There is nothing more wonderful than the wisdom of a 5-year-old.
Just recently, I have had the pleasure of welcoming a little boy in to my home a few days of the week. Liam is in kindergarten, and on the days he doesn’t go to school, he comes here, bringing his wonderful smile along with him.
I had forgotten how wise being 5 really is.
“Make sure you color INSIDE the lines,” Liam reminded me as we set up the dining room table as our art class. “It won’t be good if you just go real fast. And that turkey pheasant you are coloring has to be brown. It wouldn’t be right if you colored it purple, silly!”
Liam just turned 5 in August. He told me that now he is big enough to ride all of the rides at the big ride places. When I reminded him to buckle up his safety belt on those rides, he looked at me with total disbelief.
“I won’t need to do that now. I weigh FIVE pounds now! I’m HEAVY!”
Liam’s mom and aunt have recently opened an Italian restaurant, and he said it is their good cooking that has made him grow so big and strong.
“What is your very favorite thing that they make?” I asked this blond-haired, blue-eyed cutie.
He thought for a very long time, then answered, “Meat. And cake.”
That pretty much covers two very important food groups!
Yesterday, just out of the blue, Liam said, “You really should shop at Sears.” I said, “Hmmmm… why Sears?”
He dropped his head, his jaw dropped open, looked me right in the eye and said, “BECAUSE! They have the BEST stuff at that store. You just wouldn’t even believe it!”
Liam has taken an incredible liking to Cort, and tells me quite often that Cort would be very, very upset if he didn’t come to our house anymore.
“I think maybe I should just not go to school tomorrow and come here instead,” he said one day. I reminded him that his teacher would be very upset, because she needs him at school. “Yeah, she needs me pretty bad. I help her with all kinds of stuff.”
One day, his swimming trunks and towel in hand, he said, “Hey, let’s go swimming!” I said, “I don’t think we’ll get to go swimming today. It’s pretty cold today.”
“Nooooo,” he said, a built-in chuckle making his adorable voice even more adorable, “it’s warming down out there, silly!”
The world is filled with wonder. All you have to do is view it through Liam’s clear blue eyes.
A trip to the pet store found us staring at “baby dinosaurs” in the lizard pen. A trip to the library was beyond thrilling, as we found “thousands” of books on dinosaurs, free for the borrowing.
“Don’t you be afraid of dinosaurs,” Liam said to me very sweetly. “If they come to your house, I will protect you. You are my best friend!”
The sight of a policeman prompted Liam to report, “The police are good guys and they keep the bad guys from hurting us.” So I asked, “I have always wondered… why do you think there are bad guys?”
“There are bad guys because somebody was mean to them and it made them get mean. Now you know!”
Yeah, now I know… I am learning a whole lot from my new friend Liam.
