fathers day

In honor of David coming home tomorrow, here are pictures from Fathers' Day. That morning I took E to the coffee shop and explained to her that Fathers' Day is a day when children buy presents for their daddies. Her eyes lit up at the word "presents" and she said, "Yeah!" So, after our pumpkin muffin, we went to buy him a present. I gave her a choice of the grocery store or the drug store, as this was a Sunday morning last-minute thing. She said "drug store!" and once there I let her roam to pick something out. I didn't know if it would be toothpaste, panti-liners, batteries, or what. She was in the vicinity of the toy aisle and went there, zooming in straight-away on some Crayola no-mess modeling clay. "What's that?" she asked. "That's perfect!" I said. "Let's buy it for Daddy." She said "Yeah! My want to play with it." I tried to explain what would happen, that it was for Daddy and he would play with it with her. She picked out birthday wrapping paper and talked about cutting it with her scissors.

At home she happily cut the wrapping paper but cried when I covered the present with it. Luckily it didn't have to stay wrapped for long. David seemed to like it, and before long the two of them were sitting on the kitchen floor squeezing clay.



It was E's idea what they should make: balls. David helped her decorate them.


This is the longest I remember E being absorbed in doing something without talking to me or trying to get me involved. I forgot to look at my watch but I'm guessing it was at least 15 minutes of focused attention.



Then they watched Toy Story while I made lunch.