The New Watch

In order to get a feeling of what I am about to explain, you first have to imagine something else.  So here goes: imagine your 6 year old daughter saying, "Mommy! Look!  In our backyard!  It's a real live flying unicorn!  And it's pink and sparkly!"  Now take the tone of voice she said that in, with all the excitement and wonder and loudness, and apply it to this sentence: "Mommy, it's seven o'clock!" 

My daughter got a watch.  And she is very, very excited to know what time it is all day.  And boy do I mean all day.  I was woken up this morning by the animated proclamation that "It's 7 o'clock!"  Then I nearly spilled my coffee when she startled me with the exciting news that "Mommy, it's seven twenty three!"  Apparently it takes me four minutes to finish my coffee, because as I was putting the empty cup into the sink, I was given the update, "ITS SEVEN TWENTY SEVEN!!!" (accompanied by a really big, proud smile.)

The day progressed, and schoolwork got done, and the watch got forgotten, for half hour intervals.  But in between those half hours the family was treated to exciting real-time updates of what time it is.  And each time it was something different; sometimes it was one thirty, and sometimes it was four seventeen, and there was even a time when it was "ALREADY SIX OH TWO!!!!"  It was a very exciting day, every minute of it, or at least every thirty minutes or so.  Different times of the day elicited different levels of excitement, but perhaps the most surprising time of all was at night, and I 'm not sure what time this happened because it was after my time announcer had fallen asleep, when I did the opposite of what I was waiting to do all day.  After my daughter fell asleep, I picked up the watch from beside her bed, smiled to myself a surprisingly pleased smile, and put that watch right back down for her to find the next morning.