My sister and my recently turned 7-year-old niece came to visit my humble abode last Friday. It was the second time a child had visited our apartment and the second time I realized how child unfriendly it is. It’s everything from the deadly cornered tables, exposed outlets and lack of cable.
My niece plops down on the futon:
Jaci: Do you have channel 38?
Me: No sweetie, we don’t have cable
Jaci: What about channel 39?
Me: Babe, we don’t have cable, therefore we don’t get those channels that you get at home.
Jaci: But it’s really easy, you just type in ‘38′
Me: Ok, then.
(You have to love wanting something bad enough that if you can envision it, it will be there. Sometimes I do that with horses. But alas I have only a stuffed horse won from the impossible claw-machine.)
Being around children reminds me of their adorable ability to assume that they are an adult just like everyone else. At one point Sir Optimization was playing Wii bowling with Jaci. He sighed because he was losing his bowling game (on purpose, of course). To which Jaci noticed and said, “It’s ok, sometimes I don’t get all the pins down either.”
Following the wii console counsel, we finish eating our pizza and she says, “Aunt Bridget, do you have any fresh raspberries?”
I tell you, that girl has some intricate tastes. “No, I’m sorry I don’t.” She begins to search through my fridge for something to eat because she has unfortunately inherited the family’s insatiable sweet tooth that leads us all to the root canal chair in our 30s. She runs across our organic eggs, which are brown.
“Oh cool! Chocolate eggs!” How could you not smile at that?
And no, this doesn’t mean I’m getting baby fever. Puppies. I need puppies first.
