My favourite time of day

Folk who’ve wandered over here from my old blog may well remember this piece.  It’s an article that I wrote and had published in a local association newsletter.

It was written at the beginning of 2008 and let’s just say that the year rolled out to prove that I had reason to be worried.  Anyway, I thought I’d repost it here, where it belongs while I figure out how to start this blog of Archie’s.

My Miss 6 and I have a routine at night.

After dinner she goes and does silent reading in her room. At around 7.30 - 8.00 she comes out and says goodnight to her dad and big sister and gently grabs my hand. Then we go and do what the two of us love doing the most - its story time.

Sometimes she’ll read something to me. Other times she just wants to listen. She begs me to use my ’special talent’ of reading backwards. Not just each word backwards…but saying the words in reverse. Strange I know, but it fascinates her.

We recently finished reading The Hobbit, and then polished off The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It’s wonderful sharing my childhood favourites with my daughter and seeing that she has developed my passion for reading. My older girl likes reading - but not like me and Archie. From the age of about 6 months, books were Archie’s favourite ‘toy’. They still are. She has been reading independently at a very high level since before her 4th birthday. Her books are her window into the world.

But I digress (I know, what’s new).

Lately, we’ve been reading Stephen and Lucy Hawking’s book about George’s Secret Key to the Universe. It’s a cool book. It combines two of Archie loves - reading and astronomy.

Her room is not what you’d call normal. It’s mauve with darker mauve skirts and architraves. It has a Dora the Explorer wall paper border running around it. There’s a bunch of Dora stick on’s over her walls and she has pink fairy and cat curtains on her window.
But she also has a glow in the dark, to scale model of the planets strung above her bed, a couple of astronomy posters on her wall, 100’s of glow in the dark stars on her ceiling, and a book shelf full of rocks, miniature dinosaurs, and fossils.

While she’s reading, and when I’m in there reading with her, the light is charging her solar system. We read. She stops when she doesn’t understand a word or an expression. She tries to assimilate the newly learnt word with information that she already knows. Sometimes we’ll talk about the Latin roots of the word. Sometimes, if she’s tired, she’ll just lie - not quite still - and listen.

We read for about half an hour normally. Just the two of us. It’s become our time together to share something we both enjoy. Once the book has been read, it’s lights out. Then comes my favourite part.

We snuggle up on her bed - and we stare up at her stars and her planets. They glow amazingly well - enough to all but light up her room. And we talk. Mostly she talks, and I listen. I think she’s become accustomed to having this time to download all of the incredible things that she thinks of, or learns, or sees during the day. I usually spend about another 15 minutes laying there with her. Just being together and being relatively peaceful and calm. A rare occurrence for Archie.

Last night, after what was a rollercoaster of a day - I lay there with her in my arms and sobbed. I wondered what the world will make of this wonderful, unique, weird little person. I’m sure that what I find delightful and entertaining in her character, others find strange, and just plain annoying.

I cried because I miss the baby that I held in my arms. I cried because I wonder what this year will bring for her and hope to some universal power that it’s not just another year of abject frustration. And I cried because I’ll truly miss this little human being when she returns to school next week. Even when we’re not ‘doing’ anything, she makes me smile with the incredible range of ‘facts’ she feels compelled to share with me.

This empathic, caring little creature gently wiped away my tears and assured me that nothing should upset me, because she’ll always be my friend and we’ll always have this special time together.

I sigh and think to myself, if only that was true.

But for now, I’ll keep enjoying my favourite time of day with my little friend.