Count On You
Posted By jayna on March 26, 2010
Across the room, I hear her softly counting blocks as she stacks them into a wobbly tower.
“One, two, three, nine, two, four, TEN!”
When I step closer and ask if we can count them together, she scowls at me and knocks the tower over.
*******
Mid-morning and it’s nap time for one of them. I frantically sort through stacks of mail and paperwork, trying to get some bills paid before it’s over. She hovers and grabs and bothers, wanting nothing more than my attention. I do my best to keep her busy.
“Hey! Let’s play hide and seek!”
She agrees and giggles as she scampers down the hall to her favorite hiding place as I shout out the numbers.
“ONE . . . TWO . . . THREE . . . FOUR . . . FIVE . . . SIX . . . SEVEN . . . EIGHT . . . NINE . . . TEN!”
She still makes me count, even when it’s my turn to hide.
*******
Up to her elbows in dirt, with mulch in her hair, she sorts my new flowers. The pink hyacinths over here, the yellow tulips over there, phlox and sage in between. I pause from filling a planter with dirt and ask how many pink flowers there are. Then yellow, and so on. She answers loud and clear each time.
“FOUR!!”
Except, I only buy odd numbers of flowers.
*******
After her tuna fish sandwich is all gone, she sits at the table, waiting patiently. I sit down next to her with the can of olives. One for each finger, she gently pushes them on. As she reaches for the next one, she counts. The right numbers. In order. And with each one she eats, she calls out how many are left.
“Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . NONE!!!”
And, with that, she teaches me the greatest lesson in patience.
She’ll do things just fine.
As long as they are on her schedule.
And come with food.
Comments
Leave a Reply