After we had our fun (wherein the neighbors called on me to do my “Mum, mum! Squirrel, mum!” imitation), the young lad asked us “Well, would you get excited if you had a quarter in your hand and a family of monkeys swung down and the baby monkey grabbed it out of your hand?” I said "I sure would: Mum, mum, a monkey, mum, it stole my quarter, mum!"
And then I admitted he won for coolest neighborhood critters.
I’ve always thought that that line about “becoming like children” from some Jewish woodcarver was about that joy and wonder. We taller people really need to remember to look at our surroundings with fresh eyes more often. Another group of people who reminds me of what a wonderful world we live in: tourists. There are buildings and landscapes I’m used to seeing a thousand times, nothing special about them, and then one day I walk by and there is a young couple taking pictures and talking excitedly about this architectural detail or that group of plants.
I agree, I just posted a reply to thread about gift giving and immediately wondered to myself if I really am that cynical?
But then I remember last year being up a mountain on a freezing day with the lightest of snow falling in single huge crystals and spending an hour with my kids trying to take photos of them (and failing) and also tramping through the forest with them following a set of hare tracks and making up a story of what it was doing as it progressed. (together with voices)
And also freezing water in various ways in order to make a frozen drinks glass, and whittling a stick into a harry-potter style wand.
So no, I may be cynical about the material things but I do still like the child-like wonder of exploration and experimentation and I definitely still get immense joy from the natural world and that is only enhanced by having my kids around. When going back to school after the long summer break we asked them what their highlight of the summer was. Delightfully it was
a) me taking them fishing to a pond at the bottom of our street and catching a tench.
b) Seeing a Kingfisher at close quarters dive and catch a minnow.
simple things indeed.
I made my 2 year-old’s day yesterday because I let him pick breakfast for the family. I make fun breakfasts every weekend-day, but this one was special because it was all his choosing.
“Bacon and cake-cakes! Hubbowns!”
(Translation; “Bacon, pancakes, and hashbrowns, please father dearest”)
That kid could inhale an entire pound of bacon if we let him.
I can still recall in detail my then two year old son’s first spaghetti experience.
Brings happy tears to my eyes every time I think about Christmas morning when my son was three.
This was the year he understood who Santa was and I remember him waking up in the morning, going down the stairs, walking through the kitchen and dining room all with a cynical look on his face until he entered the living room and saw the glowing lights of the tree with lots of presents underneath.
His eyes widened, jaw dropped and gave a quick inhale as to say, “He was really here!” The look on his face was so pure and magical.I wish I could’ve captured it on film, but I’ll never forget it.
My best Christmas moment ever.
Whenever a parent and child come into my checkout line and the child gives me an item they are holding, I always put it into a small bag and hand it to them “just for you.” I’ve had children break out into smiles and hug the bag to their chests, but the best one was the little boy who said “Mommy. Did you see that? The lady put this into a bag and handed it to me and I didn’t even have to ask her to do it!!! How cool is that?”
I recently had the joy of introducing my 23 month old grandson to graham crackers. His overt delight, written across his face at his first bite, was wonderful. But even better was the phone call I got from my DIL the following day, asking me what 'gramma ‘s crackers’ were.