Who here likes silence?
I don't mean simple quiet. I mean absolute, deafening
silence with no ambient noise whatsoever. As long as I can remember, I've found
total silence to be slightly unnerving. There's something about experiencing
complete sound deprivation that really gets me kind of stirred up.
As you can probably guess, the early days/months of Ellie's
life tended to drive me nuts from time-to-time. That'll happen when one is
basically prohibited from making noise for fear of waking a sleeping baby. It
didn't take long before I realized that narrating my day aloud to Ellie helped
to not only pass the time, but also helped to eliminate the total quiet of our
house during the day.
Obviously as Ellie grew older, she developed more in her speech
patterns to the point of being capable of conversation. Therefore, my narration
of my day has shifted away from being for my own benefit to now being designed
to help teach Ellie. Of course, as parents likely know, regardless of how good
your intentions are, there is still plenty of room for misunderstanding. For an
example, look no further than me accidentally teaching Ellie about race (sort of)
today.
Flashback to our lunch today consisting of Taco Pie. For the
initiated, this entree consists of a cornbread crust, beef with taco seasoning,
salsa, and cheese. Once our food was heated up, Ellie and I sat down as the
table to eat our meal. Of course, as we ate, I found it necessary to keep
"conversation" flowing between Ellie and I by describing the Taco Pie
and all of its ingredients. Now, keep in mind that Ellie probably couldn't care
less about the ingredients of our lunch.
That being said, there is something about our lunch (besides
consumption) that Ellie does find interesting. That is the color of our lunch.
I've been working with Ellie on colors on and off for quite
a while. She still hasn't totally grasped it yet though although she does get
yellow right about 35% of the time. However, that doesn't stop her from being
interested in trying to learn more.
While the Taco Pie was certainly a hodge podge of colors,
the other things on Ellie's plate were much easier to pin down a primary color
on. Carrots? No one will ever dispute they are orange. Watermelon? Still a
pinkish-reddish color. Ranch dressing? That will always be white.
As you might be able to guess, it's that last one that gets
us in trouble. For reasons I don't completely understand, after I taught Ellie
ranch dressing is white, she responded with two simple words: "Mommy
white." My first thought? Well, she's not wrong. My wife is definitely Caucasian.
Now, it's possible Ellie meant that as commentary on how
pale my wife's complexion can be at times. Or perhaps, she is ascribing to that
whole you are what you eat idea. There is an episode of Scrubs (and House)
where a patient's ailment was that they turned orange from eating too many
carrots.
Honestly, the most likely scenario is she was just confused
and said something foolish that didn't make sense. That being said, I'd still love to
know what the original thought in her head was and what the logic behind it
was.
Oh, to look inside the mind of a toddler. What a scary place
it would be. #DaddyWrite
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