Caroline the Observant

Caroline is one of those kids who watched the world and then tucks things away in her brain for later. She also has a steel-trap mind when you promise her something. I can tell her that it is too late in the day to paint but we set up the paints after breakfast and the next day after breakfast and getting dressed she will remind me what I said the night before.

She also has good recall of events that she either observed or participated in. I couldn't find one of the remotes to the DVD player. I asked Caroline if she knew where it was. She hopped off the couch, went to my worktable, and brought it back to me. I remember that I had placed it there after programming the player two days previous.

She owns a million little plastic animals of various species. I can't keep them all straight but if one is missing she knows it and wants to find it. She had out the dogs of which there are 12. She counted them and had only 11 and then came to me asking if I had seen the beagle. I found it under a couch but I was rather impressed that she knew exactly which dog was missing.

We have been working on letters and numbers. She can count to 25 and is sorting out the alphabet. The little fink knows the alphabet song but the only way I know that she knows it is that I heard her very quietly singing it under her breath. We have been sitting down with books that go through the alphabet and finding all the objects that begin is various letters on the page. She has also been working on writing various letters out. She has sorted out that the letters on the page allow me to read her a story. Now I think she is trying to figure out how it works so she can do it too.

She loves helping. We clean up things together. She helped me sort of the comics for Halloween by putting them in the piles I asked her to. She helped Ariel bake cupcakes for a school bake sale last night. She helps me with loading and unloading the dishwasher. She wants to be known as the best helper ever. She is also great at chasing the cats into the dining room so we can lock them up.

Soon she will be five and next year she will be going to school but right now I get to enjoy my time with my daughter and watch the world through her observant eyes.

I am grateful for all the things that Caroline has learned.

LJ Idol Topic 4.1: Favorite Childhood memory

This was a tough one for me to do. Not for the reasons that most people have. I had a great childhood. I have so many good memories from that time that it is very hard to pick one. I was very luck in the parent department and I know it. Both of my parents are still living and still married to each other for more than 45 years.

When I was young, my mother took care of me. I spent a lot of time with her like my daughter spends with me. We did the things that needed to be done around the house and she would play with me. We did lots of crafts together. We baked cookies and cakes. We did all those lovely domestic things that make for an enjoyable childhood.

In the summer we would visit both sets of grandparents who lived in Ohio. I didn't know until later how big Ohio was and how long it took to drive from Akron to Bridgeport. But they kept us amused in the car. My maternal grandmother had a working farm. She boarded cattle for people in town. She had an incredible strawberry patch along with blue and black berry bushed and red raspberry thicket.

Those summer vacations at the farm are probably some of my favorite memories of my childhood. I remember how proud I was that I was finally strong enough to pump well water. There were a couple of dogs on the farm that served as herders and guard dogs. My favorite was a little brown dog named Happy. I couldn't have a pet because my father was allergic to animal fur but for that week I had a dog because Happy would follow me around the farm. I can remember going out on the porch after dinner and then having to go back in and get the adults because the deer were in the garden or one of the cows got out. I learned that you don't name farm animals because eventually they will be part of your dinner. I learned how to pick vegetables and fruit and how to tell if they were any good or just going into the bucket for the cows dinner.

There is nothing like eating fruit just picked off the vine or bush when it is still warm from the sun. I am spoiled in terms of how tomatoes should really taste.

We always had plenty to eat and a lot of room to play. These are my fondest childhood memories and they still bring a smile to my face when I think about them. I still use the lessons I learned on the farm to this day and am grateful that I had that time to just be a kid with a dog and a lot of land to run around on.