Working at Work

July 2, 2009

Well, yet again the rain foiled my plans for an invigorating day outside. Garden in the Woods was out. We'll have to reschedule it for another day when Karen gets back and can pick up the free passes from the library again or I pay my fine at the Northboro library and get my borrowing privileges reinstated.

I had breakfast and a wonderful conversation to start the day with a new friend who, it turns out, lives within walking distance of my home. Who knew? Back home by 8:45am, I picked back up the rhythm of the morning. Helping David get out the door to work, getting Daniel dressed, and packing lunch. Today, however, it was lunch for three. Daniel excitedly anticipated a visit to Dad's work. From the time David walked out the door he kept asking if we were leaving yet. “Are we going to Dad's work?” “I'm going to my work!” “You can come too, mom!” Hopping up and down on one foot, he was holding my arm for balance and showing off his mastery of this new skill, “Look mom. I'm on one foot. Look down, Look down!” he'd command even though I was already looking down. He then looked up at me, beaming. “I love you!” he'd declare and lean his body into mine in anticipation of a hug. I finally convinced him that watching “Sesame Street” was a fun alternative to pass the time while I prepared for our field trip.

When we got to David's work, he wasn't ready to meet us yet. So we sat in the car. Daniel came up to sit in the passenger seat, “I like this spot!” he repeated. He was thrilled to see David at the door of the office building. After eating lunch in the cafeteria, we walked up to see David's cubicle. On the way up, I don't know who was showing whom off. Both were so proud to be walking hand in hand. Daniel kept up his routine chatter, throwing in an “Dad, I love you!” regularly. When we got up to where some of his colleagues sit, Daniel marched right into the cubicle where Tim sat and declared, “This is where I work!” and went right for a marker on the desk. Fortunately Tim has kids, is very laid back and immediately rolled with it and offered Daniel some dry erase markers. This caused quite a stir for the colleagues in the immediate area, everyone peaking their heads over their cubicle walls to see where this cheerful child chatter was coming from, enjoying his confident and innocent statements and questions. It was amazing to watch how confidently he conducted himself. The only time he seemed at all self-conscious was when David's boss stopped by and asked him to draw a square, which to my knowledge he doesn't yet draw. He was at that time making large swirling spirals, proudly insisting that I look at his “circles”. When presented with the request, his hands flew up to his face and he looked visibly uncomfortable until the request shifted to telling her what to draw.

We then lift and went to David's cubicle and Daniel got a kick out of seeing this place previously only known as “work”. He'd been in to “work” previously, but it had been at least a year since his last visit. He walked into the vacant cubicle next to Paul's and said, “This is where I work!” I think it was the first time that he made the distinction between doing work and work as a generic term for the place where you do work.

When it was finally time to go, Daniel seemed satisfied by the visit and ready to leave. He waved good bye to David and settled into his car seat with a hard candy in his hand, a treasure obtained from the candy dish on the security desk. He was asleep by the time we got home and slept for about an hour and a half.