October 18, 2006
Awesome Dawson
If anyone would have told me years ago, that I would have a beautiful, smart, intelligent son, I would have said, “Don’t I know it!” Okay, I’d probably have laughed and smiled and secretly hoped they were right, but I now know that Dawson is far too brilliant to be my child. Not to put myself down, but he amazes me every single day, and I often wonder where he got his smart genes from! It can’t be Doug, can it? It has to be me, but I’m soooo not sure. Maybe his brilliance comes from each of his parents.
I first noticed that my son was brilliant at the local library. We visit the Portage County Library or PoCoLi, as I like to call it, every Monday.
Dawson loves the library because he has a wonderful time playing with the gigantic table of Lego Blocks and he has such fun meeting other children who happen to be there as well. He also loves to pick out his own books. His favorites are anything about tractors, trucks and school buses.
I love the library because in all honesty, I can leave my child somewhat unattended with the Legos (the Plover branch is so small that every “department” is on the same floor) as I scour the shelves for a new book to read. Okay let’s face it, I get a solid ten minutes of peace and quiet before the Doodlebug yells “Mumma” thirty times in a row for my attention.
This past Monday, Dawson wanted me to play with the blogs blocks with him. I agreed. We stacked and stacked these vibrant colored blocks to make towers and castles and after a few minutes I noticed Dawson was bored. He walked over to a corner in the play area and carried out a Little People Farm circa 1990 (it was much older than the one we have at home, but still had the little animals inside) and proceeded to ask me what each animal was.
“Mumma, wha’s dis?”
“That’s a pig.”
“A peeeg?”
“Yes, that’s a pig. Let me ask you, what’s this?” I pointed to a sheep.
“Mmm, Mumma, das a baaaaaaa.” He made the sound of a sheep.
“Yes, that is a sheep.” I said proudly. “You’re a very smart boy.”
After Dawson took each animal out of the barn and we named the sheep, horse, cow, pig and puppy (I don’t think this one went with the barn, but farms have dogs, don’t they?) I asked Dawson to put each animal back in it’s stable (or whatever they call them). When he put them in their respective places, he laid each animal on it’s side. I made the mistake of standing up the animals in their pens.
“No! Mumma! No!” Dawson said firmly.
“What? What’s the matter? The animals need to go back into the barn.”
Dawson took each animal and put them back on their sides.
“Dawson, why are the animals laying down?” I asked.
“Mumma, dis go nigh-nigh. Shhh.” And he closed the barn door and put the barn back in the toy corner.
I was stunned and speechless. My child knew that animals lay down to go to sleep. For the first time I realized that my mind is programmed for adult logic.
When did I stop being a kid? How could I not see that the animals were going to sleep? Have I not been paying attention all these months?
When we got home, I put Dawson down for a nap and I looked into his toy box at his own Little People Farm. Each animal was in his own pen, laying down, naturally. I smiled and looked at my Doodlebug.
“I love you little one. You taught me to think like a kid today. Thank you.” And I blew him a kiss.
“Nigh-nigh, Mumma. Sshhh!” he said as I closed the door.
Posted by Dana @ 11:03 am • Uncategorized
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October 18th, 2006 at 12:09 pm, tanilan Says:
Ohhhh! He’s so adorable. It’s amazing what those little precious ones think and do.
October 19th, 2006 at 1:11 am, clair Says:
Aww that’s too cute :). I just lo-ove these moments, they just totally blow you away, don’t they?
October 19th, 2006 at 8:17 am, Dana Says:
He just makes me think. And I just can’t help but wonder where he learns some of this stuff!