Let Her Go

In my DITL post earlier this week, I shared a "typical day" at our house.  The girls and I get home from work and day care around 12:30pm most days.  By that time, Little J is very much in need of a nap.  Most of the the time I would have Miss A take her rest time right away too.  

Last week one day I let Miss A stay up to work on her birthday party invitations (as you can see in the DITL post).  She loved having the privilege to stay up longer than Little J, and to be helping with her invitations.  When we were finished with the invitations, she had her rest time, and ended up falling asleep.

So when Miss A asked if she could stay up and work on a project again, I decided to let her do it.  I have pinned hundreds of super cute possible projects to do with the little ladies on Pinterest. We've tried some of the projects already, and I've gathered the supplies to do many more.  That was not what this time was for.

Instead, Miss A went to her room and found the craft supply box that I keep in her closet.  She brought it to the living room and took every last thing out of the box.  She arranged the materials all around her, and decided what she wanted to use for her project.  

She asked me for some paper, and got started with her project.  Along the way she asked me for some help.  Could I get her some white paper?  Could I open the glue?  Could I open the feathers?  Other than that, she was on her own, working on her projects.  She was making pictures of birds, she told me.  She used feathers, tissue paper and an assortment of foam stickers.  

There were many times I could have tried to step in, tried to help her do the project "right." (Maybe a time or two I really had to work to restrain myself from telling her what I thought she should do.)  She loved the time just working on her own, deciding exactly what she wanted to do.  It was fun to watch her making decisions and selecting exactly what materials to use and where they should go.  

There isn't anything fancy in the craft box.  Glitter, glue, tissue paper, construction paper, feathers, crayons, googly eyes, cut outs and a large variety of foam stickers.  Some things are left over from earlier projects, some found on clearance, some just called my name while I was at the craft store for something else.  Nothing I care too much about, but bring such joy to my sweet girl.    

Is this something we'll do every day?  Probably not (though she's at it again as I type).  I'm not sure how often it will really happen, but I like giving her this special time to work.  To talk to me about what she's working on.  Time without her little sister demanding her attention.  Time just to do what she wants to do.