a date with my daughter
The Bee and I went out to dinner tonight. This morning, the plan was for the whole family to go out to dinner, but then the Potato decided not to nap. And an un-napped two-year-old is not something I will inflict on myself in a restaurant, much less on total strangers. So he stayed home with his dad (sobbing all the while, I hear), and she and I went out to Friendly's. On the way out the door, she grabbed her journal (which she just brought home from school) and said, "if it's boring and we have to wait, I'll read to you from my journal."
My heart gave a little pitter-pat.
I don't remember if I had a journal when I was in first grade, but in all the time I can remember having a journal, I would never have read it to my mom.
We got there, and sure enough, it was packed, so we had to wait a while for our food. And she read her journal entries to me. It was a big insight for me into how early a writer's self-criticism begins, as she would skip over certain entries to get to "the good ones" or say things like "this one is boring."
It was also greatly affirming, as my daughter basically journals about the same kinds of things that I do (books she's reading, things she's looking forward to, visits with her grandparents), and while I'm not really surprised about that, I found myself thinking, "hey, that could be an entry on my blog, if it was more than four sentences long." And the most rewarding of all? She brought this journal home because it was full, and they had to get a new one (and journal version 2 evidently has entries that take up four pages!).
My work here, apparently, is done.
My heart gave a little pitter-pat.
I don't remember if I had a journal when I was in first grade, but in all the time I can remember having a journal, I would never have read it to my mom.
We got there, and sure enough, it was packed, so we had to wait a while for our food. And she read her journal entries to me. It was a big insight for me into how early a writer's self-criticism begins, as she would skip over certain entries to get to "the good ones" or say things like "this one is boring."
It was also greatly affirming, as my daughter basically journals about the same kinds of things that I do (books she's reading, things she's looking forward to, visits with her grandparents), and while I'm not really surprised about that, I found myself thinking, "hey, that could be an entry on my blog, if it was more than four sentences long." And the most rewarding of all? She brought this journal home because it was full, and they had to get a new one (and journal version 2 evidently has entries that take up four pages!).
My work here, apparently, is done.
posted by landismom @ 5:38 PM
4 Comments:
At 10:20 PM,
Anonymous said…
What a great kid. Did she get a super smiley face Friendly's sundae? I remember that being a big deal when I was going on outings with my mom.
At 10:48 AM,
Melissa said…
Aww, that story kills me! She sounds like such a little character (in the best way). I can only hope this is what I have to look forward to in five years.
At 11:22 AM,
Melissa said…
this entry made me feel a little teary! bee sounds like a sweetheart.
At 4:23 PM,
Tammy said…
Awwww... that's so nice. I've never met the Bee but I already want to give her a hug. She seems like a total character.
Sometimes I get so caught up in my day-to-day life with Sam that I forget that I also have stuff like this to look forward to. Thanks so much for the reminder!
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