Out of the Mouths of Babes

It seems that I can remember so many of the cute and clever things my grandkids did and said, but not much from my own children. Guess old age is creeping up on me! Here are a few of the adorable childhood gems of both their childhoods I can recollect.

Being terribly claustrophobic, when my doctors suggested I needed an MRI, I was truly upset. With some research, I found a place over in New Jersey that had recently purchased a machine you just had to sit in. I quickly made the appointment, which was not an easy task, as everyone wanted this alternative. I soon realized, however, that was the week my husband Al and I had promised to watch our 3-year-old granddaughter, Catherine. She was a very easy-going child, so we thought that the trip to Jersey would not phase her at all. Grampie and I sang songs and played games with her the whole way. (I kept a long list of songs in the glove compartment.) I promised that if she was patient, on our way home we could stop at the toy store. 

Just as we got out of my appointment I spotted, in a nearby mall, a Toys “R” Us. As we entered, I asked Catherine if she had a special toy in mind. What she especially wanted was a doctor kit, and fortunately they had one. It was black, not her favorite color, but she explained loudly enough for the woman standing right next to us to hear, “I don’t care about the color as long as it has an otoscope.” The woman just stared down incredulously at little Catherine, but I quickly explained that her mom was a doctor and our aisle companion look truly relieved. The kit did have the tool for examining ears, and Catherine happily checked out her doll all the way home.

Catherine’s kid sister is Elizabeth. One night while she was still a toddler, I was reading her a story. I was holding the book with one hand while my other hand was upturned on my lap. All of a sudden one of Elizabeth’s tiny fingers reached over and touched the tip of my finger. She asked, “Grammie, you stay in bathtub too long?” After I stopped laughing, I explained to her that my fingers were wrinkled because I was old. Tipping her head to one side and with great empathy, she intoned, “That’s too bad Grammie.” I certainly had to agree.

My own daughter, Lynn, had begged for a birdfeeder when she was little more than a toddler. She even showed her dad where she wanted him to place it – right near the living room window where she could watch the birdies eat. As one of the gifts for her birthday, the feeder was finally erected, and later that day Lynn and her dad went out to purchase the seed. With Lynn in one arm and the bag of feed in the other, he began slowly pouring it in. Suddenly Lynn blurted out, “Daddy, if we planted the birdseed would we get birdgrass.” Her dad laughed so hard he dropped the whole bag of seed (fortunately not Lynn). For a few days to come, Lynn not only was able to watch the birds happily discovering their new font of food, but also the squirrels having a feast for themselves on the ground below.

Michael, our oldest child, cried out with delight one day as we were passing a very old beautiful church. “Look Mommy, a church with hair.” The previous summer, there was much ivy growing on the building, but now that winter was approaching all the leaves had fallen off, leaving just the bare vines on both sides of the façade. It actually did look like curly hair on the side of a face. Quite an observation. I thought, for a 3-1/2-year-old.