We went on a family romp through our property on Saturday. The beauty of the trees never gets old. With the house not yet built, you get an unfettered view of the enormity of some of the trees. Standing in the middle of the clearing, they encircle you like a wall-- gently rustling and groaning in the wind.In my bug-evading restlessness, I happened upon a sad looking little twig sprouting out of the earth. It had a piece of yellow caution taped wrapped tightly around it. I called out to Aidan; "What is the story behind this little twig?" And as he explained, it came back to me. This twig was the fallen prey of a 3-year old's "hunting" expedition.
It is a little unnerving how receptive children are to the things they hear and see. One year ago, Caelah's favourite movie was Pooh's Heffalump Movie. In it, little Roo heads out to capture a Heffalump. (For those who don't speak in Pooh dialect: Heffalump means stuffed elephant creature.) This must have been playing through Caelah's little mind when Aidan and I took her out to the forest to mark off the trees we wanted to spare in the clear-cut. As we adults were carefully selecting and taping off trees, unbeknownst to us, our little hunter was stocking her prey. We heard her warrior cry ring out behind us; "In the name of the Hundred-Acre Woods I CAPTURE YOU!" And she fell upon a hapless twig, binding it tightly with her "lasso."
These are precious moments. And I had almost forgotten this one. I had to stumble upon it, and dredge up the memory from the recesses of my cluttered mind. This post will stand as a testament to this one small but dear happening that would otherwise fade and be forgotten.
