little ones have big mouths

An e-mail letter from my grandchildren’s mother reminded me of the energy and innocence of toddlers and pre-schoolers.
She wrote: “Yesterday I was trying to hang a couple of curtains in my bedroom. I was busy at the top of the 8-foot ladder. I heard Basil (her 10-month-old son) playing. Moments later as I went down the ladder I saw him on the second rung of the ladder climbing up to the third.
“I wanted to scream, but I remembered to not frighten the child. I smiled at him and focused on his proud grin as I climbed down and gently but firmly placed one foot on his right hand to ensure that he would not fall to the ground.”
As I read, I laughed. Basil is just like his daddy who as a 6-month-old met me halfway up the stairs as I started to descend with a load of laundry.
Every mother waits anxiously for her child’s first words. My son’s wife worked to teach Basil the concept and danger of “hot.”
He learned. His dad handed him a freshly toasted bagel one morning last week. He touched it and yelped, “HAHTHthth!”
After writing to me about Basil’s new word, his mother said she still consider his most brilliant word to be “Mamma.”
However, she’s not so sure about what comes after her 2-year-old’s “momma!” Sometimes her silence would have been would have been golden, but her insight is astute.
As they waited at a fast food shop last week, her mama writes, “Ginger suddenly pointed to her women behind us, one with short hair and the other with long hair. She shouted, “MAMA! LOOK! IT’S A BOY AND A GIRL!”
Only the women’s laughter relieved Mama’s embarrassment.
Living in a big city provides 2-year-old Ginger plenty of opportunities to embarrass her mother with her excited, “Mama!”
Her Mama said, “We were strolling around the park early one morning when we say a young, male student recovering from a hangover, wearing only short shorts. We couldn’t avoid him.”
As we passed him, Ginger pointed and yelled, “MAMA! HE’S NAKED!” She followed that with “MAMA! WHERE’S HIS CLOTHES?!?”
Mama laughed and quietly shrank down in embarrassment.
It takes a couple years to train an irresponsible child to refrain from yelling out their innocent observations. Ginger’s uncle was still a pre-schooler as he tagged along to a Cub Scout troop meeting 27 years ago. A young mother walked in wearing a long sleeved shirt with loopy holes up the arms and simulated holes down the sides of her tight-fitting slacks. Our then 5-year-old stared and whispered to me, “She’s practically naked!”
Not everything Ginger says is loud and embarrassing.
A couple months ago Ginger asked her mother where was God.
Her mother said, “he was everywhere, especially in our hearts.
Ginger looked at her mama. She disagreed. She said God was outside, sitting on the grass, drinking soda and eating corn. That’s the child’s story and she’s sticking to it. The truth will come out soon.