Delightfully Surprised

Our kids often surprise us, don't they? Sometimes it's not always a nice surprise, but sometimes the surprises are delightful. Twice in the last few days I have been surprised at how "grown up" Cora is becoming. They were both good surprises and the kind I like to share with others.


Cora in her dress for her Preschool Christmas Program

The first was Christmas Eve. I was preparing food in the kitchen and noticed Peter toddle out of the kitchen towards the living room where Cora was playing. I heard her say, "No, that's not for Peter," but I ignored it, assuming it was a toy of hers that she didn't want him to have. I figured I'd give them a chance to work it out so I didn't even look at what it was. A minute later Cora repeated her reprimand, however kindly, and she calmly walked to me in the kitchen, handed me a lighter (!) and very matter-of-factly said, "Peter had this and the fireman said that this isn't a toy and it's only for adults. Peter shouldn't play with this." Can you imagine my shock?  I still have no idea where Peter got that from (yes, my kitchen was incredibly cluttered...but still!) but I am so thankful that Cora acted so grown-up. I probably overreacted a little bit because I praised Cora up and down and told her that she saved the day!

The second time was this afternoon. We went down the street to a neighbor's house and knocked on the door to ask if we could collect pine cones from under her pine tree. The house was recently sold to a new family and we hadn't met them yet. So when the woman came to the door, I introduced myself and told her what we were hoping to do. She kindly obliged, then bent down to Cora and said, "And who's this?" With no prompting, she replied, "Cora Beth Bierma. And this is my baby brother, Peter," pointing to the stroller. Judy, our neighbor said, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Cora. You may call me Miss Judy." Cora responded, "It's nice to meet you, Miss Judy." Yeah, I was beaming!