Adventures with Caleb (what the little one taught me)

Caleb Aaron Aalseth, the little four year old who knows big words like "esophagus" and "onomatopoeia", loves the movie "Cars" (which I secretly have never seen), and knows the words to "life is a highway", theme song to the movie "Cars" and sings it every night while playing air guitar was down in socal with his baby sister Hannah and mother Laura. Needless to say, it was a blast getting to see them intermittently over the past couple of days. What made it even greater were the lessons taught, not by me, but by the life of a little four year old.

Lesson 1: Small adventures are big time fun!

I got to go on two little adventures with Caleb, one was in the backyard of my parents house, the other was at Laguna Beach. Now behind my parents backyard is this steep hill that spans maybe 25 yards and beyond that is a fun little trail that sprawls across the neighborhood. Caleb was playing in the yard and helping my dad with gardening when I asked him if he wanted to see whats at the top of the hill. Showing his childlike adventure, he naturally said "no" and proceeded to water things in the yard that didn't need watering, like my pants. It took a few more asks as I attempted to peak his curiosity by wondering out loud about what could possibly be up there. After half an hour of my incessant suggesting, Caleb finally relented and to my surprise, was all of the sudden very excited about climbing the hill, which brings me to lesson number 2

Lesson 2: for kids, something could be boring one moment and super exciting the next.

With some assistance from me and my friend Tim, Caleb made it to the top and saw the vast expanse of our neighborhood, along with!!!! a gutter, a really big gutter that we walked through. We trudged up and down some really steep hills, when too steep, Caleb would grab my hand so he wouldn't fall, never once thinking that I myself could tumble at any moment. Caleb ran down the hill with complete confidence that if he fell, my hand would squeeze tighter and pull him up before the crash. This made keeping up with him difficult because I still needed to keep up with Caleb's fast little feet.

Lesson 3: child-like faith is best exemplified in children

We then continued to pass by different backyards, most of which contained vicious guard dogs (the funniest being one house with two little maltese puppies that were the antithesis of vicious, try as they might). Caleb, was pretty fearless as he trudged forward, wondering what was over the next little hill. Aside from seeing dogs, we also spotted a hawk, we heard a rabbit in the bushes, and saw some animal poop as well. We eventually turned back and I asked Caleb to lead us back home. Confident as ever Caleb said, "Okay, I have GPS on my back" and he took off running. On the steep hills, Caleb grabbed my hand just like before, on the flatter parts, he ran and ran and ran. He ran so much he ran right past our house.

Lesson 4: children have a horrible sense of direction.

It took a few minutes to convince Caleb that we actually passed the house but we eventually made it back home, washed up, and had a yummy dinner.

A couple days later, I visited the little ones at Laguna beach. It was a cloudy but warm day and the water was freezing cold. About 100 yards from our stuff was this rocky area that Caleb wanted to explore, but the tide was coming in. We didn't have much time, so we ran there as fast as we could. While running I would tell Caleb, "I'm gonna get you!" as he looked back and then would run even faster while laughing in fear. 

Lesson 5: Children show immense joy while the adrenaline is pumping from the fear of being chased by a loved one. It's the coolest thing to experience because they know they aren't in danger, but they run away like they are. (Don't chase around kids you don't know though, that will probably just scare them)

We came across the rocky area and we had to time things right to avoid the crashing waves. This lead to more excitement for Caleb and I as we frantically avoided the water while also trying to keep our balance on the wet rocks. In the rocky area we studied the area and found a seashell, two different types of sandals, and moss. After a few minutes of exploring the rocky area, Popo (grandma) came to get us because the waves were getting bigger and the tide was coming in. While on one of the rocks, Caleb was a little slow and the water came crawling up toward him and soaked his feet. Caleb giggled, and trudged on.

Lesson 6: Kids get wet often, they trip and fall often, but they are usually okay.

 As we returned to our beach area we cleaned up and got ready to head our separate ways. Before we left though, Popo spotted a school of dolphins swimming near the shore of the beach. We ended our adventure relaxing and watching the dolphins swim along the shore line. Caleb then asked if I wanted a cookie and then proceeded to hand me one from a bag. He did this all weekend, he would get me candy, fruit, cookies, I never asked for them, he just gave them to me. I don't know where he found them.

Lesson 7: Kids are smarter than we think.