Observant

Today as we were driving through the Hudson Valley Zion said, "Look how pretty the trees are! Some of them are lellow, and some are orangen, and some are red, and some are green."

He's really starting to articulate an appreciation for beauty, which I find both delightful and amazing. Last week I was called out onto the deck after dinner to see something "very beautiful". When I got out there Zion pointed up over our neighbor's roof towards the dusky pink sky and said, "The sky is pink. Isn't it very beautiful?" This, I think, must be what people mean when they talk about kids getting you to slow down and appreciate the small things of the world. I kind of thought that was something only others were experiencing (or not at all- perhaps it was one of those public secrets!), since my kids, at least, tend to make much more mundane and repetitive observations before the age of 3 1/2. Of course, it doesn't all shift to moments of quiet beauty at the 42 month mark, but peace and awe apparently do start to squeeze in around then.

Liel, of course, is still in the less gorgeous stage of observation. Tonight she stood up from the potty and announced, "I pooped. Big one!" Robert suggests that this might be a simpler stage of appreciation, and I suppose he's right. A few years ago Leslie reported that Annemarie (then about 2 1/2, but 4 years old today!) peered into the toilet after she'd used it one day and announced its contents to resemble a snake. Leslie obligingly took a look and agreed that yes, it did look like a snake. Annemarie stared into the toilet. "It's beautiful!", she whispered.