I just cannot contain myself...

Please forgive this "stream of consciousness" blog, but I have the best kids in the world.

Here it is Saturday and I am doing some reading, writing, and studying at my desk, which is my habit, and the kids are watching TV. I had been watching cartoons with them and goofing off, which is half the purpose of a Saturday morning (the other half being waffles!!).

As I am about 8 feet in the middle of a Greek participle (and anyone who has studied that language knows exactly what that means), I am drawn back to this plane but the persistent tugging of my shirt by my daughter. As I become aware of my daughter, I also become aware that she is giving a little lioness roar (actually, it is more like "rawr" but you get the idea).

When she sees that I am paying attention, she reaches up for me to pick her up. While I am holding her, she continues roaring. I start to chuckle because I had not heard her do this in a long time. Then, she pointed up at a picture her great-grandma had oil painted and continued to roar. I realized that the painting is of a little lion cub sleeping.

Now, it took me a few seconds to understand what was going on, but without Shannon or myself having really emphasized what a lion is (except when the zoo or TV ocasioned it) and only less frequently doing the roaring, Alexa was able to connect a semi-abstract painting of a lion cub with the roar of his bigger father.

I was impressed. She continually amazes me as to how perceptive she is. Since she does not talk very much it is easy to miss that she pays very close attention to everything.

So, there we sat, for about 15 to 20 minutes, just roaring back and forth. She would point at the lion and roar, then I would find a lion on the computer and I would roar, then she would get excited and giggle and then roar.

And now, my little lioness is lying in bed, asleep.

While she has been asleep, Timothy had a snack. Shannon gave him extra snacks "to share with Daddy." So, he comes to me and breaks out the fruit snacks. "Here, Daddy, and orange one." Then, he walked over to Mom, "A green one!" So he gave mom the green one. She mentioned that she liked the green ones, so he looked for another green one and gave it to her.

Then he had some more for himself. "A red one, Daddy!" "A green one!" The green one went to mom.

When he had only three left, I told Tim he could have the rest. "A red one, Daddy!" Yes, he gave it to me. "Another red!" He gave that one to me. "Another red!" He gave that one to me...I gave it back saying he could have it. He then handed it to his Mom. He would not hear another word about it, the matter was done.

Such a giving child.

I hate to inform the rest of the world of this simple fact, but I have the best kids in the world.