Tim Brown

Today Eileen and I showed Kate a new toy. She put it in her mouth and watched us open and close, fill and empty, drop and pick up the parts. She watched us put it away. Eileen gave her a bath while I prepared a bottle.

When I came back into the nursery it was dim and peaceful. Kate was taking her bottle, eyes closed in mommy’s arms. I snuck over to the toy box, took out Kate’s new toy and a few others, and swapped them for the ones that had been in her playpen all week.

Tomorrow when we put Kate in the playpen for some solo time, she’ll find among a few other toys – hey! – that one from yesterday. And this time, freestyle. No mommy and daddy teaching.

Learn one day and freestyle the next. I like this idea. Especially when I think about that “hey!” she’ll experience when she recognizes the toy. That yet-to-be moment already has me walking on air. What a feeling. I’m growing her! The things I do to prepare her for success will change her entire life every day.

All it takes on my part is to remember to teach with different toys every so often, and remember to prepare the freestyle setup for the following day so she can explore.

Come to think of it I’ve been doing this same freestyle setup for myself, multiple times a day for years. Certainly some of my successes in life can be attributed to this preparedness.

It’s why I use Backpack. It’s why I use Field Notes and Google Reader and Instapaper and Pinboard and Tumblr and Yojimbo. It’s why I blog at Vassar and at Nice Web Type.

It’s why I’m late to the office, late coming home, and late going to bed, in each instance saving and organizing that which I had gotten up early, stayed up late, and tried extra hard to study in hours when I could just let it go.

I take time to digest, save, share. To prepare. So that the next day, when I happen to be working or talking or reading or writing, I say…

Hey!