Monday Memory....Grapefruit Wisdom!

Becky and Suzy
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

This is a picture of my darling daughters when they were really young. Mr. Wonderful and I were hardly kids when they were born but in many ways we grew up with them. It's amazing how much smarter we are now.

When Grrrl was born we thought she was the smartest, cutest baby ever born and spent hours just looking at her. She was a constant source of wonder and delight. We found ourselves talking baby talk and reading and rereading all her favorite books.

Grrrl was born asking questions and wanting to know the why of everything. She learned to speak early and always had an opinion. As parents we tried to expose her to a number of new learning experiences.

Every year at Christmas time my mom would send us a half bushel of ruby red grapefruit and naval oranges. We were living in Montana at the time so we used to joke that "Mom was afraid we would either freeze or get scurvy living so far from the south".

The girls adored the oranges and Grrrl was intrigued by the ruby red color of the grapefruit and begged to have a bite. "I don't think you'd like it", I told her.

"Why wouldn't I like it?" she begged.

"Because the first bite is really sour, but after that its very sweet and good, " I cautioned.

I thought that would be the end of the conversation and she would go back to eating her cereal. I could see the little wheels turning in her brain as she thought it over. I continued cutting up the grapefruit for my breakfast and sat down at the table next to her.

"Mom, I want a bite!" Grrrl said as I loaded the first section on my spoon.

"Ok, but remember the first bite will be sour!", I said handing her the spoon with the prized grapefruit.

" You take the first bite" she said triumphantly!