Braiding Time

It was a "Daddy and Me" night tonight in the Lang household.  Shea and I often title our days/nights alone together, and tonight was no exception.  We got home just before 6 and I set to making dinner while Shea did her reading homework.  She carried her book into the kitchen while I was making dinner and she read me such intriguing titles as "Rub a Dub," "Sox the Fox," and "The Big Hat."  If you are a parent of a new reader and you haven't heard of the Bob Books, then check them out here.

She sounded out the words she didn't know, but she plugged right along.  She's come a long way since this day.  I made a dinner of thick ham steaks steamed in a pan with a little maple syrup added to sweeten the mix, broccoli florets, and green beans.  I was craving green vegetables, so we heaped them on tonight.  As we sat down to eat, Shea and I talked about her day at school.  She told me all about her teachers, her friends, and we just caught up with each other, something I'll never get tired of if I live to be a hundred.

After cleaning up and taking care of a few things, Shea and I adjourned to her room for a little play time.  I was stoked because it was barely seven and that meant we had over an hour to play.  We started with blocks and quickly adjourned to the doll house.  We got out all the debris left over from the last sleepover and quickly pulled out a stack of dolls and My Little Ponies to play with.  Shea wanted to have a beauty shop play time, so we brought out the brushes, the hair clips, and the pony tail holders and got to work on creating some new hairstyles.

Shea has been practicing braiding a little bit with some ribbon safety pinned to a throw pillow, but she hasn't quite mastered the practice yet.  It's a hard thing for her to do with both hands, especially the left, but she wants to know how, so she works really hard at mastering the skill.  Tonight we worked together to braid the manes and tails of her ponies.  It was a comedy of errors in the beginning, but she eventually sensed the pattern, the repetition we were creating in moving the three strands.

This took about a half an hour.

The time was well spent.  I could feel my daughter developing a skill she wanted to possess and I got to have my daughter in my lap or beside me for the duration.  She was so proud of what she had created when she was done that I had to take a picture.

If only every day could be as great!