Today I didn't get to see Girl.
Ms. Mom called me and said she tried to see me without her permission. Girl was calling me from a closet or something. Ms. Mom doesn't condone that kind of behavior so Girl was barred from seeing me today.
I find humor in that.
I understand Girl must maintain the habit and attitude of getting Ms. Mom's permission before meeting people or going places.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Late Night thoughts from a guy...
It's a bit alien - especially in a bachelor pad.
On one of my bedroom shelves is a neat, deliberate arrangement: starting from the left is my drinking cup, filled with water. Then floating at the bottom is the formerly recognizable polar bear that now looks like a large blotch of cotton. (By morning, he's supposed to much bigger). Then moving further down the strange-looking-stuff scale is the sandwich bag of... unidentifiable substance. Technically, the stuff is called "gel". But I know from my invitation to participate in handling it that it's some kind of cross between slime and chunky-slime. Anyway, it's safely sealed in the bag. Then there's the adorable, colorful, color coordinated first scrapbook page that Girl made today. Then, to the very right is the plastic container that looks like a family sized kimchi jar, but is really Girl's most prized acquisition she got today from Educational Toy Store: inside is an assortment of magically combined confetti, colored paper, "cheerleading pom poms" (as she calls them), purple glue stick, and stickers.
It's been interesting spending time in public together. A few days ago, a girl I met through other friends quite some time ago at a bar happened to be reading a book in a chair at a bookstore. She saw me and Girl and asked who she was.
"A friend," I said.
Then Girl came up to me to ask a question while I was still standing in front of her.
I think this instance, like in other times, we don't look exactly like a father-child pair. I look too young to have a daughter her age. But we're both comfortable around each other. We are used to being around each other and it shows in our body language and the way we talk to each other.
After I answered Girl's question, she ran back into the shelves, towing Amanda (Corporate Book Store's employee) behind her. There's some kind of red unicorn book she's after.
When Girl found that she could not find what she came to look for, the two of us left that section. But when I turned to glance at my friend's friend, I saw her eyes trained on us. And her expression said, "God, he's got a daughter and he's pretending to be a single bachelor with no commitments."
My image I'm developing in the neighborhood as a dad doesn't bother me. It's just new and unusual, so I write about it. Girl is lovely and I'd be overjoyed to have her as my own. But we ran into each other quite suddenly - before I was even considering to have kids. And Girl, when she was already ten.
It's also a bit of a tap dance trying to make conversation with other girls in public. They see me and Girl together and they think I'm very naughty and inappropriate to be flirting when I'm with my own daughter and they imagine my wife is at home cooking dinner. I don't mind. In so many ways, Girl is much more interesting than any girl I could be dating.
On one of my bedroom shelves is a neat, deliberate arrangement: starting from the left is my drinking cup, filled with water. Then floating at the bottom is the formerly recognizable polar bear that now looks like a large blotch of cotton. (By morning, he's supposed to much bigger). Then moving further down the strange-looking-stuff scale is the sandwich bag of... unidentifiable substance. Technically, the stuff is called "gel". But I know from my invitation to participate in handling it that it's some kind of cross between slime and chunky-slime. Anyway, it's safely sealed in the bag. Then there's the adorable, colorful, color coordinated first scrapbook page that Girl made today. Then, to the very right is the plastic container that looks like a family sized kimchi jar, but is really Girl's most prized acquisition she got today from Educational Toy Store: inside is an assortment of magically combined confetti, colored paper, "cheerleading pom poms" (as she calls them), purple glue stick, and stickers.
It's been interesting spending time in public together. A few days ago, a girl I met through other friends quite some time ago at a bar happened to be reading a book in a chair at a bookstore. She saw me and Girl and asked who she was.
"A friend," I said.
Then Girl came up to me to ask a question while I was still standing in front of her.
I think this instance, like in other times, we don't look exactly like a father-child pair. I look too young to have a daughter her age. But we're both comfortable around each other. We are used to being around each other and it shows in our body language and the way we talk to each other.
After I answered Girl's question, she ran back into the shelves, towing Amanda (Corporate Book Store's employee) behind her. There's some kind of red unicorn book she's after.
When Girl found that she could not find what she came to look for, the two of us left that section. But when I turned to glance at my friend's friend, I saw her eyes trained on us. And her expression said, "God, he's got a daughter and he's pretending to be a single bachelor with no commitments."
My image I'm developing in the neighborhood as a dad doesn't bother me. It's just new and unusual, so I write about it. Girl is lovely and I'd be overjoyed to have her as my own. But we ran into each other quite suddenly - before I was even considering to have kids. And Girl, when she was already ten.
It's also a bit of a tap dance trying to make conversation with other girls in public. They see me and Girl together and they think I'm very naughty and inappropriate to be flirting when I'm with my own daughter and they imagine my wife is at home cooking dinner. I don't mind. In so many ways, Girl is much more interesting than any girl I could be dating.
An Email to Her Mom
Hi Ms. Mom,
Girl went into Educational Toy Store today with the intent to make a scrapbook. I'm having a hard time recalling exactly how Girl came up with this idea - and I will ask her when I see her again.
Anyway, it was fascinating to watch her go from employee to employee, slowly gathering the materials she thought would be perfect for her scrapbooking. She also collected subway passes, checked at Starbucks for comparative sugar packets (as she desired to show the difference between Turkish and Canadian Starbucks sugar packets), and also had the same idea for napkins. (How Girl even knew that I have Turkish Starbucks napkins is somewhat of a mystery - I never told nor showed her. But this is actually a topic that I am paying more attention to. Girl seems quite frequently to "know" things that I've not told her at all.)
Girl's goal is to make one scrapbook page per day. Seeing her design her first scrapbook page was also interesting for me. I was surprised how decisive she was about exactly what (and what not) she wanted on her scrapbook. She liked my involvement, but she made it clear what boundaries of artistic freedom I had in helping her. At one point, she even sensed my personal stylistic desire and said, "Boy, you really like borders, don't you. Why do you keep asking to put on a border?"
"I don't know. I thought it would be nice to - you know - like it would look nice to have something within a frame."
Or, later...
"Something needs to be here," Girl waved at a section on the scrapbook page. "What should I put there?"
"How about the diamonds?" I asked, pointing to the loose gems from a ring she made me that fell apart.
"No. I made that for you."
"Oh, ok."
Earlier, even before going to Educational Toy Store, I had asked Girl if she wanted a shelf in my unit - since she seemed to be creating larger projects in proportion (apparently) to the increased time we were spending together.
"You don't have to give me a whole shelf," Girl said looking at my wall of shelves with me. "Just like, one space is enough." She gestured with her arms to make a rectangle.
"No," I responded. "I think I'll clear out a whole shelf for you."
Anyway, after she finished her first scrapbook page, she (and it took until I got back from Downtown tonight to really notice this) had placed it proudly in the middle of the shelf, displaying it.
One idea I brought up to Girl was to make her scrapbooking results available online. I have several reasons why I think this would be an interesting idea.
Girl asked me at Educational Toy Store whether she should have purchased a "pre-made" scrapbook, or a large, blank sketchbook (which really isn't a scrapbook at all - to be honest).
"Well," I said, with Christina hovering close to us. "It's really up to you, because you'll be the one making it. If you go with the first one (the pre-made), it'll be colorful and fun to work with. But if you go with the blank one, you might also have space to combine writing with it."
So... I had not persuaded her towards any one direction, but she did choose the option that required more work and creativity on her side. Honestly, if she had chosen the pre-made scrapbook - I wouldn't even suggest making it available online because it wouldn't be her own work anyway.
When I asked Girl if it was ok to make her scrapbooks available online, she said I'd have to run it by you first - so here's the email :)
For each scrapbook page that does see the "light of internet" (get it? as from "light of day" haha) I'll make sure any data that could reveal her identity will be squashed / fuzzed out.
What do you think?
Thanks,
Guy
Girl went into Educational Toy Store today with the intent to make a scrapbook. I'm having a hard time recalling exactly how Girl came up with this idea - and I will ask her when I see her again.
Anyway, it was fascinating to watch her go from employee to employee, slowly gathering the materials she thought would be perfect for her scrapbooking. She also collected subway passes, checked at Starbucks for comparative sugar packets (as she desired to show the difference between Turkish and Canadian Starbucks sugar packets), and also had the same idea for napkins. (How Girl even knew that I have Turkish Starbucks napkins is somewhat of a mystery - I never told nor showed her. But this is actually a topic that I am paying more attention to. Girl seems quite frequently to "know" things that I've not told her at all.)
Girl's goal is to make one scrapbook page per day. Seeing her design her first scrapbook page was also interesting for me. I was surprised how decisive she was about exactly what (and what not) she wanted on her scrapbook. She liked my involvement, but she made it clear what boundaries of artistic freedom I had in helping her. At one point, she even sensed my personal stylistic desire and said, "Boy, you really like borders, don't you. Why do you keep asking to put on a border?"
"I don't know. I thought it would be nice to - you know - like it would look nice to have something within a frame."
Or, later...
"Something needs to be here," Girl waved at a section on the scrapbook page. "What should I put there?"
"How about the diamonds?" I asked, pointing to the loose gems from a ring she made me that fell apart.
"No. I made that for you."
"Oh, ok."
Earlier, even before going to Educational Toy Store, I had asked Girl if she wanted a shelf in my unit - since she seemed to be creating larger projects in proportion (apparently) to the increased time we were spending together.
"You don't have to give me a whole shelf," Girl said looking at my wall of shelves with me. "Just like, one space is enough." She gestured with her arms to make a rectangle.
"No," I responded. "I think I'll clear out a whole shelf for you."
Anyway, after she finished her first scrapbook page, she (and it took until I got back from Downtown tonight to really notice this) had placed it proudly in the middle of the shelf, displaying it.
One idea I brought up to Girl was to make her scrapbooking results available online. I have several reasons why I think this would be an interesting idea.
Girl asked me at Educational Toy Store whether she should have purchased a "pre-made" scrapbook, or a large, blank sketchbook (which really isn't a scrapbook at all - to be honest).
"Well," I said, with Christina hovering close to us. "It's really up to you, because you'll be the one making it. If you go with the first one (the pre-made), it'll be colorful and fun to work with. But if you go with the blank one, you might also have space to combine writing with it."
So... I had not persuaded her towards any one direction, but she did choose the option that required more work and creativity on her side. Honestly, if she had chosen the pre-made scrapbook - I wouldn't even suggest making it available online because it wouldn't be her own work anyway.
When I asked Girl if it was ok to make her scrapbooks available online, she said I'd have to run it by you first - so here's the email :)
For each scrapbook page that does see the "light of internet" (get it? as from "light of day" haha) I'll make sure any data that could reveal her identity will be squashed / fuzzed out.
What do you think?
Thanks,
Guy
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