Paper Airplanes

2005-09-05 23:11 ☼ post

I was watching Eawyn, our 11 month old daughter, in my office tonight while Mary was doing some work in the kitchen and a funny thing happened. I was sitting at my desk doing some surfing when Eawyn puttered over to my chair and handed me a small piece of paper roughly 3″x5″. Eawyn really likes to share and show things to us which we enjoy quite a bit. More often than not we just end up handing the objects back to her after taking a moment to inspect them (which may be why she continues to do it). This time around inspiration struck and I decided to fold a small paper airplane and see how she reacted.

I explained what I was doing and she watched me curiously for a while without trying to grab the paper out of my hands. After 20 seconds or so she started to get a little distracted by something else on the floor nearby, but I was able to restore her attention without too much trouble. I did a quick ready, set, go and launched the paper airplane into the air. It flew a few feet and then did an impressive nose dive into the floor. Eawyn loved it and began giggling loudly.

I decided to move back into a corner to give the plane more room to operate and I added a countdown since Eawyn is fascinated by numbers. 3..2..1.. the plane travelled a little further before heading into a steep nose dive and landing with a satisfying smack. Eawyn giggled even harder. I repeated the process a few times and it was long before she was tracking down the errant planes and returning them to me for another launch and giggle-inspiring crash landing. It’s really amazing how much fun you can have with an 11 month old doing simple things like making a paper airplane, throwing it and watching it crash.