October 7 – “Chancho”

Cailyn has been around with us for a few days this week.  And as usual, I am learning more and more about the world according to a three-year-old girl. 

As we snuggled after she woke up in the morning, Cailyn shared yet another of her new words with me.  I asked what she wanted for breakfast, thinking she would go for one of her old favorites, frozen waffles.  She likes the blueberry kind.  Not me, by the way.  I prefer the plain old waffle flavored waffles myself.  She pondered the depths of the question for a long few moments before announcing, “I want for breakfast … chancho.”  Wait.  What?  I asked her to repeat it several times, and it came out exactly the same, though with varying degrees of chuckle accompanying it.  I finally could hold back my curiosity no longer.  I asked, “So what is chancho?”  With a flighty laugh, she assured me it was food.  In fact she added, “It tastes like apple pie stuff.”  Apple pie stuff.  Now that sounded right tasty, so I asked where I could get some of this chancho stuff.  Sadly, she informed me, “Sorry DadDad.  We only have it at our house, at my Mommy’s house.”  Ah, alas.  Would you save me some, April?  I’d really like to taste some of that chancho.

Later on that morning she was sitting in my lap at my desk as Facebook came up on the computer.  The very first picture in the new feed stream was a dog.  Cailyn immediately said, “Aw, poor doggie.”  Puzzled as to the depth of her emotion, I asked why she said that.  She replied, “The doggy just looks so sad.”  Now, that’s when I saw that this particular doggie had just died, and the owner was honoring its memory by posting the picture.  So wait.  Cailyn IS just three years old, isn’t she?  And she CAN’T read yet, can she?

She was in rare form at the wedding we attended last night.  I performed the ceremony and Nathan was a groomsman for one of the fire fighters, so Cailyn knew many of the people there.  And of course they were all trying to talk to her and interact in any way they could.  But Cailyn had eyes for one person only, and it wasn’t her DadDad.  It wasn’t her Daddy, either, although she had promised her Mommy that she wouldn’t cry out to Daddy or DadDad during the ceremony even if she wanted to talk to them.  No.  Cailyn had eyes only for the star of the show, the Princess, the Bride.  I told Nathan she was taking notes for her own wedding.  Isn’t that what girls start to do from the time they are born?  He wasn’t too happy about that thought.  He figures she’s too young to be thinking such thoughts … she’s not thirty yet.  The highlight of the evening came on the dance floor when the bride actually took Cailyn’s hands and danced with her.  Cailyn was in heaven.  That was better than Disneyworld.  She was dancing with an actual princess.  She rode home with me from the wedding – Cailyn, not the bride – and she never stopped talking about it.  She even tried singing some of the songs.  I don’t know the words, myself, but what I heard for the 45 minute drive home was, “To the right.  To the left.  Right.  Right.  Left.  Left.  Kick.  Kick.  Stomp your foot.  Hop.  Hop.  Hop.”  Any of that sound familiar? 

Psalms 33:20 says, “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.”

Father, walk with the bride and groom on their journey, and when they are ready bless them with the joys of a child of their own.  Amen.