Eating In The Dark

I frequently go up to find my daughter in her room these days.   She moved out of the shared bedroom she shared with her brother, something that surprised us, because she's younger by close to a year and we had always figured her brother would want to escape her first and would leave to go to the room that had only a shower with a smaller closet.   But she wanted to leave, to have her own space, and she was ready first. 

I thought she picked the wrong room because the back bedroom didn't have a bath, something she enjoys soaking in regularly, and the closet space was much smaller.   But that room was where Nana and Papa would stay when they visited and therefore it was the place she wanted to be now that Nana and Papa had moved close to us and had their own home to stay in. 

She loves things and had she retained the shared bedroom with her brother, she would have much more space to spread her things out in.   As it stands, it just means she needs to take stock of the collections of things she piles up and pick things to store (because you can never say you're getting rid of something, that just can't be imagined—both children never want to say goodbye to anything).

She spends time alone, being in part introverted, although she is a very social being but her room is her place to be her, to play games with herself, and to lose herself in the land of audiobooks, her favorite pastime.  We never have to send her to her room, she disappears there to do her own thing already as a ten-year-old. 

When I go up to find her, sometimes she's doing homework, sometimes she's listening to an audiobook and sometimes she's just doing things in her room.   No matter the time, the light is always off.   Why have lights on when you don't need them?  I ask if I can turn them on to help with the laundry, saying that I can't do it without the light like she can.  She never minds.  

She eats in the dark too.   It's an odd thing to come into the kitchen and find her at the bar seat eating quietly in the dark.   You know she's there because she'll have an audio book on or a game playing quietly if everyone else is asleep.   But she's in the dark.   It's a world I can't comprehend.  I close my eyes and in less than a few paces I'm lost in space.   But she does it every day, all day long and never complains. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son says he is a terrible person.  That all he ever does is things that are wrong.  And yes, he is corrected constantly.  But he is intentionally doing things he shouldn't be, like eating in the living room or not getting off the computer when he had agreed he would get off.   Or poking his sister and driving her crazy, just because he wants to.   So today we struck up a bargain with him.  We wouldn't correct him (I explained that we never wanted to, and we would very much like not to) provided he did all the things he should and didn't do the things he shouldn't.   I said it would be work on both sides, but what about giving it a try?  He agreed.   He helped me with the groceries in and then he had a very good rest of the day.   I really, really hope this helps.  I hate that he's constantly corrected.   We really don't like it any more than he does. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got a new audio game.  They are hard to find, but my husband found a new one.  She binge played it and came upstairs after only two days asking for the next game.  She loved it.   But I don't know that there are any more games to find.  She wants the sequel, but we don't think there is one.   If she were sighted there would be hundreds or even thousands of options.  But as it is, there are only a few.  I'm so glad she liked it.   Knowing her, she'll play it again.