Innocence Lost?!?

We are in such a hurry to grow up when we are young. We fight naps, baths, and bedtime. Now, it seems all we long for is twenty minutes in the middle of the day to shut down, a hot shower, and a great night's sleep. Do we, as parents, understand this fact, and try to keep our children as young as possible to protect them? Yes. They do enough growing up with out them even realizing it, sometimes.

A few nights ago, I needed some quiet time to concentrate on getting the crafting supplies organized and the kitchen cleaned up after supper. I told the girls to go to their room and play with their toys.  I was pretty grumpy that night, so I added, "if you don't play with them, then I will give them to children who will." Evil. I know.

I was amazed at how much I got accomplished in the twenty minutes of bliss.  I was feeling a little guilty about threatening them the way I did, so I went in to play with them.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Madelyn was playing with her plastic animals.  They were arranged in what could be taken as a rather vulgar way. I knew she was clueless as to what was going through my mind. I was ashamed of what was going through my mind, but I had been listening to follow-up stories of the Weiner-gate scandal, too.  So it wasn't my fault. I blame the media! Of course I don't blame myself for even having that stuff on my television, anyway.

Here is what I found:

It wasn't only the giraffes and the crocodile that worried me. She had the ponies right in front of her, too.

She saw I was at a loss for words.

"Do you not like my house, Mom?"

"What?"

"My house? See. The legs are the walls, and the crocodile is taking a nap. His feet are tired, so he's sleeping on his back."

"YES! YES I DO LIKE YOUR HOUSE! And, the ponies?"

"They are the walls. I don't have anything small enough to live inside of those guys."

Okay. See? Innocence is still there. I was wondering what she was learning on the playground. That really scares me, the thought of her learning 'things' from other kids. She nearly put me into cardiac arrest earlier this spring.

In the middle of our supper, Madelyn pushes away from the dinner table.

"I am the 'F' word."

No one moved.  All five of us just turned at her, drop jawed, forks perched in the air ready to serve a bite. Audrey threw a puffy, but nobody noticed.

"Wha-Wh-What was that, ss-sweet-sweetie?"

"I said, I am the 'F' word."

We all slowly looked at each other. What in the world? I never blinked so many times in my life. My mouth went dry. I was staying with Jay's folks, so I was wondering what they thought of me raising their granddaughter.

"You know. Full," Madelyn said, staring intently at everyone.

"Yes. We knew that. Full. The 'F' word."

I mean, seriously! What else would it have been?

Sheesh.

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