Observant

The Freestone boys are observant. They notice details, ask questions, and get right up close to the action to figure things out. When Henry was about 18 months old he and I were at a playground where children were riding a merry-go-round. Henry rode the carousel, got off, and stood a few feet away and watched it for a minute. He then got down on the ground, prostrate, and watched the mechanism under the merry-go-round. For a few minutes he watched it like this going round and round while kids played. I suppose he was curious about how it spun, maybe why it seemed a float, I don't know, but he was curious, observant.

We were just at Meijer last week, doing a store tour. We were in the back where the trucks unload their cargo, and a lady watching Theo noticed he was staring at the ceiling, his eyes darting from the rafters to the lights to the shelving, just checking everything out, even straining his neck to see things as we walked around. She said, "This boy's gonna be an engineer some day. He's just checking everything out."

Recently while Henry and I were baking he sneaked away from the kitchen and was very quiet in the living room. After a few minutes I wondered what he was up to (hoping it wasn't a potty accident) and was pleasantly surprised to find him:


"Reading" The Way Things Work by David Macaulay. This book was Todd's when he was a kid and Henry loves to look at it.


But he doesn't like me to look at him looking at it.


And he especially doesn't like me taking pictures of him. Sorry kiddo--you're too cute.

Much like their father, these boys continue to amaze me. They are creative minds. They manipulate, observe, test, and build. Always creating; always asking questions.

A few days ago we were returning from a morning walk and Henry turned and exclaimed,
"Look at the E from above!"
"What are you talking about?" I asked, totally confused.
"Look," pointing to the sidewalk, "See?"


It took me a second, but yep--I saw it.
"Wow, Henry, what an observation!"
"Why is it like that?", he asks.
"Oh, well, the sun is rising over that way", pointing to the East, "And the building is blocking the sun from shining on the whole sidewalk, and if you look at the windows on the building you see that they stick out farther than the roof--in the shape of an E. The sunshine and the shadow of the roof make an E appear on the side walk."
He gets pretty excited about these things and at the end of my lengthy explanation he was waving his hands, "Yeah, it's like a shadow, an E shadow!"

Another thing Henry has been curious about recently is signs--specifically warning, caution, or "No ________ " signs (the ones that have a picture with a circle and a line through it). Every sign he sees he asks what it means and why.


After a long walk to the construction site where "Henry's new school" is being built (at least we're hoping it's his school when he turns 5--where we live, your school isn't definitely determined by proximity) we came home and he wanted to make a construction zone. So, I made a mediocre caution sign and he was satisfied. He got to work playing with his cars and diggers and tractors while I washed dishes. When I had finished I found him with all his cars lined up, facing the sign. It reminded me of Henry way back when.

These boys are so much like their father (it thrills me, really), but perhaps they do have a little bit of me in them. Would you guess that I like order??? Like maybe too much sometimes?

And, for the sake of random--Theo's new game:

Shall we sign him up for lacrosse just yet?