The Things Kids Notice

My grandmother on my Dad's side passed away last month.  Blair and I were actually at the airport on our way home from England when it happened. Yaya (Greek for "grandmother") was 80 and had been suffering extremely poor health for years, so it was a blessing when she was released.  But Yaya had lived the last twenty some years with my aunt and uncle, most recently at their condo in downtown Chicago.

This past weekend my sister and her husband took their son Jake, who will be 3 in October, to my aunt's house for a visit. Jake walked in the front door and ambled through the kitchen to the living room. He stopped in front of the chair where Yaya always sat. "Where is she?" he asked, pointing to the chair.

My sister was dumbfounded. It just hadn't occurred to her that he'd remember or notice Yaya wasn't there.

Since I'm rarely around kids, I'm always amazed at what they pick up on. One of my favorite stories about my niece Katlin is when she was right around Jake's age, 2 or 3, and we were visiting Blair's parents for Christmas. Katlin picked up a glass and I said, "No honey, put that down. That breaks very easily." And Katlin looked at me and said, "Fragile?"

Uh--yeah. But how did she know that?? Turns out her aunt and grandmother had been telling her that a lot of the glass ornaments on the tree were "fragile." And she remembered.

Visiting Trisha this weekend, her 8-year-old son Max introduced me to one of his friends. "This is my Aunt Dena. She lives in North Carolina." The friend, also 8, turned to me and said, "Wow. That must be really nice for you."

It was such an adult thing to say I almost expected him to follow up with a polite inquiry along the lines of, "So what are the property taxes like out there?" 

Katlin (now 11) comes to visit this weekend and thanks to my wonderful blog readers, I have a myriad of suggestions with which to entertain her. I'm looking forward to spending time with her. I had much fun hanging out with Max this weekend.  (Oh!  One last cute comment. I asked Max what he wanted to be when he grew up. "Ninja," he replied, not even looking up from his video game. I looked at Trisha. "Yeah, we've got no backup plan for that one," she said.)

Check me out, all hanging out with kids. I'll probably need a pitcher of martinis come Monday but at least I'm going into it with a positive attitude!

Everyone have a great day!