One of my favorite things about kids is that they don’t know any better

Especially the youngest ones

They are totally unaware of the change around us

They have a mom who feeds and clothes and bathes them still

A dad who tucks them in and says the Lord’s Prayer

A warm home and the same toys

The same blue (or gray in our case) sky overhead

The same fears about the boogey man in the closet

The same master bed to run to from the boogey man

And this lack of knowing leaves them so much more open for discovery than us adults

They are not dwelling in uncertainty and anxiety

They are not bothered by the news

Their eyes are open to all the possibilities around their very small world

My best example of this is one of my favorite stories

It was when our second oldest girl was a preschooler

We were at the end of our driveway waiting for the bus to come pick up the school kids one early morning

It was a busy time, we had a first, second, and third grader who were running around playing tag, plus a 3, 2, and 1 year old in the triple jogger

And the 4 year old quietly playing in the gravel by herself

The big yellow noisy bus roared up and screeched to a stop for the kids to get on

They waited for the signal to cross the road

We waved them off heartily

And then turned to walk back to the house

And I would have missed it if I hadn’t had to look down to say

‘Let’s go’ to the 4 year old

She was in a crouch in the gravel

Over a good size mound

Of pink rocks

Beautiful pale pile of pink rocks

I always thought gravel was gray

But I had never told the four year old

Maybe if someone had convinced her gravel was gray she would have never taken a closer look and found the pink