Lightbulb Moments

Mr. Great Grandpa

Some days your child says something so clever, so unexpected, it stops you in your tracks.

This was one of those moments.

A long time ago, I told Lucy about my Grandpa—her Bompa’s dad—who used to tease me and steal bites of food off my plate during family dinners. It was a silly, sweet memory I hadn’t thought about in ages.

Recently, we were sitting with my dad (Lucy calls him Bompa), and he reached over, playfully trying to snag a bite of her food. Without hesitation, Lucy grinned and said, “Hey, Mr. Great Grandpa!”

We all laughed, but I was a little perplexed by what she called him, so I asked, “Why did you say ‘Great Grandpa’?” Without skipping a beat, she said:

“Because he was stealing my food like your grandpa did. That would have been my great-grandpa, right? Bompa was acting like my great-grandpa.”

WHAT?!?

In that one lightning-fast moment, she:

Connected a story I told her once long ago, Made a clever link between the action and the person, And mapped it through her own family tree!

The logic. The memory. The processing speed. I was floored!

These are the lightbulb moments that remind me how deeply children listen, how much they absorb, and how their minds are capable of incredible connections. Never underestimate what’s going on in that beautiful brain of theirs.

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