Kids make me smile

Children always add a smile to my day. Recently, Sam’s mom urged him, “You need to eat some fruit with your hamburger.”

Sam studied his hamburger and said, “Well this bun has seeds. Fruits have seeds. So I AM eating a fruit.”

He is a smart alec – as is my friend’s child. The friend simply asked, “What did you do in school today?”

I took a test.”

What did you take it on?”

Paper.”

I love kid chuckles. I also love watching pre-verbal children discover each other. For instance the newest babies in the family, four-month-old twin brothers, were each perched on a parent’s lap at a family gathering. Activity and conversations swirled around them. Those two little guys ignored all the big people, turned to each other and had a twin bonding moment as they studied each other. I grabbed a camera and captured that precious moment.

Later, my daughter-in-love Patti captured another baby bonding moment between Abby, 1, and Katie, 2. Abby, still a crawler at the time, sat on the floor. Katie saw her sitting there, walked over and sat in front of this other person who is just her size. I watched the two batting their hands back and forth at each other, checking out how the other responded. Patti videoed their discovery of someone “Just my size.”

Katie, who strings together words into sentences, eventually rose up and went toddling off to find someone a bit older and more talkative.

About a month after that video, Abby spotted a pen in her daddy’s hand, realized she had important papers to write, stood up and took her first steps across the room to get that pen.

Katie, who has walked for a year, still enjoys being the littlest kid at her house. Her mom, however, decided it was time to put the diapers of babyhood away. She pulled out the baby potty chair and showed it to Katie. Katie looked at her mom and ignored every suggestion she use it. She had no interest in that plastic chair in the bathroom. Every morning her mom asked, “Katie, do you want to be a big girl and wear panties today or be a baby in diapers?”

Diapers,” Katie answered quite satisfied with the status quo.

I decided this is going to take a while, so I bought the largest package of diapers I could find,” her mom said.

Of course, the next time she asked Katie, “diapers or panties?” Katie said, “panties.”

Thinking of a day of mishaps, Mommy rolled her eyes and then helped Katie pull on the panties, packed back-up supplies and warned the teacher at Mother’s Day Out about the day’s decision.

Katie surprised her mom. Within two weeks she woke up dry and made sure she stayed clean and dry all day long.

Now what do I do with all those diapers?” her mom wonders.

Katie does not care. She wore only her big girl panties the night she and her sisters watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympic games with their dad. He posted a photo on Facebook that he took after leaving and said, “I walked back into the room and see the girls ‘training for the Olympics!’”

His snapshot shows all three standing, watching the television as each lifts dumbbells. Caroline, 8, holds a couple four pounders. Daisy, 6, lifts a three pounder and petite Katie raises a one pound weight in each hand.

I missed the Olympic opening ceremonies, but I did see my future Olympians and that added a smile to my day.


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