…I learned over the past few days that kids retain everything.
Flashback to Saturday: We were visiting the grandparents, and Shayla (going on 18 months) was getting a bit fussy. One of her favorite things in the world is to go for a walk, so I took her for a lap around the development.
As we walked, she was her usual full-of-questions-well-actually-only-one-question self.
“Wazzat?”
“That’s a car. We use them to get from place to place. Vroom vroom.” “Wazzat?”
“That’s a squirrel. They’re kinda cute, but there more of a pain to homeowners than anything.” “Wazzat?”
“That’s a barbeque grill. We use them to cook up meat, like yummy hamburgers and hot dogs.” “Wazzat?”
That’s litter. Someone thought that the street would be a good place for his old McDonald’s bag. That someone is what we call a ‘scumbag’." “Wazzat?”
“That’s a street sign. It shows us what street we’re on. Of course, some nitwit turned it so now it’s inaccurate, but you get the idea. Well, actually, you don’t, since you’re too young to understand 99% of what I’m saying, but just hearing my voice explaining things is good for your development.”
Flashforward to this morning: Ok, time to take Shayla to day care. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a parking spot in front of out house last night, so we’ll have to walk the block to the car. No biggie.
As we walk, hand in hand, my daughter ever-so-cute in her new dress, a guy rides by on his bicycle. Carring a Coke bottle. Which he casually drops in the street.
I hear ya! My kid can remember directions to far-flung ice-creameries miles from our house that we stopped at 2 years ago (he’s only 5 now) and insist that we stop if we are anywhere near it.
This is true. My (at the time) 3 year old daughter was in the same room as I when I was casually watching one of the eps of Star Wars. A week or two later, in the grocery store, she sees a rather odd looking tall, extremely pale man with gold hair and gold rimmed glasses… she exclaims “LOOK! IT’S C3PO!!!”
And wouldn’t stop. It’s best to avoid eye-contact in such situations. Then get the hell outta there.
Heh…thank you. Just thinking back to it brings a tear to my eye.
As for the guy, I couldn’t really say if he heard or not. Even if he did hear, he was moving at a good clip so I’m sure it would have sounded like gibberish to him.
For Hal Briston, who is apparently not sir Blah: Hang on to that story, so you can drag it out a family get-togethers and tell it to her boyfriend when she’s 17.
