One of the best things about having a child is the opportunity to see that child learn and grow. Even the little things - when they first smile, when they first use their hands. And every once in a while, they really astonish you. Tonight I had two such moments with our daughter.
I got home from work and she and I were treasure hunting through my work bag. Out of nowhere, she says "Cake!". I said "We don't have any cake." She looked at me, as if to say "You fool" got up, went to my bookshelf full of no fewer than 75+ cookbooks and fished out At Home with Magnolia. She brought it to me, pointed to the cover and said "cake!"
I was a little speechless. I knew she knew the word "cake." I did not realize that at age not quite 21 months she would somehow know THAT cookbook and associate it with cake, let alone be able to fish it out of a crowd. I had never shown it to her before. She then got up, went back over to the shelf and picked out none other than More From Magnolia. She came back, said "Lap!", sat down on my lap, and we paged through the cookbooks looking at cakes as if we were reading Mother Goose. I go to bed with cookbooks too. Clearly, this trait runs in the family.
And clearly, my girl likes cake.
And further evidence she is not one to deprive herself of the great pleasure of life, this weekend in the car she pointed her little barefoot foot of hers at me and said "sagge?" as in "massage." And tonight as I rubbed her back before turning out the light, she said "sagge" once again.
Clever girl. No doubt she is her mother and father's daughter.
