It’s starting to get dark earlier, which is always a sadness to me. I like all seasons of the year, but I love Summer Solstice and the time around it when we have the most hours of light in the day. Right now it’s just getting dark as we’re getting the children to bed. I had been toting things upstairs in a laundry basket that had been down and needed to go up, like laundry and toys, and I’d been filling it up with things that needed to go downstairs, like dirty laundry and trash. I was doing this while my husband was reading a story to my children, now in bed.
One of the things I had carried upstairs in the laundry basket was my daughter’s backpack. It’s new and has lots of compartments with pairs of zippers. My daughter’s VI teacher suggested we hang something on the zippers so my daughter would instantly know which compartment she held the zipper for without having to unzip, check inside and then repeat until she got the compartment she was looking for.
I had fun picking different charms to hang on each pair of zippers. I used our vacation as a general theme, putting airplane charms on one set, boats on another, a flip flop, bicycles and then, because I ran out of ideas, I put pompoms on the final set. I had snagged the bag on something and had torn a bicycle off and my daughter told me one of the airplanes had gone missing. I had brought her backpack upstairs with the laundry, now put away. I went down the hall, put the laundry basket on the floor and and went into the craft room with the backpack to put on some replacement charms.
When I was done, it had grown dark outside. I turned off the light in the craft room and walked confidently into the now dark hallway…and ran straight into the laundry basket I’d left on the floor ten minutes before. In this case I knew what I’d stumbled on as soon as my brain processed the sound and feel of what I’d kicked, but before that happened I got a jolt of adrenaline in response to the unknown hazard. Coming from the well-lit craft room, my eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dimness of the hallway or I would have seen it.
I had left it there. I knew what it was, and yet it still startled me. I wasn’t hurt at all but my body reacted with the adrenaline in case I needed to take immediate action in some way. That’s how I reacted to this very known situation. My daughter does this every day, multiple times each day—running into things. She doesn’t know what the things are many times because as much as we tell children (and adults) to not leave shoes on the floor in the middle of the foyer, it still happens. Drawers are never allowed to be left open, even for a minute. The dishwasher when open and drying is always something we tell my daughter about so she’s aware. Dog bones, toys, anything out of place, a wall or even furniture if she gets turned around—they’re all hazards to her.
How does she cope when it happens? Well, for one, she doesn’t like it when I tell her to watch out. She wants to be in control of her body, even if that means she might get hurt. She knows I’m not going to stop keeping her safe, but that independent, feisty little girl in her wants to do it all herself.
It was just a flimsy plastic laundry basket, but it made me think of what my daughter’s life is like in some small way.
The Big Boy Update: I found underwear under the bed tonight. I called my son in and he was actually very upset at what he’d done. He streaked his underwear and, thinking he’d hide the evidence, put them in the laundry basket—where the dog found them. When I showed him and explained that it could make the dog sick, he was very contrite. I told him he knew what he needed to do to clean his underwear and it was far better to let us know, ask for help, anything other than putting them in a spot the dog could get to. He understood. This lesson, I don’t think is going to need much in the way of repeating to him, he was upset and didn’t want to hurt the dog.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has eye surgery tomorrow. She seems fine about the whole thing. She’s done this all before. This time is going to be a bit different and she knows in a way that it will be. We haven’t told her too many details because we have to have the surgery. We’ve had such kind words from friends and family, wishing her the best tomorrow. I’ll send an update here when we have one and I can get to the computer to type. I’m not expecting anything unexpected tomorrow, but some details on what happened will be my main goal. I’m interested in those details myself as this is all new territory for us.
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