Children's Magic

Saturday night Tyler and I were on our own, because Joe was at a car show in Grand Rapids with my dad. Typically when Joe is gone for the night, I treat myself to Chinese take-out because: 1) I don't have to cook, 2) it's good, and 3) Joe hates chinese and we never eat it. So when I called Joe, and he said that he wouldn't be home until after 8:30 p.m., I decided that beef chop suey and egg rolls were calling my name. I put in my order (amazing ready in "10 minute"... oh wait... it always takes that amount of time), put Tyler in the car seat, and left the house.

When I walked into the restuarant, the lady ran to the back to get my order. On a side note: it is my firm belief that they don't actually make your order until you walk into the chinese restuarant. I believe they wait til you get there, and then decide to either make it right then or take it out of the buffet line. Either way, it's never ready when I get there. I put the car seat down while I was waiting, because my kid is a tank, and way to heavy to hold in his car seat for any length of time. I literally put him down for maybe a minute when a young boy spotted him and came over to investigate.

The little boy was, I'm guessing, 3-4 years old and Chinese. From my interactions with him previously (that's right, I've seen him before on my Chinese food runs... don't judge me) I've realized he doesn't speak English. He immediately started playing with Tyler. He held his hands and feet, gently touched his cheeks, rocked his car seat, and showed Tyler how to play with the toy monkey on the car seat handle. It was so cute. Me, I wasn't concerned. Tyler has 2 cousins, one of which is only 18 months old and her version of gentle isn't... well... gentle.

The boy's family, once they realized what he was doing, rushed over to try to tell him to back off (at least that's what I'm assuming they were saying). I told them that it was ok and smiled. They were playing together. The boy was so enamored with Tyler, smiling, and chatting away.

What I found amazing is that children don't really care about culture divides. They are just so curious that it doesn't really matter. When did the rest of us lose that? When did we learn to pass judgement or make assumptions? Is it possible for me to keep Tyler innocent, curious, and open?