I ordered air filters for our house last week. We have multiple sizes of filters and I order a batch at a time so we have them on hand every three months when the calendar reminder pops up and my husband does the replacement rounds through the house. When they arrived, they came in two very large boxes. My daughter dragged in the quite light packages and eagerly opened them by managing to rip off the top piece of tape. She excitedly looked into the box to find crumpled brown paper and exclaimed, “there’s nothing in there”.
After looking under the paper she pulled out the first six-pack of filters and proceeded to carry them into the bathroom, where my husband was showering, to let him know we had air filters. I don’t think she had any idea what air filters were, so I showed her the return vent in our bedroom, opening it up and letting her feel the recently replaced filter. She was interested, but more interested in what else might be in that big box.
After pulling out two more packages of filters she went to the smaller box and found similar contents. She wasn’t unhappy though, because, hey—boxes! She climbed in and closed herself inside. She went to find her “pups” and put them inside with here. Imaginative play followed for a while. My son was busy doing his own thing but later he came to see the boxes. When we had a sitter come over later, he was informed that we had boxes in a happy tone by my daughter.
They had received a package the day before but hadn’t had a chance to open it. It was from a childhood family friend of my husband’s and an unexpected present for my children lay inside. When they opened it they found a set of scented markers. My husband and I immediately wanted to open them up and smell them because we both remembered them from our childhood. We talked to the children about the different smells. We guessed what the yellow one might smell like (pineapple, lemon or banana) and everyone correctly surmised the orange one was probably, well, orange.
A short while later my daughter’s music therapist arrived to give my daughter a lesson. At the end of the hour it was my turn to have a lesson, only I had two children to watch with a husband out for the morning. I took my daughter downstairs and asked her what she thought those big boxes might be (a car? A dog house? A boat?) I wondered if she might want to draw what she envisioned on the boxes while I had my singing lesson. Her brother was interested too so I dragged the boxes out onto the sunny deck and left them to have a good time.
I went back upstairs and didn’t think much more about them while I tried to engage my diaphragm, relax my jaw, sing an ‘R’ without singing an ‘R’ and attempt to sing with two fingers between my teeth holding my jaw in a fixed position. When I came downstairs later I found what had happened to the boxes.
There was a plane and a house (the house was the smaller of the two boxes, for reasons apparent only to my daughter). There was marker everywhere, including my daughter’s face—specifically her nose. She had made sure to smell all the markers each time she used one I think. Oh, and her hands, I should have taken a picture of her, it was quite the sight. She was so pleased with the result.
The boxes are in the basement now and have been used in the back yard as a construction site while my son and his friend made something with hammers, nails, a saw and some pieces of wood. The second box is flattened now, but has proved to have other uses in it’s new, two-dimensional form.
At some point I’ll recycle them, but for now they’re great entertainment.
The Big Boy Update: After Tae Kwon Do tonight we headed to the new “Flying Car”. We have several friend families in the class and I knew one of the children would want to see the car. The falcon wing doors are pretty fun to demonstrate. The mom said it looked like a Storm Trooper car what with the white and black. My son also wanted to show off the feature he thought was most exciting—the cup holders. He showed how there were cup holders in the middle row, the back row and yes, even in the front row there were cup holders.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My son and I were at Tae Kwon Do this evening and while we were there, my husband was making dinner. My daughter wanted to help (she loves to help) and got the table on the porch ready for our return. She cleaned off the chairs and table top, got adult and child plates from the cabinets, set out utensils for everyone and even rolled up a cloth napkin and placed it at each seat. When we returned home she wanted to know what we wanted to drink so she could put our our beverages. She may be almost blind, but she’s still very capable.
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