I had tears streaming down my face last night. I just couldn’t stop laughing. And it was a collision of juxtapositions that did it.
My grand daughter is about to turn two, and is full of life, and learning fast how to get what she wants from her doting grandparents, uncles and aunties.
It is beautiful to watch her learn, language, the world around her. Action packed days, unbelievable.
So for most of my own children’s lives, there has often been competition for time on the computer. Most of the time, we had just the one computer in our family.
So it still like that a bit today, especially when the boys get a new game.
Two year old Tzipora grabbed my hand and dragged me into my son’s room. She told her Dad, that “Mama wants you,” and dislodged him from the computer. Hard on his heels to take a turn was his younger brother. He was quickly grasped by the hand and dragged out of the room. She took me to the computer and said “puppies”. She wanted me to play her You Tube clips of puppies playing.
My sons are now standing gawkishly in the doorway, outstrategised, beaten at their own game, and thrown off the computer. They stood helpless, stunned and not sure whether to laugh or react.
That set me off. I just couldn’t stop laughing, for hours. It was her innocence, her smarts, and their bewilderment that got me.
All those years I couldn’t get them to do what I wanted. And a toddler manages to order them around.
And the contrast, of a little, only just verbal, child, able to order around these two big men.
It was powerful juxtaposition, my own embedded memories, and the natural way the whole scenario unfolded. I am still chuckling today.