I watch her there, coloring on the floor, and all of a sudden I am overwhelmed- how is it that my baby boy has had a baby girl of his own- and how is it possible that his baby girl is... no longer a baby?
"You see, Gramma, it's very important to be careful with the crayons," her voice is prim as only a seven-year-old instructing her elders can be, and she is almost comically articulate. "You have to color with them at the proper angle, so that their tips stay slanted like lipstick." She carefully replaces the 'marigold' she's used for the curly hair of the fashion doll in the coloring book, then draws out the 'strawberry' to begin filling in smiling lips. The two shades look lovely together; she has an eye for color, that girl. Something she got from her mother, for it certainly didn't come from our side.
You would think that after having three children of my own I would no longer be so surprised by the unique blending of traits that creates an entirely new person... but I am. I cannot help but marvel at the way this new person combines my son's blue-gray eyes with his wife's solemn gaze, or how the pale, freckled skin she got from her father stretches across the delicate bone structure that is her heritage from her mother.
She continues to work, oblivious to my musings; she has already filled in two images, and has begun work on a third. I smile at her coltish limbs, sticking out at awkward angles as she chews on her lip in speculation, considering her next color. She is not even a sixth of my age- how can she be so focused?
As I think this she dumps out all the crayons onto the floor and then picks them up one by one until they form a kind of technicolor bouquet in her small fist. Then, much to my amusement, she turns to a blank page in the coloring book, presses them all point-down against it, and draws a looping swirl.
"What happened to being careful about the angle? I ask, amused.
"Well Gramma," her voice every bit as serious as it was during her earlier lecture, "sometimes you just have to have fun."
(Crayola Rocks)
What a grand tale, with a great ending. And as always it goes great with your hubby's picture.
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