How much does joy cost?
Apr. 16th, 2004 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsI got home after a pretty productive day at the office. Being taxday and all, Omaha and I had a bit to talk about, but Kouryou-chan kept grabbing ahold of me and begging me to play with her. I looked back on the past couple of days and realized that over the last couple of days I hadn't really played that much with her. She wanted my attention, bad. I promised her that after dinner I would play with her until bedtime.
I made dinner quickly-- Omaha wasn't feeling well, but we had a well-enough stocked pantry that I was able to throw together a tuna casserole in short order. It was quite yummy.
How much does sheer joy cost nowadays? For me, yesterday, it was seven bucks. That's what it cost to run out to the nearby general store and buy a new Nerf bat and ball for Kouryou-chan and spend two whole hours just running around outdoors with her in the back yard. We needed a new one; the old balls had been outside all year and the repeated freeze and thaw cycles that are the depth of Seattle winter had shattered them irreparably.
I would toss the big red ball at her and she'd swing the big red bat, and when she connected she would raise her hands in the air and jump up and down and shout "I did it! I did it! Yay!" When the ball whiffed past her she would giggle incredibly, this bubbly, happy, too amused to speak giggle that sprung out of her like a bottle of Sprite shaken just a little too hard. It was such a great sound.
When it was just too dark to play, so dark we were trying to play by the security spotlight pointed at the rear gate, we headed inside. Kouryou-chan grabbed the camera and began taking pictures of everything, but I got her calmed down enough to go get her clothes off while I drew a bath. She got into the tub and we brushed teeth together, then I gave her the soap, then her toys when that was done. While she played by herself in the tub I cleaned up the kitchen. The bathtub is just down the hall and she's a noisy kid; whenever she got quiet I checked up on her-- only to discover that I'd left the liquid soap in reach and she was "washing" her tub toys, using up a lot of soap in the process.
She climbed out of the tub and let me dry her off, then got her pyjamas. We were soon sitting in bed, reading Hop on Pop and Horton Hears a Who. She read a little from Frog and Toad Are Friends (if you're a parent of young children and don't have this series, for shame! They're amazing stories about the personal and moral values of friendship without the big "this story is about" dizney hammer-- great stuff) and she reads just as fast as Yamaarashi-chan, although her vocabulary needs some work. She went to bed without complaint; she'd gotten enough attention from her grownups that day.
I made dinner quickly-- Omaha wasn't feeling well, but we had a well-enough stocked pantry that I was able to throw together a tuna casserole in short order. It was quite yummy.
How much does sheer joy cost nowadays? For me, yesterday, it was seven bucks. That's what it cost to run out to the nearby general store and buy a new Nerf bat and ball for Kouryou-chan and spend two whole hours just running around outdoors with her in the back yard. We needed a new one; the old balls had been outside all year and the repeated freeze and thaw cycles that are the depth of Seattle winter had shattered them irreparably.
I would toss the big red ball at her and she'd swing the big red bat, and when she connected she would raise her hands in the air and jump up and down and shout "I did it! I did it! Yay!" When the ball whiffed past her she would giggle incredibly, this bubbly, happy, too amused to speak giggle that sprung out of her like a bottle of Sprite shaken just a little too hard. It was such a great sound.
When it was just too dark to play, so dark we were trying to play by the security spotlight pointed at the rear gate, we headed inside. Kouryou-chan grabbed the camera and began taking pictures of everything, but I got her calmed down enough to go get her clothes off while I drew a bath. She got into the tub and we brushed teeth together, then I gave her the soap, then her toys when that was done. While she played by herself in the tub I cleaned up the kitchen. The bathtub is just down the hall and she's a noisy kid; whenever she got quiet I checked up on her-- only to discover that I'd left the liquid soap in reach and she was "washing" her tub toys, using up a lot of soap in the process.
She climbed out of the tub and let me dry her off, then got her pyjamas. We were soon sitting in bed, reading Hop on Pop and Horton Hears a Who. She read a little from Frog and Toad Are Friends (if you're a parent of young children and don't have this series, for shame! They're amazing stories about the personal and moral values of friendship without the big "this story is about" dizney hammer-- great stuff) and she reads just as fast as Yamaarashi-chan, although her vocabulary needs some work. She went to bed without complaint; she'd gotten enough attention from her grownups that day.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-16 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-16 12:28 pm (UTC)Your are the Perfect Man.
Date: 2004-04-16 08:28 pm (UTC)You just sound so perfect...your taken. So do you have a twin or brother maybe.
Re: Your are the Perfect Man.
Date: 2004-04-16 11:06 pm (UTC)Omaha plays as much with Kouryou-chan every day as I did in the two hours I described. While I sat in an air-conditioned office and worried about constructors and demeter and cascading style sheets, she did everything I did, including walking Kouryou-chan to the park and doing the laundry and balancing the books on her own little start-up, trying to find the seed money she needs.
I'm not perfect; I'm just trying to be a good husband and father. I mean, if you're not living a principled life, what's the point of living anyway?
Re: Your are the Perfect Man.
Date: 2004-04-17 10:35 am (UTC)Thanks!
Date: 2004-04-20 02:13 pm (UTC)So, this is just a thank you; thanks for making me smile :)