A few nights ago, when I was putting Alyssa to bed, Drew brought his large coloring book and crayons to the living room and asked his daddy to color with him. After I put Alyssa down, I joined the two on the living room floor. We have a bad habit (which we're trying to to break) of having the television on just for noise, but this night it wasn't on. It was just the three of us, coloring, talking.
Most of the time I have to drag the details of Drew's day out of him, but not this time. Matt and I just sat there listening to him talk, trying not to giggle at some of the cute things coming out of this 4-year-old's mouth. Matt and I were enjoying the quality time we had with Drew - especially since our attention is often divided with Alyssa - in the minutes we had before bed.
Little did I know, Drew cherished this time more than we realized. The next night he asked the same thing, and then the next. Last night as I sat down to color with Drew (Matt was outside watering the yard), Alyssa started crying and I had to go rock her for a few minutes. I would have thought Drew would have continued coloring, but he didn't. He patiently lay in the floor, not lifting a crayon until I came back in the room.
I had a suspicion that Drew's sudden affinity to coloring didn't have anything to do with actually coloring, but this confirmed it. This seems so obvious, but I have to admit, sometimes our lives get so packed, it's easy to underestimate this quality time. Drew cherished this time with Matt and me as much as we did with him. He talked to us in ways he normally doesn't. We listened to him, offered feedback, and were able to invest in him, simply by listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment