Laura and I constantly revel in the wonderful sweet little girl
that is Olaia Kathryn. A more thoughtful, respectful, and
engaging little person we never could have imagined. Here are
two brief tiny looks into her personality:
When her first tooth fell out, she was excited. "Mommy,
mommy, my tooth fell out!" she exclaimed, a little bit
scared, a little bit elated. "Mommy, I’m going to put it
under my pillow and when the Tooth Fairy comes she will leave me
money?"
"Yes, Olaia, the Tooth Fairy will bring you money for your
tooth." She beamed.
Later, when the time came for bed, Olaia ran up to me
with a quarter in her hand. "Daddy, I want to leave this
for the Tooth Fairy. She works very hard, and I want to give this to her."
I laughed. What a sweet little girl. So empathetic.
I believed it had something to do with a TV commercial for a change
consolidation service in which there was depicted a harried, tired
Tooth Fairy weighed down with a huge bag of change. She falls
down the stairs and all of her coins go flying all over the
house. Later, while buying band-aids to patch up her scrapes and
bruises, she notices a change machine where she is able to
consolidate it into more easily carried paper money. I thought
to myself that Olaia must have remembered this and wanted to say
thank you to the Tooth Fairy for her hard work. She made sure
the money and tooth were carefully placed under her pillow and she
drifted off to sleep.
In the days preceding Halloween this year, Olaia, spent the
afternoons making many copies of a drawing. On one side was a
nighttime scene depicting a scary house, and on the other was a happy
house. She made ten copies of the drawing. I guess I was distracted, because I never asked her
directly what they were for. I mentioned that they were nice
though.
At our first trick-or-treat house, Olaia said, "Trick or
treat." After the woman had given out the handfuls of
candy to Olaia, the witch and Jaimito, the ghost, and turned to go
into the house, Olaia called out, "Wait. I have something
for you. On this side is a scary house for Halloween, and if
that’s too scary for you, on the other side is a nice house."
The woman was confused for a second. I stood there a bit
confused as well. Ahh, Laura and I thought at the moment.
"It’s a thank you card for the candy," we said. I remarked
that Olaia’s depth of consideration was so profound that she had even
given the card an alternative depiction for those easily scared.
The woman was most amused and grateful. "How beautiful
was the drawing. Thank you."
I wonder if anyone has ever thought to bring thank you cards
around with them on Halloween? I never did. Laura never
did.
Olaia did.
She is such a joy, Laura and I thank God every day that we get to
spent with her.