Despite not having tv, Rory knows and loves Cookie Monster. Just about every night when Chris gets home, she tackles him and says something to the effect of "Daddy sit down right now watch Cookie Monster on your 'puter." Thank you Daddy and YouTube.
Well, today we were at the venerable establishment of Target, and after escaping with only $30 in damage (thanks mostly to a gift card that covered the other $___), we headed out to the parking lot. We got to the car and I started the ridiculous task of unloading stuff and kids and reloading the car. While I'm putting Liberty in, Rory starts hollering, "Mommy, look! Over there! Look at him! Mommy LOOOOOOOK!"
So I look.
And I panic.
Because she is pointing and hollering at an adult with Down's Syndrome who is waiting to get into his car.
I immediately start trying to shush her, because I didn't want (obviously) anyone to think that she was being rude on purpose by hollering and pointing at this particular individual. I'm saying something to the effect of "Rory! It's not nice to point and yell at people! Please hush! That's not nice!"
Then, she says, LOUDER, since I'm obviously not listening to her, "NO MOMMY! LOOK! IT'S COOKIE MONSTER!!!! I LOVE HIM!!!!"
So I look again, and realize that indeed the guy has on a shirt with Cookie's face on it. So to Rory, it totally looked like Cookie Monster was chilling in the Target parking lot.
I started giggling because you know what? It was funny. Rory didn't notice anything about him other than his striking resemblance to Cookie Monster. I felt pretty dumb, embarrassed about my own shortsightedness, but ultimately relieved when after hearing the entire exchange, the man yelled across the parking lot back to Rory:
"Cookie Monster loves you too!" Bless him. It absolutely made her WEEK.
I know I'm probably making more out of this than it was, but I was reminded of how innocently kids see the world. I was sad that I simplified him down to "Down's Syndrome" when clearly that was the least noticeable thing about him, at least to my little girl. I'm going to take one from her book and try and see the big picture a lot more often.
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It's because as adults we've kind of been trained to be sensitive to other people, and we notice a difference in people that children do not. I would've did the same thing. And you know what? The comment he made back to her got me choked up. To him, he knew that he and Rory had the same love for Cookie. ;) Awesome post.
ReplyDeleteaw, that's the sweetest thing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post. Too often I am more worried that somehow MY reaction will make a reaction in LM. I haven't had to react to HIS reaction (or lack of one yet). Just goes to show that at this age, differences are NOT as obvious as we think they are.
ReplyDeleteI came over here from Carrie's blog - Just wanted to say that was beautiful. I know I am a month late... but I just stumbled upon it and had to comment.
ReplyDeleteI love how our children see the world!