I Chase My Sorrows...

This is Liv Baez.

Cracked me up today as she dragged her pink girlie guitar into the kitchen, plopped down, and assumed perfect guitar form, even for a lefty. (By the way, Liv, David Cook is a lefty, too.)

Very astutely, she began to strum and broke into musical melodrama:

"I chase my sorrows...." strum, strum, strum.

I looked around, half expecting a bunch of guys in cowboy hats with shotguns and beer mugs to come out of the woodwork. Surely I was sleeping in some kind of country-western dream. Nope. No rusted out pick-up trucks. And for the life of me, I couldn't imagine where she had picked this up; though I do like a little country song now and again, it doesn't take precedence over "Boom Boom Makes it Great to be Crazy" and other Boppin Preschool Favorites on the CD player in the van.

As she started a second verse, I realized that this sorrow chasing somehow fit in with a song she must have learned during Bible time at K4J Preschool because the words led into something I can't completely recall about giving everything to Jesus. Kind of deep stuff for a mere three years, but very sweet and endearing nonetheless.

Still, this very grown-up interlude was a bit of a wake-up call. I have a feeling that the grown-up-ness will continue to come more quickly than I would like.

Case in point:

1) For the first time today, I heard Liv utter the phrase "IT"S NOT FAIR!" Not just once. Mutiple times. Yep..... she certainly left me standing still. I thought that was at least another year away. So, I did what every good mother does: I stalled. "This is sad, Liv" and then I locked myself in the bathroom to think about I was going to respond to this phrase, which I am sure she has tucked away in her brain for futre artillery.

2) As we were driving home from swimming lessons tonight, she found it quite entertaining to tap the cell phone charger against the window, and then the edge of the car seat. "Mom, do you like this one (clink clink clink) or this one (tap tap tap)?"

"Liv, I think I like the second one much better---the tap tap tap against the car seat. It is a much prettier sound than the tapping against the window." You follow my thoughts here....visions of shattered glass....

So, of course, the next thing I hear: clink, clink clink against the window. Before I even got turned halfway around to check the integrity of the glass, I heard, in her very stern voice, "Mom, don't you look at me like that."

So, though her three year check this last week with Dr. Cicero was filled with his awe at how fast her little neurons are firing, you can see that the cost is that some of her innocence is already prematurely gone.

Perhaps I should be the one strumming the guitar and chasing my sorrows.

Okay, check that. I think I'll keep my Liv just the way she is....otherwise I would miss out on quite a little zest and quite a lot of great storytelling.