Noticing

I don't like going slow. Unfortunately, as a parent of a 4 year old, I don't get a choice.

One benefit of living in Utah is ready access to mountains and canyons. Literally 4 minutes from my house is a canyon trail winding along a lovely river.

Naturally, the kid wants to stop and look at everything. "What's that rock? (It's shale) Why is it there? (After being compressed for years into layers, it was pushed up to the surface during the earthquake that made these mountains) Why are these rocks so small? (Erosion — wind, water, animals, and more wearing them down) What shape is that big pile of rocks up there? (It's a spire) What's that green stuff? (Algae) Why is this patch of snow icy? (Because the snow melted and then froze again)

Actually, I need to give myself some credit — many of those questions were answered with "What do you think?" followed by some hypothesizing and then me finally giving her the answer.

But her boundless curiosity — her ability to notice things — is unmatched. It's a fairly common trope for kids to be seeing and hearing and smelling kids that are off the parent's radar.

Still, it's nice to slow down sometimes.