1/9/2011 The poignancy of children

I remember once being at an airport with my father. I can't imagine the occasion; I don't ever remember flying together when I was a kid. Maybe I was picking him up when he was visiting.

In any case, as we were waiting for baggage claim, he observed a young boy, probably about 4 years old, staring at the carousel. My father looked at him for a moment, and said with his characteristic observation of the ordinary, "Look at that poignant expression on that child's face."

I looked. "I don't know Dad, I think he's just spacing out." The kid looked pretty blank to me. But my father saw depth in his face.

People often cite how insightful children are in their innocence -- "out of the mouth of babes." And for certain, they are full of surprising comments, which can easily be taken for a refreshing, unadulterated view of the world.

But if you had any doubt as to the meaningfulness of vast majority of what goes through a child's mind, look no further than this gmail exchange between Gabriel to Julian.

Gabriel:
Hi, J-Fart. |
Guess what? V
J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%. J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%. J=Jerk,
idiot, moron, and 0%. J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%. J=Jerk, idiot,
moron, and 0%. J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%.
J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%. J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%.
J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%. J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%.
J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%. J=Jerk, idiot, moron, and 0%.

Julian:
hi Gabriel.Guess what?You fart 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,888,888,888,888,888,888,888,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 times!!!!!!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!YOU JUST LEARNED YOUR ABCS!!!!!!!ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYandZ!!!!!!!

yYOu You look like a princess and you smell like some poo!!!!G=JERK!!!!!SUCKER!!!SUCKER!!!SUCKER!!!SUCKER!!!

Yeah, they're deep all right.

Julian is very excited about his new kids-cookbook from grandparents. Today we made "eggs in a frame" for his breakfast, substituting a heart-shaped cookie-cutter for an upside-down glass to cut out the bread. He loved it! He also got some real cooking experience: two burns. Not easy to handle a frying pan when you're so short.


Later we tried on some new snow stuff for Katrina. Her pink-flowered base layer, and another pair of snowpants, that are labeled size 3T but are longer than the 4T pair she wore tubing (and match the jacket)


Katrina was very thorough in testing out all her gear, so she was very overdressed for playing outside. "Mommy, take me to the snow!!"


Gabriel posted another Timmy The Total Jerk comic today, after spending a solid hour and a half re-drawing and tracing it to make it darker. Maybe his new comic-strip artist side will finally persuade him that legible handwriting has its place after all!

1/9/2011