A Morning with Douglas

Our kids amaze me all the time.  I love continually catching more and more glimpses of who they are underneath all that baby skin.

The other day, Douglas sat in the bathroom.  He's still in the process of learning this whole scene.  When he's going to be there for a bit, we read one of two books with him.  Usually his choice is the truck book.  Each page has a picture on it and says what kind of truck or tractor it is.  One page has an airport fire truck.  The next page is an ambulance.  We make the fun siren noises and everything - good times.

Douglas knows that ambulances help people because one time (and one time is all it takes for him to remember something for forever and ever because his mind is a freaking steel trap, I tell you) we were driving and had to pull over for the noisy ambulance to go by.  I told him that someone was hurt and needed help getting to the hospital where a doctor could help them and that this ambulance was taking them there.  Next time we turned onto that street (one that we don't drive on all that often), in the exact same spot that we had pulled over previously, he says, "someone needs help."  It took me a minute to realize what he was talking about.  Blew my mind.

Multi-tasking.  Notice the sippy cup under his arm.

So fast forward to today.  He was on the ambulance page and said, "Someone needs help" and I said yes and explained again what ambulances do and how they help people.  He said, "Someone's hurt."  And then, while patting his chest with his hand gently, he said, "Makes me sad" with a look of such compassion and concern that I just had to cry about it.  I said, with tear-filled eyes, "Buddy, that's so kind of you.  We send people lots of love from our hearts anytime they are hurt or need help, don't we?  And we pray that Jesus will take care of them and that they won't feel afraid."

There was a 2-3 second pause. 

And then he looked down at the toilet and said, "That's my brown poopy."  Indeed.  Thank you for pointing that out. 

I LOVE the way kids' minds work.  They are whole people - integrated.  The deep, emotional, stuff of life stuff intermingles seamlessly with the day-to-day basics like brown poop and whose it is.  I love this.  I think this is the way it should be.  There are two realities - the one we see and the deeper one we can't see - both going on at the same time, both intermingling, weaving their way in and through each other constantly.  Kids are somehow able to stay fully present to them both.  It doesn't even occur to them to live as if the two are disconnected. 

 

Guacamole Man