brains

One thing I've noticed about the girls growing up is that I am consistently surprised when they start thinking for themselves. Now I don't mean, like how J has decided that he was going to start walking, or how he usually chooses to walk to the spot that holds the most danger ie. stove, stairs, snake pit (if we had one) etc. No, I mean when their brains do some serious deep (in my opinion) higher order thinking skills. Here are my two examples from today alone:

T was running errands with the girls and called from the car. He asked if Dave Matthews wrote the song "Long Black Veil." I said no, it's a remake of what I believe is a Johnny Cash song. He said that after a little way into the song, E had asked who was singing, and Tom said Dave (ya know like we know 'im) and E expressed that that was interesting because it really wasn't his "usual style." Now I know I listen to a LOT of DMB, but she is so right on with that observation. But like the casual listener or (so I thought) the average 7 year-old wouldn't pick that up.

Later at lunch, K asked me, as she drew in the air with her index finger, "what's that letter with the line going down and the little hump? I replied that it's either an "h" or an "n" depending on how long the line was (she's a little iffy on the lower-casers). When I asked why, she indicated that she was reading the letters on the cup from which I was drinking. I said oh, those are the letters of my name (it was a "K" coffee mug, one of the many mugs in my collection thanks to eleven years of teaching...#1 most popular teacher gift). So she starts spelling it and talking about how my name is K and T name is T. (she finds it interesting that we have names other than Mommy and Daddy). T says, so K you're tossing around our first names a lot lately, that's not how you address us, you know.
K response, sarcasm oozing: "Okay.....MR. R" HYS-terical.

I wonder if I am going to be so fascinated and bemused ten years from now when my *cringe* teenagers are exerting all their "independent thinking."