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I Didn't Know


After a most lovely weekend with Pumpkin, I was prepared to share with you some exciting news of Pumpkin’s brilliance and her depth of spirit. I was armed with the charming story of her learning where her nose was. That’s right, now you can ask and she can point to her nose, point to mommy’s nose, daddy’s nose, pop’s nose…you get the picture.

I was also going to tell you a heartwarming tale about Pumpkin’s beautiful soul and how she finds the utter joy in the simplest of life’s pleasure. I was going to wax philosophic about my thoughts as I watched Pumpkin splash in a puddle for an hour this weekend, as happy as a lark. I was going to speculate on my own lack of appreciation for things like puddles, which I go out of my way to avoid. I’d wrap it up with yet another reminder by Pumpkin of not taking the little things for granted and then let you ooh and aah over a picture.

That was what I was going to do.

Then, last night, Pumpkin absolutely blew my mind.

Seriously, blew my mind.

Not like the time that she knew what a bath was, or identified a red ball. Not even like the first time she said mama and meant it.

Last night she REALLY. BLEW. MY. MIND.

We were laying around before bed and she kept reaching for the I-Pad. Now, she does have a few “games” apps downloaded, which consist mostly of annoying music and bright dancing animals that she watches and laughs at, while I navigate the controls. I thought maybe she wanted to “play” one of those. Dance Star Mickey is always a big hit. So, I start to flip the thing on and she reaches over and takes it out of my hand. She then proceeds to show me a small button in the bottom corner of the lock screen. I had never seen the button before. Knowing just what to do, she reached over, pressed the button with one very rigid and determined pointer finger, and made the picture on the screen (a photo of her, of course) change to another picture in my album (another photo of her, of course). She continued to push it, revealing more and more photos (of herself), and looked at me proudly as I sat silently but still spastically freaking out with excitement.

At 14 months my child literally taught me something about the computer. I figured maybe at 14 years, but not this early. She’s a genius! And this wasn’t like the time she emailed my paralegal a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse video on the night before trial. This was intentional, deliberate, thought out. She loves to see pictures of herself and somehow she figured out how to do it (and in a way that I didn’t even know about).

So, like I said, my child is a genius. I sort of got that hint Saturday when I was trying to show her how her race car track worked and the cars kept flying off the track when I sent them down, yet she was able to perfectly get them around the track every single time. I chalked that one up to more patience and a slower hand. But now with the added technological aspect, I’m convinced. Certified genius. I know, I know, it’s not a cure for cancer or a cleaner burning fuel, but I have no doubt if that’s what she wants to do, one day she will.

All of that is not to say that those other stories I was going to share aren’t still true. Those moments are still the ones that make life worth living. Every single day she amazes me with her growth, her curiosity, and her love and she warms my heart and daily teaches me what is really important. She constantly reminds me that it is moments like the picture below of her in the wagon, having the absolute time of her life on a random Tuesday afternoon at pop’s or the one above of her showing off her new Mickey Mouse t-shirt from ganny, that really make life worth living. Now, that’s not to say that I won’t also take the free IT advice, of course, but I’ll take it with the knowledge that there is so much more to life than that.

I think Lucinda said it best:

"I didn't know
what love meant before
I didn't know
what you had waiting for me in store
I didn't know
that I'd be finding out so much more
…
I didn't know
I'd never look at life the same
I didn't know
until i walked with you in the rain
…
I didn't know
until you touched my soul that day
I didn't know
that you would teach me in your own way"

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