No, I'm not talking about Sweetie not minding her behavior anymore, no longer concerned about getting on Santa's "Good" list. I have to say, she's a pretty good kid most of the time anyway, Santa or no.
I'm talking about actual games, here. Or fun time activities, anyway.
Back to spending several hours at a time - if we let her - playing with the Legos she's always had and with the fridge magnets she calls her "friends." In fact, she's just rediscovered a Lego set she got last Easter, I think, and has been building "contraptions" almost nonstop with the plans included there.
She hasn't touched her DS in at least a couple weeks. Probably more. And even when she did play, it was only very sporadically.
Likewise with the animation program installed for her on our computer at Christmas time. And the make-it-yourself marble run I thought she'd go completely gaga over. Eh. All fun things, sure. She has fun when encouraged to use them. But, yah. Eh. She knows Legos. She loves crafts. She gets lost in her self-created magnet world very easily. These are the things she knows. These are the things she enjoys the most.
I'm not complaining. I'm glad she seems to need such few things to make her happy. She is not the type of kid who constantly nags for bigger and funner and more STUFF! Give her some quiet time, some paper, scissors and tape, and she is good to go for the rest of the afternoon. Yeah, her art table looks atrocious. Hardly one square inch of free space to be found. But it's all good to her. She can easily find what she needs to create what she wants. And will come up with the elaborate story, to boot, to go along with the teeny tiny Secret Martian Kitty Ninja Superhero she just cut out of the paper scraps she's collected in a snowman gift bag.
She says she doesn't like to read - never has. Why, I asked. She loves for Daddy and I to read to her. She loves hearing stories. And she's a great reader, reading at at least a grade level or 2 above where she "should" be. So why not like to read? "Because," she says. She'd much rather be doing something, than sitting down motionless except for flipping pages. Hmmm. Yes, I understand that. Even though she's not what I'd call an "active" kid - not into sports or even typically wishing to play outside - she does like to be active by building, creating and imagining. Reading just doesn't cut it.
Yeah, it's a bit maddening to see all these Christmas gifts - given by us and other family members as well - just sitting by the wayside. But, like I said, I'm pretty okay with having a kid who knows what she likes and can independently entertain herself for hours doing what she loves with minimal needs. Happy for her to be engaged in creative pursuits that exercise her brain.
And, like the Lego set she's just brought out a few days ago, I'm sure she'll come back to these newer toys again someday, and be thrilled to have something different to play with for awhile.
