Sunflowers and Berries

Jordan is my 5 year old and she is such a joy in my life on most days. She is so different from the boys. She seems to have actual THOUGHTS and she actually expresses them. The boys have thoughts but there is only so much I care to know about runescape or pokemon. Maybe that makes me a bad mom or maybe the reason is much more simple - as children and parents we have to find things to bond over. The boys share their computer gaming love with their Dad - who also thinks it might interest me to know how many bronze swords he bought and that he stole silk scarves from the vendor but now can't sell them because they are stolen. It doesn't interest me.

Jordan's conversations do interest me though. Two recent conversations stick out in my mind. One was while watching "The Weakest Link". I am a trivia junkie and while Jordan can't figure out how the tv can hear me when I am telling them the answers she has put some thought in to a few other things. The other day there was a contestant named Barry.

Jordan: "Barry?"

Mom: "yes, Barry"

Jordan: "Barry???"

Mom: "yes the man's name is Barry."

Jordan: "Like blackberry?"

Mom: "oh no - not like blackberry - the man's name is B-A-RRY. Blackberry is B-E-RRY. Funny isn't it that it sounds the same but it is different?"

A few minutes pass

Jordan: "so what about bury in the dirt is that different?"

This is when I am beaming. Seriously, I taught 7th grade English and some of those kids couldn't figure out there could be 3 different words that sound the same but are all spelled different and here my 5 year old has done it. Proud moment.

Our second conversation was about Sunflowers. Specific sunflowers actually. Jordan came home from school with a simple request: Can we go to Amsterdam and go to the museum that has the paintings of the sunflowers?

I love that in school her teacher read her a picture book about VanGogh and his sunflowers and she actually enjoyed it enough to ask to go there. As luck would have it for me, but not for her, I am going to Amsterdam next week. I made a promise to buy her a postcard with the sunflower paintings on it. That seems to have made her happy.

I can only hope that through the years we'll have more little conversations like these. While I know I'm still going to have to hear about how many adamant points they have and how far away they are from becoming full rune when I talk with the boys maybe I can hope that someday they might want to see the sunflowers in that museum in Amsterdam.