I’m so exhausted from writing heartbreaking anecdotes, instead I’m going to write about something wholesome and happy. First off I’m no longer unemployed, it’s nothing grandiose but it’s a job. Onto today’s subject: I had the pleasure of my daughter spending a few months with my parents and I in Indiana last year through the new year.
My mom converted her craft room into a room for Zelda replete with her own bed, shelving, and a chest to store all of her clothes, books, and toys. Not long into her stay we went to a nearby second-hand store for children’s things and got some puzzles, books, and her first booster seat. It was fun watching Zelda run around and seeing what took her interest. She loved her booster seat which had the Paw Patrol as a motif, she loves dogs in general. There aren’t any in her home with her mom but my parents have two dogs and my sister who visits frequently has her own as well. Nearly every time we video chat with Zelda she wants to see everyone including the dogs. The group being together is important to her.
While here we would always spend our mornings in the living room where my parents watch the news everyday. Zelda would get her morning milk (chocolate milk if we had it) and we would draw, work on puzzles, play with toys or whatever she felt like doing that morning. If we drew she always wanted me to trace our hands next to each other on paper and tell me which was which. Baba hand and Dada (short for Zelda) hand. After my parents finished with the TV I would let her watch educational children’s programming like Numberblocks or Ms. Rachel for 30 minutes. I like to watch it with her so I know what she’s being exposed to, but would also take advantage of her distracted attention to prepare her breakfast. After breakfast I would always encourage her to go outside, though Indiana was quite cold at this time. She didn’t always want to and that’s ok. She did get to go sledding a few times and we even attempted her first snowman, though it was too cold for the snow to stick. We’d brush our teeth together every morning and she always wanted to imitate my brushing technique, then I’d help her finish. She did catch a cold and she and I developed a habit of taking our medicine in the morning. Baba medicine, supplements and anti-allergy pills, and Dada medicine, honey-based supplements for an immunity boost.
Around this time, I would practice her numbers 0-20 with her and then her alphabet. By the time she left Indiana, she understood 0-20 and was even starting to draw them herself. Letters were a bit more difficult, but she did learn some. Then, it was time for her midday nap. However, she almost never napped during this time, I believe it was because the room didn’t have blackout curtains. Instead, this became unsupervised play time, which is ok as long as she seemed healthy. Pushing for midday naps isn’t always necessary. Sometimes, when I would check on her, which was every 15 minutes, she would look at me with a wolfish grin saying “No, no, no” because she wanted more time to herself. After her nap was more milk, followed by more playtime.
One thing we had setup was a large box with windows and an opening for a door cut into it, with the folds taped for increased structural integrity. By the time she left it was covered in colors, words, and drawings. She’d dump her crayon bucket in there and just sift through the different colors, finding a favorite and scribbling into one of my notebooks. Or she he’d have me close the top flaps and jump out saying “BOO!”. Then she’d have a snack plate, play more, and have dinner with my parents. I’d allow her another 30 minutes of TV in the afternoon of whatever she wished. I think we watched Frosty the Snowman at least 30 times, eventually she had nearly all the dialogue memorized. Pokemon was a choice but she liked it too much and I didn’t want her to watch it after the first episode. She was going around saying “Pika, Pika!” for several days. Other things would be Bluey, Peppa Pig, nature documentaries, music videos, etc. I preferred music videos where she could see people playing their instruments.
To go to bed she had to have all of her stuffed animals, she really likes animals, all lined up in her bed with her “cozy” blanket, as she called it. Getting her cozy was a ploy I used to increase her comfort making her self-soothing to sleep easier on both of us. Sometimes I let her sleep next to me, usually when she was sick or if she woke up too early. Though she always wanted to sleep next to me, it’s better for her development if she doesn’t.
Zelda even had the chance to meet one of my friends and his kids as well as his nephew and niece. I spent the whole two hours chasing kids, being hit with pillows, playing hide-and-seek, and whatever else they all wanted to do. We both had a lot of fun, and it was my first time seeing this friend in-person in a while. It was after this Zelda started to warm up to my parents more as well, like a seal on her social openness had been broken.
Leading up to Christmas, she would make cookies with my mom, and I allowed her one cookie a day, usually split up as a treat across her meals. I used sweets and berries as incentives for her to eat her vegetables every meal. She did have her first big Christmas with us all, and she got to open her stocking of candy and small road-trip toys as well as several presents. I made sure she got a present “from” everyone, including her mother, her mother’s parents, and Santa Claus. One of her big presents was an all-wood kitchen set. Another was a marble run which I set up, and she loved the little colored marbles. She loves bath time, so one of my themes for her was bath toys, so she got all different kinds as well as a hypo-allergenic bath ball and bubbles. Watching her open the presents was great. She had no restraint and was just opening them one after another with no regard. After Christmas, we had a road trip to Virginia to meet my brother and his family. This was the first time she and my older brother had met, much to chagrin, but I was glad it finally happened. In Virginia, we spent most of our days at Busch gardens, which she really enjoyed. There were light displays, musicals, different foods, and plenty more. It was my first time riding a roller coaster in probably a decade or more. She also rode some rides with me and alone. In the afternoons we went to the pool and I’ve never seen her so excited. Her little limbs flailing like the propellers on a helicopter. She would intentionally try to jump in somewhere out of reach because she always trusted me to catch her, and she would slide in on her belly headfirst from outside the pool like seal.
When it was time for her to go we all had ice-cream sundaes the night before. It was a special night so she got a special treat. This was her first sundae with all of the fixings, a cookie, sprinkles, chocolate syrup, banana, and whipped cream. It was 20 minutes of audible expressions of enjoyment. Just “Mmmm” in various pitches as she worked through it. She didn’t finish it which is probably for the best. We all had a great time. On our flight out we watched movies and TV together. We couldn’t both watch on the same screen so I lined up the timing on our TVs so we were watching more in parallel than anything, but seeing this little head with my big beats barely fitting was pretty great. I had the volume turned way down for her. All in all we both had a ton of fun.
ooglykraken 