all because of a napkin. Trash to us. Entertainment for her.

Talk to any parent and they have their “go-to” distractions, games, trinkets, songs, books, [insert noun] it takes to stop the whining, prevent a meltdown, or steal a few minutes to check that text message (we’ve alI done it). And I would venture to guess that whatever their default lifeline may be, it’s probably something simple.


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