Okay, now those of you who have just melted, please mop yourselves up and think for a moment. She is a free spirited five year old girl....
...who can be very stubborn,
...who cries whenever she doesn't get her way,
...who wants to eat, and then doesn't want to eat, after you've made the sandwich,
...who has made whining into an art form,
...who treats the furniture like a jungle gym (really, literally),
...who, when you tell her NO, just repeats the question again as if you haven't said anything,
...who is perfectly capable of using the potty, but who still sometimes just...forgets,
...who cannot explain in a rational conversation why she is upset with her sister,
...whose favorite answers are I don't know and Beeecaaauuse, waahaahaahaahaa!
Okay, that's enough; this is starting to sound like a Bill Cosby routine. Also, there are plenty of you who are saying, "Hey, that's my kid you're talking about!" Haha.
Truly, it's a special thing for me, to see her so much of the time during the day. When the other kids were this age, I was at the college all day, and my mind was full of the aspirations and successes, the struggles and the politics of teaching and administration at a thriving institution of higher education. Not that there was any problem with that. But now, things are different.
Josefina's Daddy is home much more of the time. I also look after her a lot more directly than I did any of the others. Now, I even go to her school with her, and I bring her home. And when I sit at home and work, she hops on the side of my big brown chair and makes herself comfy.
Sometimes I'll put her on my lap, and we'll watch a few cartoons or go to the facebook page of one of her friends (i.e. their parents' page) to look at their pictures. I've taught her a few things about how to use the keyboard. She knows how to make a smiley face: :-)
Then there are times when I want her attention and she plays girley games. Sometimes she just decides she's going to ignore me (I can hardly blame her--I'm always teasing). And of course she plays "hard to get." They all do. If you young men out there think that marriage means you'll never again experience heartbreak and rejection, ha ha...all I have to say is, "Don't have four daughters!" I'm kidding of course. They keep your heart young.
She jumps up on her little perch on my chair and says, "Hi Daddy." I know that something is coming. "Daddy, will you read me a book?" Time to read some books to Josefina. :-)
