Edward is at camp this week, which means that Ruby and I get to spend our days hanging out and having fun adventures. It’s a great thing to get some one-on-one time with her, since that is so rare these days. Edward and I get a lot of time together, but there don’t seem to be many moments that I can spend with just my daughter. She’s funny, she’s smart, and it is truly a joy to just have a conversation with her and to see what she knows and notices about the world. Today we woke up early, which we both hated, and got in the car to drive for almost an hour to take Anna to be spayed. It was a long drive, but I loved every minute of it. I got to hear so many things!
To start with, Ruby was very interested in the rocks on the side of the road. Here are a few of her comments:
“Hey! That rock looks like a volcano! Do you see the smoke kind of rising out of it and then, like, some lava kind of flowing down the side?!”
“That rock looks like two gorillas hugging!”
Ruby: “That rock looks like a griffin! Oh, except griffins aren’t real, so it can’t be a griffin. It must look like a dragon.”
Me: “So dragons are more real than griffins?”
Ruby: “DAddy! A koMOdo dragon!”
She saw clouds that looked like animals and mountains that looked like giants. We drove through fog and rain, but we were really driving through London by way of Hawaii. It was a magical journey, although a good part of it was spent trying not to let the dog eat anything off the floor before her surgery. You don’t need much imagination to consider the kinds of treats that can be found hidden in, under, and around the booster seat of a 5-year-old boy.
After we dropped the dog off, which Ruby was very sad about because she feels it is a cruel thing to do to take away one’s capacity for children, we decided to go to the store to pick up a few things. I needed more Coke, obviously, and I made a joking comment about how Grammy was over yesterday and drank all of my Coke (she had one), so we needed to buy some more. To which Ruby quickly replied “Hey! She’s your mother! Don’t blame her for things! Be nice!” This is an excellent viewpoint, of which I will continually remind her in the years to come. I just hope it applies to fathers too.
So I got to learn some things from my daughter, and I got to go on an exciting adventure. If you don’t often spend some one-on-one time with your children, I highly recommend it. Just remember to never diss your parents. Do it often enough and your children will learn that it’s okay, and you will live to regret it.