Tears & Laughter: Don't get cute with me

Granddaughter Lauren recently competed for the title of Future Miss Abbeville Christian at Abbeville Christian Academy where she is enrolled in the Pre-K program. Her mother is a teacher.

She was wearing a lovely dress, sporting her pageant smile, and walking the walk she had practiced walking.

Earlier in the afternoon she’d had her had done by a woman in town. Everybody told her she was pretty.

She stood confident before an auditorium of parents and obligated grandparents and when asked what she intends to be when she grows up, she told the judges without hesitation, “A mermaid.”

She won.

They likely knew she had no more of a chance of becoming a mermaid than some of the others who had answered saying they wanted to become actresses, doctors, and lawyers, but…she got cute with them.

I was over at one of my daughter’s houses recently. I was holding our latest baby granddaughter, Olivia, in the living room. I could overhear a boardgame of Guess Who that was being played behind me in the dining room by granddaughter Emmelyn and a group of her friends and cousins she had drafted to play too.

I could hear the process of elimination questions being volleyed back and forth – are they wearing glasses? Is he wearing a hat? Does she have on a scarf? Is it a guy or a girl? And with clues collected Emmelyn soon announced that she was ready to guess who.

Only she isn’t quite old enough to know how to read yet, and then, she went and got cute. I heard her sweet voice spell it out asking, “Is it J-O-E?”

She won.

There was a picture taken, to hold the moment in time. Grandson William, who is only three, standing silently in front of the bassinet where his baby sister was sleeping. His hands held behind his back as if to say, “I’m not touching.” He stands, leaning in slightly, watching over her, both guarding and admiring.

None of us expected him to be so taken with her. He does not have the words yet to express his love, but his expression tells us. No matter who holds her, he wants to come and put his cheek against hers. He is trying to be cute.

His twin brother, Walker, loves his little sister too, but not the way he loves dirt and tractors. The only thing that was keeping his forehead from being planted into the dirt, was the forearm it was resting on.

He had himself eyeball level with the toy John Deer tractor he was pushing. He had no awareness of anyone or anything else going on around him. I think this may be how future farmers get started.

Either that, or this boy is trying to get cute with me. It seems to be becoming a trend.