You know how when you meet someone for the first time you get a feeling about them? Sometimes it's a positive feeling, you just know you are going to like that person. Other times, though, you know that you don't like that person. You have no reason, it's all instinct, and you just know.
Animals have this sense, too. Your dog can tell you pretty quickly if a person is good or bad.
I've always thought that kids can do the same. Now, I'm not comparing your child to your dog. That would be silly and insulting. I'm simply saying that both pets and small children rely a LOT on instinct to give them clues about the world around them.
That's why kids love my husband, even though he's so ginormous. (If you didn't read my guest post yesterday, you missed it when I told everyone that my husband is seven feet tall. No exaggeration. He has to duck to get through doorways.)
You'd think that someone so big would scare the bejeebies out of kids, but it's not the case. In fact, it's just the opposite.
One of my friends has a son who is now four years old (I refer to him as Wall-E on my blog). Even before he could walk and talk he has been enamored of J. In fact, I was over hanging out at their house one evening and J came as soon as he got off work. We had been invited to the Family Game Night - how sweet is that?
We were all gathered in the kitchen when J walked in. He had to duck to get through the doorway, and instead of hiding behind his mom like I expected, Wall-E toddled over to J, looked waaaaaay up and said, "WOW!!" Then he reached up and grabbed J's hand and took him on a tour of the house, babbling away in his toddler speak.
And J bent down so he could hold Wall-E's hand and followed him around the house, hunched over and oohing and aahing in all the right places.
This was not an isolated incident, either. A few years ago, before CJ was born, Leah brought Jared and Emily to the Tri-Cities to visit. They came in July so I was not working (I teach high school English), but J still was (he's a geologist).
The first evening they were there, Emily was a little shy, but she warmed up pretty quickly.
The next morning, J went off to work before the rest of us got up. When we were eating breakfast, Emily looked at her mom and asked, "Mommy, where's the big boy today?"
She was totally hooked on J, and didn't care a lick that he was literally three times taller than she was.
Truth be told, J was pretty enamored of Emily, too. When he came home in the evenings, he made a special point of asking Emily how her day was, and what she did. He even did tricks to show off for her a little bit.
One evening, he showed her that he can juggle. She was SO impressed, that he asked her if she wanted to learn how. Of course she said yes, so J found three clean socks (they're softer than tennis balls) and sat down to teach her.
It was SO cute! He explained it to her as if she were twelve, and asked if she understood. She, of course, nodded sagely and put out her hands to catch the sock he was about to toss at her. She caught the first sock, and then J told her he was going to toss her another one, and she needed to throw the first sock back to him at the exact same time.
Again, she nodded sagely, and J counted to three.
On three, he gently tossed a second sock at Emily, and she promptly threw the first one backwards over her head. J patiently explained that in order for them to juggle together, she needed to throw the sock back to him.
More sage nodding, and a do-over.
He counted to three again, and released a sock in Emily's direction again.
And again, she threw her sock backwards over her head.
Leah and I couldn't control our giggles! It was so darn cute to see them so serious about juggling. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, J finally gave up. He told Emily she was a great juggler.
I love that guy.
You can see in this picture how serious they both were. I only wish I had video of the hilarity that ensued!
(You can also see how bare my entertainment center was...Jared was crawling, so I emptied everything that could potentially be in the way and moved it to another room. Jared's safety was more important than making sure my living room was photo ready!)
**When I told J on Monday night that I was going to be guest blogging for Leah, he could hardly contain his excitement. (Read: He rolled his eyes and asked if he was going to be embarrassed on her blog, too.) Then, I told him I was going to use this picture. Interestingly enough, his only reaction was to complain that he was clean-shaven in it...he didn't want people to think he looked like this in real life. When I agreed to let his adoring public know that J typically wears a goatee, he was satisfied. He was only clean-shaven in this picture because he works at the Hanford site and occasionally works in areas where he can potentially be exposed to various radiation and poisons. That week he had to wear an oxygen mask at work, hence the hairless face - you get a better seal on the mask that way.**
4 comments:
:) I love reading about kids interacting with the big guys! So cute!!
Had I known you were guest blogging, Kristina, I would have been more diligent about reading Leah's blog. I'm a bad blog friend!
It's been fun reading your words! You are a neat gal. Thank you for filling in on Leah's blog. I read it every morning over coffee and she rarely lets this old Auntie down by not updating. I can always count on her for entertaining me daily about my little kids. I'll drop by yours again soon.
I seem to remember he was teaching her sock ball, a game supposedly played rather viciously by he and his siblings??? LOL! I'm sure juggling was included as well, though.
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