taking advantage of the situation

I can remember very well the summer before Ryan started Kindergarten. We had these Sesame Street computer games...one with number games and one with letter games. He used to want to play them all the time, and Emily would always pull up a chair and watch him. I would tell Ryan to make sure he gave Emily a turn, but she never wanted to play. She just wanted to watch. On the first day of school, we all went outside with Ryan to see him get on the bus. After the bus drove away, Doug and I stayed outside talking for a few minutes before he had to head back to work and Emily quickly went into the house. When I came in, I found her sitting at the computer, playing one of the computer games. I didn't know that she knew how to start it, but she had been watching all summer, soaking it all in, just waiting for her turn.

Last week when we returned home from dropping all the kids off at school, Ainsley went straight upstairs. I came up to check on her and found her all tucked into Jack's bed with her Game-boy, her animals and her book.

She had just been waiting for her turn.