Guess How Much I Miss You

My daughter loves audiobooks, but today she made a different request.   I think in part she was avoiding doing the reading and summary work she had to do for her asynchronous school day.  Couple that with the fact that when she followed her father and me into her brother's closet as we were putting a table into a storage room beyond, she remembered all the children's books stored on the shelves there. 

What book did she want me to read to her?   This is a tough question to a child who can't tell what any of the books are about.  She can tell thickness and size, but that's about it.  Fiction?  Non-fiction?  Toddler book or a collection of stories to be read to children?  She had no idea.   She hedged nicely by saying, "I want you to pick."

I called out a few books and then happened upon a rather large book Titled, "Guess How Much I Miss You?"  I remembered this book.   It was large because there was a recording device in it.  Someone could record what each page of the book said and then the child could press play after changing the page and the book would read aloud in the adult's voice the next part of the story. 

My mother had recorded this particular book and had put a note to my children at the beginning.  Unfortunately, the battery had died after sitting on the shelf for so long.  I told my daughter I'd read the book to her now and we'd see if the recording was still there with a new battery later. 

I read her the book and described the pictures.   It's hard to read a story that is a single poem, divided up into a number of pages.   A sighted child will follow along with the pictures while you read the words.  I needed to describe what was happening to the bears in the book so my daughter would have a better mental picture of what was going on.   Adding extra descriptions doesn't help with the cadence of the poem, but I used different intonations in my voice and tried to make it work. 

While I read, she claimed up into the top bunk where my son used to sleep.   She curled up and I thought she was asleep when I got done with the second book, coincidentally about the town my parents live in and another gift from them.  She was quietly listening though.   

I'd forgotten what it was like to read stories to the children, rocking in the rocking chair my mother gave us for their room.   Sitting on the cushion she gave us that is more material than a cushion.   But it looks nice.   Maybe I'll add some stuffing to it and pick back up reading to them at night before bedtime.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Playing Together Conflict:  My son wanted to play with his sister tonight.  He was upset because, "she never wants to play with me, she just wants to make the LEGO with dad."  I told him she felt a lot the same way about him when all he wanted to do was play Minecraft.   She did come up (he refused to play with me, saying it was a special game they had going) and I left to do some work in the basement.   My daughter came down crying in just a few minutes.  Her brother had moved the coffee table and then (innocently) told her to run around faster to try and find the various things he had placed on the floor (soft items like sofa cushions and pillows—he was thinking about her.)  When she had barked her shin on the coffee table, she yelled at him, and then he yelled back, she left and he told her to not come back, he didn't ever want to play with her again.   I told her he was upset.   He hadn't meant for her to get hurt, but when she yelled at him he reacted badly.   I talked to him later and that's exactly what had happened.   I had my son run around his laundry basket with his eyes closed as an example.   Sometimes we need to see the world the way she does (or in this case doesn't) to understand how we can best keep her safe.