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qosSome of these things I already knew, but they hadn't really sunk in until I spent seven uninterrupted days with her.
1. She is good-natured beyond what I had realized. Even when exhausted after a too-long train ride, or coping with sitting in the ER when she should have been at Disneyland, she maintained an admirably calm and positive attitude. There was no whining, crying, or pouting. At her 'worst' she was "sad," and even then she was willing to be snuggled and bargained into better cheer. (By "bargained", I mean that I found an alternative activity that she considered an acceptable substitute for what she wanted to do: for instance, a cotton candy instead of standing in line for Dumbo at 9pm.)
2. She is generous to a fault. When the "Maleficent as Dragon" brooch I purchased turned out to be more than I had expected, she immediately offered to pay for some of it out of her own money. On the train coming home, when she herself had an episode of sickness, she moved into the seats across the aisle. I had to come after her later to find out that although she wanted cuddles, she had moved away from me so I wouldn't get her germs.
3. She is sensually attuned in a way I don't think I ever have been. She is not content just to look, she wants to touch, smell, even taste when possible. This is a girl who, whenever she washes her hands in a public restroom always pauses to smell the soap. In Disneyland, where so much was new, she was always touching and commenting about the articifical rocks, the real plants, the texture of everything.
4. She is far more interested in how a chicken thigh goes together than she is in meeting Disney characters. On our way to lunch at the Plaza Inn, she was completely indifferent to the appearance of Belle on the sidewalk -- as she had been to the few other characters we'd encountered. But after having devoured most of a chicken thigh, she spent several minutes studying how the bones go together and talking about the implications of how it all worked.
5. She is brave. The only ride that freaked her out was the Hollywood Tower of Terror -- and she probably would have been fine on that if I hadn't let my own fears get the better of me. And, as I wrote earlier, she didn't lose her cool when her mother was violently ill in a hotel room far from home. (At her age, I would have been terrified.)
Since I got home, I find myself thinking of her as a budding Nancy Drew: the kind of young woman who will plunge into whatever interests her without fear, be alert for details most of us would miss, and who will probably have some nice boy trotting after her lead instead of the other way around.
1. She is good-natured beyond what I had realized. Even when exhausted after a too-long train ride, or coping with sitting in the ER when she should have been at Disneyland, she maintained an admirably calm and positive attitude. There was no whining, crying, or pouting. At her 'worst' she was "sad," and even then she was willing to be snuggled and bargained into better cheer. (By "bargained", I mean that I found an alternative activity that she considered an acceptable substitute for what she wanted to do: for instance, a cotton candy instead of standing in line for Dumbo at 9pm.)
2. She is generous to a fault. When the "Maleficent as Dragon" brooch I purchased turned out to be more than I had expected, she immediately offered to pay for some of it out of her own money. On the train coming home, when she herself had an episode of sickness, she moved into the seats across the aisle. I had to come after her later to find out that although she wanted cuddles, she had moved away from me so I wouldn't get her germs.
3. She is sensually attuned in a way I don't think I ever have been. She is not content just to look, she wants to touch, smell, even taste when possible. This is a girl who, whenever she washes her hands in a public restroom always pauses to smell the soap. In Disneyland, where so much was new, she was always touching and commenting about the articifical rocks, the real plants, the texture of everything.
4. She is far more interested in how a chicken thigh goes together than she is in meeting Disney characters. On our way to lunch at the Plaza Inn, she was completely indifferent to the appearance of Belle on the sidewalk -- as she had been to the few other characters we'd encountered. But after having devoured most of a chicken thigh, she spent several minutes studying how the bones go together and talking about the implications of how it all worked.
5. She is brave. The only ride that freaked her out was the Hollywood Tower of Terror -- and she probably would have been fine on that if I hadn't let my own fears get the better of me. And, as I wrote earlier, she didn't lose her cool when her mother was violently ill in a hotel room far from home. (At her age, I would have been terrified.)
Since I got home, I find myself thinking of her as a budding Nancy Drew: the kind of young woman who will plunge into whatever interests her without fear, be alert for details most of us would miss, and who will probably have some nice boy trotting after her lead instead of the other way around.
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Date: 2005-11-29 08:44 am (UTC)