She sat in her room, furiously working at her table.
Squeak squeak.
I could hear the noises of her labor, though I was unsure what it was she was working on. She often disappears into her room to work on various projects. Art is most often the task, be it drawings or paintings or collages. Sometimes it’s a story she’s written and illustrated. Other times its building things, castles and bridges and barns.
Squeak squeak, then the sounds of tiny pieces scattering across the hardwood floor.
I automatically sighed, upset about the mess she was inevitably making. While I encourage her creativity, it always tends to create a disaster in its wake and I’m left to clean it up.
She finally ventured out of her room. “Mama, I would like to show you something.”
I braced myself for what was certain to be a mess, but was surprised when I only saw 3 pens sitting on her table…and nothing on the floor.
“I know how pens work. And how to put them together. Wanna see?”
Shocked, I watched as she took each pen apart, tiny piece by tiny piece. After the demolition was complete, she poked through her piles of parts and rebuilt each pen.
Squeak squeak.
That sound I had been hearing was her screwing the final piece onto the pen.
Proudly, my little girl displayed her pens. She then launched into an explanation of how this spring right here…see this spring? When this part pushes on it, it makes the writing part of the pen pop out! See?
I couldn’t believe it. I was never the kid to take things apart to see how they worked. The closest I came to that was taking the battery covers off of everything I ever owned, and then promptly losing them. My mother hated it.
But somehow, I have a child who is smart and funny and artistic and who also wants to know how things work. She thrives off of details. She has the patience and the focus to see it through. And I think she’s pretty amazing.
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