sweet

Kid Hug

| patmcg

This afternoon when I picked up Claire from school, all the kids were running around and playing in the big indoors playroom like normal. Claire did not see me at first, but another kid saw me and said, “Claire, your Daddy is here!”. Then Claire ran over for a hug. I said, “Are you ready to go?”, which a split second later I realized was a mistake. What if she said no? Fortunately, Claire had only one request before leaving. “I want a hug from a kid.” Before I could ask her to expand on that idea, or perhaps suggest a particular kid, a slightly older girl who was in earshot ran over to Claire and gave her a nice big extended hug. Then Claire grabbed my hand, and we headed out the door. 

This whole transaction had the feel of being set up, like Claire had gone to this other girl a few minutes earlier and said, “When my Daddy comes to get me, come over and give me a hug.  He is going to eat it up!”.  Well, it worked.  

Comfy

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Today Claire was making her usual proclamations, such as “Muffin is furrrrry!” or “Cheese is yummy!” when I picked her up and held her in my left arm. After a few seconds, she said, “You’re comfy, Daddy.”

Besides feeling a little bit like a sofa, I couldn’t ask for a better compliment.

Still Can’t Read

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Claire was in her room looking at a pile of her books before bath time this evening. Then she brought a big board book into the bathroom where I was drawing her bath and getting everything ready for bedtime. She asked me to read the book, and I said sorry, not right now, I am busy. She threw the book down and started crying. Usually she gets a little annoyed, but not that upset, when I tell her I’m busy. So I asked her what was the matter. She looked down, with tears in her eyes, and said in a quiet voice, “I’m too little to read it.” It was so sweet and sad. Then Kit showed up and read the book to her and cheered her up. I am afraid Claire has a pretty long wait before she can read books “all by her own self”, as she says, but it is nice to see she is motivated.

Nurturing Side

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Claire still loves Reese’s trains and dinosaurs, but she is also discovering her girly nurturing side lately.

She has been trying to change her Raggedy Ann’s clothes and diaper. Unfortunatley, Ann’s clothes are sewn on, so it is impossible in actuality to change her diaper. But she seems happy enough pretending to change it, mumbling, “change diaper…” or “clean up…” as she fiddles with the doll.

Sometimes she tries to dress her little plastic dolphin bath toys up in her own cloths, saying things like “How cuuuute!” or “He’s snuggly!” Of course, these dolphins are about 3 inches tall, so even a toddler’s little shirt dwarfs them. Speaking of her dolphins, she has named them too. The orange one, the first one of the bunch that we got out her, is named Thomas, after Thomas the Train. The other two are named Henry and James, who are also train names. She is very consistent about the naming. Thomas is always the bright orange one, James is the dull orange one, and Henry is the green one. She has even started to wash her dolphins during her own bath. I give her a washcloth, and she gently scrubs the dolphins with it one at a time, saying, “Let’s clean him up.”

Claire also loves to feed dog treats to Muffin. They both get a real tickle out of it. Claire holds the treat out for Muffin and waits for her to grab it with her mouth. She still seems a little scared that Muffin will bite her hand, so she usually lets the treat go when Muffin opens her mouth, dropping it on the floor. But especially when she makes a successful delivery, she giggles and jumps around. Both she and Muffin could do this all day.

Actually, Claire’s nurturing side has take a slightly odd turn as well. She has a Thomas the Train board book with a raised plastic face on the front. If you press it’s nose, the book plays a little song. Claire has recently adopted this book as her little baby to take care of. She likes to dress it — the book — in clothes, pretend to feed it with a bottle, and will sometimes put it to sleep. This is sort of bizarre to watch, but I guess it makes sense since the book sort of resembles a doll, with its little plastic face. In fact, it is the closest thing that Claire has to a doll besides her stuffed animals. I thought dolls only made sense for four or five year old girls, but I guess not. Perhaps it is time to gt Claire a doll.