October 8 – “Getting schooled before school”

We were taken to school yesterday before we had to take Cailyn to school.  Sounds a bit confusing, but it’s not as difficult as all that.  She simply had something to teach us.  And watching her be the instructor was a lot easier than listening to her pine.  Yep.  She waxed sullen to me before she went in to get Chris out of bed.  As she sat next to me I heard a long sigh, obviously designed to get my attention, so I looked up.  She was indeed looking at me, but when she realized her ploy had been successful, she quickly ducked her head into an appropriately gloomy position.  She added one more sigh for good measure, then announced, “I want some kids to stay with me at my house.”  I asked, “Haven’t you had friends come to visit at your house before?” knowing, of course, that she had.  All that got me was one of her famous, “Oh, DadDad, you just don’t understand” kind of looks, as she added dreamily, “I wish I had a baby sister.  Then she could stay all the time.”  See why I was happy to have her go wake up Nani?  All I could muster was a feeble, “Baby Noa will grow up soon.” 

She did head for the bedroom right after that.  And I found out later that after showing off her new khaki long pants, she announced that she was hungry and headed for the kitchen.  It took Chris a little while to get dressed and join us.  By the tie she arrived, and asked what we wanted for breakfast, Cailyn had already entered my secret stash of honey buns I keep for a quick breakfast on Sunday mornings and devoured one of them.  So she wasn’t hungry.  Instead, she suggested something a bit more active.  I didn’t see the first trick, but it sounded like she turned some kind of somersault right behind me.  The movement caught my eye, so I stopped what I was doing and turned around to watch.  Then came the new learning experience: 

Cailyn: “Nani, I will teach you how to do tricks.”

Chris: “And what tricks will that be?”
Cailyn: “Well, first let’s talk about cartwheels.”  And she performed a cartwheel.  Not a bad one, either.
Chris: “I don’t know about cartwheels.”
Cailyn: “Well, first you have to just try.”

And there’s the rub.  She never could convince Chris to give it a try.  Of course I’m fairly certain Chris had one of two things in mind.  One was that they were in our office area and there was not very much room.  Two was that Chris tore her rotator cuff many years ago, and just the thought of raising her arm over her head causes her to cringe.  Now see?  I made no mention of the disparity in ages between the two of them.  I’m sure age had nothing to do with Chris’ decision to forego the cartwheel experience at that time.  It is probably a good thing that she never asked good ol’ DadDad to give it a try, though.  Surely there has to be a way.  If we moved the rocking chairs over just a little bit …

Psalms 115:11 says, “You who fear him, trust in the Lord — he is their help and shield.”

Father, thank you for cartwheels and baby sister dreams.  Help me to do more of that "just trying."  Amen.