Life Skills

Life Skills

“Daddy, why is the sky blue?” she asked, “‘cept at night, then it’s black.”

“Hmmmm, well I guess we will have something to look up in the encyclopedia.” I smiled down at her serious little face.

“Yeah, the ‘cyclopedia!” She laughed, the serious look chased away. “Daddy, we need to hurry!”

I took her little hand in mine as we neared the crosswalk, looking both ways, I modeled the good behavior I expected to instill into her.

With a slight smile I noticed her carefully looking both ways, and when the light turned she gave my hand an impatient little tug and we crossed to the park.

“I sure hope Andrea and her Mommy are here today.” she said, her little eyes searching the playground area and surrounding benches.

Kelley and her friend Andrea spent most of the day yesterday whispering together away from the other children. Questioned about it at suppertime she was pretty vague, just saying that they had a secret.

We spend most of our evening suppers telling each other everything about our day, a practice I started shortly after her mother’s death three years ago. In the beginning, she would just sit in her high chair smiling and gurgling, it being hard for a one year old to carry their end of a conversation. After awhile though, she developed quite good conversational skills, precociously early.

“Oh goody there they are!” She crowed, tugging my hand in their direction. “Andrea hey! C’mon Daddy, let’s hurry!”

As we neared the attractive young divorcee and her daughter, I could feel my blood pulse a little stronger, surprisingly finding myself eager to continue yesterday’s conversation.

I very much still missed my wife, but I think my daughter had almost as much to teach me about life skills as I did her.