Beau's Baby Lessons

Beau focused on the cash register in front of him.  Madly pecking at the register keys, suddenly, and to his great delight, the cash drawer opened, revealing a large amount of paper dollars, which Beau quickly grabbed. Well, as many dollars as his tiny hands could grasp.  He rose from the floor and with that slight “drunken sailor” waddle of his age group, he held up the money for me to take.  I had no need of the play money in my wallet, but I took it nonetheless, thankful for the gesture. Meanwhile, grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, all looked on quite approvingly.  Beau had discovered the real joy of money: giving it away expecting nothing in return.

He returned to his favorite toy of the moment only to find the drawer closed. Mom!  But it was with a purpose, for there was one key which opened the cash register drawer. It was larger than all of the other keys and it had the letters O-P-E-N on it.  However, Beau is not yet either a talker nor a reader, so his Momma took his chubby little hand (cute “chub”, but chubby nonetheless) and placed it on the OPEN key. After a few tries Beau discovered the joy of finding the right key.  And the whole process of grabbing the cash and distributing it generously began again. And Beau had taught another lesson: the best thing a parent can teach a child is the joy of discovering the right key.  The key to joy is sometimes randomly found, but life is so much simpler if we know where to look, and if rather than someone pressing it for us, we learn to do it alone.

But then it was time to go home.  So while dad was gathering up the renegade older brothers mom found a wet cloth and hunkered down next to Beau. Beau’s face needed a cleaning after a hard play time, so mom took the wet cloth and gently pressed it to his face.  As she did so she scrunched up her own face and made those sounds moms make when they are cleaning their precious child’s face.  Beau took the cleaning in stride, not real happy about it during the process, but, although he may not know it yet, he felt so much better with a dirt-free face.  Sometimes, Beau was learning, you just have to allow someone to teach you the joy of fresh water washing away the dirt.

Generosity. Independence. Baptism.

Thanks for the lessons, Beau.