Getting My Game On

Before I had Aiden, I hated babysitting. I hated it because it required constant vigilance, patience and creativity. I always walked away with a headache, pretty certain that the money was so not worth it.

Obviously, that had me concerned about how well I'd handle my own child. I had heard that you immediately adore them and love playing with them every second of the day, so I was hoping it would just naturally kick in. Uh...it didn't. I immediately adored him for sure, but it's taken a lot of getting back in touch with my own imagination and being a little flexible in his choice of toys (since it's always the jewel case or the bic pen or the tupperware he wants to play with, not his expensive puzzle set).

I've also had to learn to stop directing him, nothing annoys a kid more than when you keep saying "shouldn't this happen next? let's go over here! what is this thing supposed to be?". I save those questions for when we're reading because it leads to more stories. When he playing, I just let him lead me.

So, here's Aiden, a bib for a superhero cape, rescuing a carload of sponges from the evil monster (me, naturally).

It's moments like this that I go "Oh, THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HAVE KIDS!"

This is a good game, because there's a lot of opportunity for me to grab him and kiss him like crazy. I also try to get him to count the sponges, stack them, and say the colors. Of course, the educational stuff can never overpower the whole hiding/jumping out/ tickling him till he's blue in the face aspect. After a lot of practice, I'm getting pretty good at these games. Aiden seems to think so, anyway.



*some people have told me there's an annoying pop-up over this site. I've changed any settings I can control to try and remove it, but if it's still there it may be through another network. I'll keep trying to fix it*