Through Little Eyes

My friend Monica and I were lamenting the other day how our youngest children seem to act so much older than our oldest children did at the same age. Being youngest in a family has got to be a totally different experience than being among the oldest. Tim and Tabitha have a different view of the world than their older siblings did. They are exposed to a lot more activities, movies, and people and places than they were. Not just more, but different.

Although they do still posses the innocence of little children, they have a tolerance for things that would have terrified their siblings at their age. They will sit calmly through the movie Jurassic Park and then draw pictures of rainbow colored dinosaurs when the movie is over. We would NEVER have shown this movie to our three oldest at this age. Jeremy used to hide behind the couch and cry when Pooh Bear got stuck in Rabbit's front door.

In some ways this worries me. They are much more graphic about things at a young age also. For example they have been known to sing, "Three little monkeys jumping on the bed. One falls off and cracks his head and blood comes out." I swear they don't watch anything gorier than Jurassic Park (the first one, the least disgusting of the series). And here is a lovely picture Tabitha colored at church. It is supposed to be a picture of two kids sharing. Her interpretation: Tim is sharing his blocks with me and I am throwing up on them. Notice the rainbow colored barf?
And of course they pick up language. Luckily we don't use any expletives in our house that would warrant embarrassment if a little one blurted them out in public, but it really cracks us up when one of the twins stops in their tracks and exclaims, "What the heck?" And they are great name callers, "You poo poo!" being the most prevalent insult.


It's not all bad. They have a lot of confidence and understanding of the world around them and how things work. They also have a strong grip on what is reality and what is pretend, hence being able to watch Jurassic Park and not be traumatised. They learn how to do a lot from their older siblings from teasing to acting like they are doing homework. They get to tag along to their siblings' activities and schools and see what the world is like after preschool. They look forward to doing the things that the big kids do, and "practice" being big kids through their play.


There are other things that are different that I just can't seem to put my finger on, but make me wonder, "Did my other kids do this, act like this, were they interested in this, at this age?" Part of it could just be personality. Both have strong personalities and opinions. But I think experience has had an impact too. Ever since Grandpa Mac passed away almost a year ago Tabitha has asked many, many questions about him and where he is with Jesus (Is he in outer space?). She talks about Jesus a lot and asks if he created this or that (cars, flowers) and if he knows what we are thinking. Some of her questions seem awfully deep for a four year old.


Drawing out all these examples in writing makes me worried that they sound like disturbed children! Then, just as I typed the last sentence, Charity walked in the room and confessed she ripped Tabitha's night gown. How? "I was trying grab her and stuff paper in her mouth." Okay, so maybe they really are just learning from the best. Or maybe they are all disturbed.