Quicksilver and I were walking out of the orchard and past the garden this afternoon. We were looking for ripe raspberries. There were some weed stalks leaning across our path. Some of them were Setaria faberi, Giant Foxtail.
"Pokey! Pokey!" Quicksilver said in alarm as she looked at the seed-head's awls.
"No, it is soft" I assured her. "That is Fox Tail."
I do my best not to talk down to kids. They are sponges for knowledge and by not speaking down at them means they can painlessly absorb a LOT of information.
Quicksilver likes to parrot back words.
She returned two syllables. The first syllable started with the "F" sound but the second syllable absolutely did not start with the "T" sound.
I repeated "Fox Tail" and Quicksilver returned "F" not "T" words.
Maybe it was my old ears. Maybe it was due to QS not being able to precisely form word-sounds. Maybe. Maybe not.
Hmmm! I need to do some soul searching. I am 96.7% sure she didn't hear it from me and 99.99% sure she didn't hear it from Mrs ERJ.
Sponges. Yes, absolute sponges.
Having grandbabies in your care is a delight we usually only appreciate after they are grown and gone. I wish I had some more.---ken
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