I love seeing the slow unfolding of my children’s minds. I love when I see the process of a new connection forming. I’m blown out of the water though, when I couldn’t see it coming and it’s suddenly presented to me out of seemingly nowhere. This happened earlier this year when Zuzu sat down one day and wrote “hat” in clear legible lettering with no prompting or cueing. Earlier in the week of December 19, she stunned me again when on the ride home from school she bubbled out a request for a trip to Paris. “Paris?” I questioned?

“Yes, Momma- I want to see the tower for myself!” she quipped.

“The Eiffel Tower in Paris?” Yes she confirmed as I went on to explain that it would take an entire day to get to Paris and that would be quite difficult for the littlest of the littles to hold still and quiet for such a voyage.

Zuzu nodded thoughtfully and declared, “ Then we will go when I’m 10! The Quail will be 7 and Sugarplum will be 4!”

Math. This ridiculously articulate little girl had done math on her own! Brilliant! So mature! Clearly the next Einstein! As I was quietly preening in the front seat over my prodigious progeny, she then announced she kissed two boys earlier that day. You could have heard a pin drop while I struggled for the right response to my 5 year old. I mentally reminded myself to not make a huge deal out of this, that while I could hear the glee in her voice, she does not have the sophistication to have it mean to her what it means in my mind. That said, I did ask what happened, who was involved and issued a reminder of the rules in place in Ms. Jan’s class that involves “No boyfriends/girlfriends allowed.” All the while kicking myself for my earlier laughing off of this rule from 2 years ago when I first heard of it and deemed it silly. It also was not lost on me that this event of 2 separate boys asking her to kiss them coincided with the mixing of her class with a full day of the after-schoolers  presence who in light of the 2 week holiday break from their cosmopolitan elementary world had rejoined the 4 year olds that very day.

As I regaled this news to Lovey during the girl’s bathtime that evening I couched it in Fred Eaglesmith terms, “Time to get your gun.” Sigh…