Taking a break

I will fully admit that I am a selfish parent. If I can have five minutes that doesn't involve cleaning up a carpet or a piece of furniture or keeping my child from breaking something, I savor it.

So whenever Riley would play quietly by himself (usually with a truck or a car or a motorcycle or a rocket or a helicopter or an airplane - are you getting the idea here of what he likes - or a train....), I look for a chance to watch ESPN or read the mail or anything.

However, a few weeks ago, I decided to change it up a little bit. I guess I was in a nostalgic mood or maybe had just watched Family Ties or something. The thought came to me that maybe I should actually savor RILEY during these times rather than my fleeting moments of non-child related activity. I thought, he will never be this age again. I want to see this kid in action. What does it look like for a 20 month old to play in his own world?

So instead of watching college basketball, I sat down at the kitchen table where Riley had set up shop and watched him.

Basically what he does is he takes his various toy vehicles and lines them up in some semblance of order that only makes sense to him. Then he moves them to another side of the table and does the same thing.

He is extremely businesslike when he does this. His face shows no real sign of joy or excitement but he is obviously enjoying it. He is very focused and very intentional about what he is doing. He knows exactly what he wants and where each toy should be (as I find out when one car isn't in the exact right spot and he explodes in frustration - I wonder where he got that from). Here is a shot of my boy in action.















The unexpected part for me though was that I loved watching it. I could have watched it all day. In watching him, I was convinced he was a genius. I mean, could Einstein or Edison or Gates line up a firetruck, a motorcycle, another firetruck, a rocket from a Wendy's kid's meal, an old truck that I think he found in the mud and one of my 1981 Matchbox cars in a sort of amoeba like formation? Of course not.

We sat there for 30 minutes and I just watched with a huge smile on my face. Every once in a while, Riley would acknowledge my existence by identifying what vehicle he was about to put in his alignment:

"foo foo" - train or choo choo
"kah" - car
"kruk" - truck
"peepain" - airplane

Since then, I have changed my ways. Sportscenter will always be there (five times a day). Deadliest Catch will be there. Seinfeld will definitely be there. But watching my son organize his vehicles like General McArthur in WWII will not.

So every chance I get, I stop what I am doing and simply watch my son play.

It is way better than ESPN.