As we visit my sister’s place aka ‘Tampa’ in my four year old’s language, from Fort Lauderdale, aka ‘Amewica’, my kids get busy exploring their aunt’s house the moment we step in!
He briefly glances at his cousins’ friends, who’re in the age groups of 7-12, realizing he’s probably the youngest one there, when he puts his hands in the pockets of his shorts approaching them, asking how they were all doing. One of them responds, “Fine buddy, how’re you? How old are you big boy?” and he shows them with his hand held high, whispering “5”, abruptly turning around and looking at me with the corner of his eye and telling me in a softer, but easily audible to everyone in the room voice, “Mama I just told them I’m five, not four. Ok?” shushing me with his finger on his mouth to keep his secret and pretend that he’s in fact a big ‘gwown-up’ boy!
“Mama, please open this honey bottle for me.. “, climbing on the kitchen counter next he goes.
“Did you try love?” I ask. “Yes I did Mama, but I can’t, ‘so’ it’s too embawassing!”, he responds.
“What’s that my love? Too what?”
“Too emba-wa-sing Mama.. Please open it, I can’t!”
“I’ll certainly open it sweet, but I just didn’t get the ‘word’ you were saying.. I mean, why weren’t you able to open it bubba.. just repeat that for me please?”
“Mama, you don’t know what’s embawassing?!” continuing, “It just means too hard Mama .. I meant the jar was too hard to open.. that’s all Mama”.. And as my four year old’s eyes opened wide in awe that I didn’t know what the word ‘meant’, mine just somehow avoided total eye contact with his, to escape the “embarrassment” of being unable to help laughing out loudly, while he nibbled a bite of the pepperoni out of his favorite ‘macawoni’ pizza, commenting that he liked drinking ‘owange juice’ with pizza, just as his Dad liked ‘beard’ to go with certain foods!
While he continues to say that he doesn’t wanna be done with spring break yet and hopes that it’s ‘yesterday’ and not today that the school reopens, I share with you all the endless magic of this age that’s not going to last for too long, that this Mama’s mesmerized in completely!
Not a big fan of honey or pizza or beer, but the way these li’l things are expressed by my juicy li’l marshmallow guy, I do taste them all with just a pinch of his innocence and childhood making them the yummiest of all in the whole wide world.. still not yummier than my sweetest li’l bubba though!
NotesOfADrMom 