I Will Not Say "Abbie" Just to Get Applause. I Will Not Say "Abb...
The weather was beautiful yesterday. It was the kind of weather that makes you forget that makes you forget the other ten months of the year we must spend holed up inside here in Iowa because it’s too darn hot/cold out. This is a good thing because our air conditioner is broken, again, which can be a big problem when none of your home’s windows open.
Beautiful weather is also a good thing because Abbie loves being outside. Inside our house, Abbie can’t last 20 minutes without growing tragically bored of her tons of toys bundles of books. Take her outside though, and she can last for hours without growing bored despite the inherent lack of battery-powered or readable objects. She could survive with no sleep and no sustenance beyond the crabapples still coating the ground. If only I could train the dogs to supervise her, keep her out of trouble, and alert me when she needs help,* I’d have free child care all day every day as long as the weather is nice.
I took advantage of nature’s natural calming properties by taking her into our sun-drenched backyard late yesterday morning. This is a standard time for me to take her outside; she’s been awake too long to be patient and it’s still too early to feed her. Yesterday one of our neighbors was also in the backyard with his dog. Our backyard is a popular place for our neighbors to allow their dogs to run loose since every parent sharing our backyard also has a dog. Therefore whenever a child’s brand new shoes wind up smeared with dog doo, the parent can only blame their own reluctance for picking up after their dog.
I talked to our neighbor about many things: How beautiful the weather was, how big Abbie has grown, how much he was going to enjoy the weather this weekend. He was looking forward to this weekend as it would be his first free weekend for weeks. That’s the life of a resident, forced to work long hours with little time off, unlike other less stressful occupations with large swaths of free time like professional athlete or President of the United States. Of course some occupations offer no days off, like paper delivery person, but since I never see them toil I don’t count their efforts.
The neighbor and I chatted under the big tree while Abbie toddled on her own over to a nearby deck about 20-feet away. Their deck is a perfect place to play her new favorite game, climbing up and down steps. I can entertain her for toddler hours (12.514 earth minutes) by helping her climb a flight of stairs, then letting her turn around and slide back down on her butt, and repeating endlessly. The neighbor’s deck is a little higher than the distance between your standard steps, meaning she can mount it without too much effort and her toes can touch the ground when sits and dangles them off the edge. Plus the ground beneath the deck is grass instead of the concrete and rocks surrounding most other homes, so when she falls the worst that can happen if she falls is she suffers some mud stains and maybe a couple grass burns. Unless of course some dog doo happens to be in her landing path, but fortunately these neighbors do not own a dog.
Abbie scaled the deck as I paid enough attention to her from a distance to know she was not sticking anything in her mouth. She then turned, sat down, and pushed herself onto the ground, sticking a nice landing in the grass. She then did exactly what I’ve trained her to do after accomplishing anything noteworthy: She clapped. Every time she completes the smallest achievement, like climbing up and down stairs or putting the correct object into the correct hole, I clap for her, and she usually joins in. She saw no reason this would be different. Never mind that no one was paying enough attention to return the applause, she wasn’t even looking at us anyway; she was willing to applaud herself if needed. Of course when we saw her clapping for herself we joined in. The more we applaud for her, the more likely she is to repeat desirable actions, like climbing up and down steps safely. Maybe the same principle applies to the weather.
* “What’s that girl? Abbie fell down the window well!”
Beautiful weather is also a good thing because Abbie loves being outside. Inside our house, Abbie can’t last 20 minutes without growing tragically bored of her tons of toys bundles of books. Take her outside though, and she can last for hours without growing bored despite the inherent lack of battery-powered or readable objects. She could survive with no sleep and no sustenance beyond the crabapples still coating the ground. If only I could train the dogs to supervise her, keep her out of trouble, and alert me when she needs help,* I’d have free child care all day every day as long as the weather is nice.
I took advantage of nature’s natural calming properties by taking her into our sun-drenched backyard late yesterday morning. This is a standard time for me to take her outside; she’s been awake too long to be patient and it’s still too early to feed her. Yesterday one of our neighbors was also in the backyard with his dog. Our backyard is a popular place for our neighbors to allow their dogs to run loose since every parent sharing our backyard also has a dog. Therefore whenever a child’s brand new shoes wind up smeared with dog doo, the parent can only blame their own reluctance for picking up after their dog.
I talked to our neighbor about many things: How beautiful the weather was, how big Abbie has grown, how much he was going to enjoy the weather this weekend. He was looking forward to this weekend as it would be his first free weekend for weeks. That’s the life of a resident, forced to work long hours with little time off, unlike other less stressful occupations with large swaths of free time like professional athlete or President of the United States. Of course some occupations offer no days off, like paper delivery person, but since I never see them toil I don’t count their efforts.
The neighbor and I chatted under the big tree while Abbie toddled on her own over to a nearby deck about 20-feet away. Their deck is a perfect place to play her new favorite game, climbing up and down steps. I can entertain her for toddler hours (12.514 earth minutes) by helping her climb a flight of stairs, then letting her turn around and slide back down on her butt, and repeating endlessly. The neighbor’s deck is a little higher than the distance between your standard steps, meaning she can mount it without too much effort and her toes can touch the ground when sits and dangles them off the edge. Plus the ground beneath the deck is grass instead of the concrete and rocks surrounding most other homes, so when she falls the worst that can happen if she falls is she suffers some mud stains and maybe a couple grass burns. Unless of course some dog doo happens to be in her landing path, but fortunately these neighbors do not own a dog.
Abbie scaled the deck as I paid enough attention to her from a distance to know she was not sticking anything in her mouth. She then turned, sat down, and pushed herself onto the ground, sticking a nice landing in the grass. She then did exactly what I’ve trained her to do after accomplishing anything noteworthy: She clapped. Every time she completes the smallest achievement, like climbing up and down stairs or putting the correct object into the correct hole, I clap for her, and she usually joins in. She saw no reason this would be different. Never mind that no one was paying enough attention to return the applause, she wasn’t even looking at us anyway; she was willing to applaud herself if needed. Of course when we saw her clapping for herself we joined in. The more we applaud for her, the more likely she is to repeat desirable actions, like climbing up and down steps safely. Maybe the same principle applies to the weather.
* “What’s that girl? Abbie fell down the window well!”
posted by Matt at
9:49 PM
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