"Look at the difference in their maturity level," I spoke fondly of my granddaughters to my daughter-in-law, Tammy. Three-year-old Maddie was covering her kids' menu color sheet with large, looping circles of orange crayon, while Anne-Marie, almost six, had turned her sheet over to the blank side and drew with utmost concentration. Their mother nodded in agreement.
We were at an upscale cowboy-themed restaurant in Ft. Worth's Sundance Square. Decorated in rustic grandeur, it had several large paintings on the walls. "Can I see your picture?" I asked Anne-Marie. It seemed to be a rather complicated drawing, with a princess-like figure with flowing blonde hair sitting in one corner, a couple of people on the other side, and a row of tiny rectangles across the top. "What are those boxes at the top?" I asked her.
"Glasses," she responded as she went on coloring. Suddenly someone started laughing, and we realized she was copying the painting on the wall of an old-time saloon scene with a fancy lady on a bar stool, and a long row of glasses on a shelf above the bar! Poor baby! She had no idea what she was copying, but it was recorded in childish detail on her paper.
I hadn't even noticed the flambuoyant art work, we had been so intent on conversation and visiting with our kids in Texas this weekend. After lunch, we were going to the historic stockyards district, where we would see a cattle drive and other old west attractions. It was all perfectly innocent, but it made me realize anew how impressionable children are.
We might not think kids are paying any attention to their surroundings, what is being said, or thinking of anything but their play, but they are absorbing like a sponge all the time, sometimes to the embarrassment of adults. Their traits of transparency, candor and honesty are part of which make them so appealing and precious. And they don't miss a thing.
The next day turned unseasonably cold, and as we were walking through the sights of the state fair in Texas, I quipped, "It's so cold we should be singing Christmas carols!" Maddie looked up from her stroller and smilingly sang, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!" Going home later, I asked her what her favorite part of the fair was. She was silent for a minute, then said in her deliberate manner, "The carrousel." What a big word for her to know (I still say "merry-go-round.") "The carrousel," she repeated matter-of-factly, "But we didn't get to go on it."
It sounded like her Pa-Pa, when I asked him what he liked about the fair. He said, "The livestock, but we didn't see any." (There must have been some there, but evidently we weren't at the right place at the right time, search as we might.)
After we got home today, I called our son, Jamie, thanking them for the nice time we had and asked about their trip home to Houston. He said they had stopped for supper, then two bathroom stops, one for everyone and one for Maddie. "That's what happens after they are potty trained," I laughed. Maddie had had her own ideas about that project, but when she finally came around, there was no going back. "She was wearing a pull-up," Jamie said, "but she said, 'Big girls use the bathroom!' so we had to make a special stop for her." Like I said, things make impressions on kids. Would that they would always be the right things!
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