Last weekend my eight year old niece, Maddy, was here. My parents brought her up for a weekend visit. She's raised with continuous entertainment in a much larger house -- I mean our entire house, from attic to basement, would fit in their "great room." So I expected some sort of culture shock.
There were a lot of pronouncements of, "I'm bored." But I didn't expect that three minutes into a 6 minute drive to dinner for her to announce her boredom. It was her way of demanding a DVD to play or something.
But our kids know the drill and suggested she amuse herself by looking out the window.
Maddy responded ad follows:
"Red car. White car. Another red car."
"House."
"House."
"Blue car."
I responded with a twist on the old "Looking is with the eyes," usually reserved for not touching in stores. "Looking is with the eyes, not the mouth," I said.
Maddy was silent.
But you could feel her displeasure. *wink*
She also learned that pet birds make a lot of noise. She was fascinated by Luke, our cockatiel, but immeasurably annoyed by his chirps and bird-talk; she dramatically shushed him all the time.
I guess her dad can thank me when the pleading for a pet bird stops. *wink*
Overall, it was a great visit. She loved our "full of neat stuff" little house. (She's not used to so many books and knick-knacks; my sister's house is much more minimalist.) And she quickly caught on to entertaining herself by doing things like painting (I had literally given her a box of rocks for her birthday -- a
rock painting kit she brought along), riding bikes and hanging out in the attic "fort."
On the way back home, Maddy told my parents that she missed "those people." So I guess we were a hit!
My mother replied to her sad commentary on loss of us by saying, "That's what vacations are; lots of fun but then you go home to the people you love."
Maddy responded by saying she sure missed, Carly, their dog. Ha!
