The day began, as days with kids often do, with something completely oddball and unexpected. The night before, Amelia and Henry were playing with these tiny little toy plastic cameras that I believe came from some kind of goodie bag around Henry’s birthday.
They invented a game where they each hide these tiny cameras and then find them. Before bedtime, it was reported that the game moved to the basement for some reason and Henry couldn’t find his tiny camera. He seemed a little put out by it, but it was time to get ready for bed and we kind of just moved on past that.
Well the next morning, he was instantly bemoaning his missing camera. His level of emotion surrounding this would make one think he was missing a beloved pet or family member. So first thing in the morning, all four of us were in the basement, conducting a thorough search party for the missing camera.
Henry kept indicating a storage area under the stairs, which did not seem like an obvious place for it be. We looked numerous times and didn’t see it there, but he kept insisting. Eventually I was looking from another angle and saw the tiny camera sitting on the bottom plate of the wall.
I was glad to have found it, of course, and I have to admit that Henry’s level of joy and gratitude when I handed him that camera melted my heart. Again, I barely knew this thing existed 24 hours ago, but apparently it had taken on major emotional significance for my son, and I was glad he had it back. I basked in his appreciation and happiness for a moment. I have to say, it was quite adorable.
And literally 5 minutes later the two of them were fighting and Henry ran in clutching both his and his sisters’ cameras while she ran after him, yelling. Joy is a fleeting thing.
Later on, the kids told us they were playing “vacation,” and were all packed. Henry was super proud of his sweet backpack.
I imagine many of us are thinking about playing “vacation,” lately. I guess pretending is about the best we can do. I’m planning a imaginary trip to New Zealand right now. There are some great nonexistent deals and I’ve always wanted to pretend to take the Lord of the Rings tour.
