It's all about symmetry.

 This morning P was examining the Lego structure SS made yesterday. SS spend at least two hours making the structure above, and it came from her imagination. This is not the result of following directions on a Lego booklet. P was impressed with the symmetry SS achieved, especially taking in consideration her dexterity issues.

SS has an amazing imagination and loves to build, we are not sure how is that going to develop, but we are enjoying the ride. SS has expressed she would like to build things when she is an adult. That is when she doesn't dream of becoming a firefighter, a super hero, or one of the amalgamated animals she comes up with for sport.  We have impressed upon SS that if she wants to study architecture or engineering math is a must. Actually, even if SS decides to major in liberal arts (over her father;s dead body) we expect her to be competent at math. P is very good at the subject and I have shamelessly relegated all math homework to him.

Although SS is going through serious iPad withdrawal she has focused that attention into her Legos, not a bad trade off.  It's going to be interesting to see how long it will take for SS to ask for her iPad back. We have realized that we were remiss regarding the amount of time we allowed SS to use her tablet on weekends. P and I spend a lot of time on our iPads (P mainly on his phone) reading, but SS uses her tablet to play games and watch movies.

I became a reader because Mami U set an example with her daily bible reading. She would sometimes pretend her vision was faulty (the woman only wore reading glasses until she passed away at 83, her vision was not a problem) and would ask me to read for her. That sneaky woman knew what she was doing and I'm thankful. P became a reader because his mother was a voracious bibliophile. I once asked him how much she spent on books, and P told me if it wasn't for the public library they would be broke.

It's shameful that we had such great examples and did not do the same for SS. Tablets are a great way to read because you can carry a large book anywhere. We also read news, and in my case research studies, as well as snark forums, also known as trash (anything from TV shows to cults). But we realized that SS was not receiving the message we received early on about the importance of books. I do not know when it was the last time SS saw us reading an actual book, aside from reading to her.

Now we are committed to using our library frequently, have decided to put our tablets away and read real books. P loves true crime, I enjoy medical thrillers, bios, and of course first hand accounts of those who successfully leave cults. 

We recently implemented a new nightly ritual. We bought the first Harry Potter book, and it is a shame we are the only people in the world that have not read that book. We are reading a chapter a night in bed, P and I take turns reading.  I was worried SS would be scared when Harry's parents are killed, then I forgot she has seen too many Disney movies. Let's face it someone, most likely a parent, is going to die in a Disney movie. SS likes the story and  really enjoys reading and cuddle time in bed. We asked if she wanted to read so she would not feel left out, but SS declined.

Once we are done with the book we will rent the movie and make it a pizza, candy and popcorn night. P wanted to take SS to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, but we looked it up Online and SS declared all the rides scary.  P is really bummed, maybe we can go for other attractions as well, because P was really looking forward to going. Plus there's more than rides at the Harry Potter attraction. Since there are seven Harry Potter books we are going to be busy for a while.