Thursday, January 14, 2021

If You Give a Kid a Cane...

 




If you give a kid a cane, she'll want to take a walk outside.
You'll take her on one of your favorite scenic walks, and she'll probably notice all of the birds and wildlife.
She'll ask you for more knowledge on that wildlife, and when you give her that knowledge she'll probably want to go to college to learn more. 
College will be so exciting that she'll want to go to grad school!
Then she'll be busy writing papers and being a teaching assistant. 
She'll need a new outfit for her first job interview. 


So, you'll have a fun shopping trip before she flies off to DC. 
She'll interview at the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space. 
While she's interviewing, she'll realize how much she loves the hustle and bustle of the city. 
She'll get the job and then she'll have to move!
So, you'll hire movers. 
When she's packing, you'll find all kinds of old momentos of growing up. 

You'll play cards, and boardgames, and flip through some of her favorite books from when she was younger.
Then she'll want to see some of her first braille books that seemed so difficult to read back then.
So, you'll run to the closet and pull them out, 
You'll read Freckle Juice, and Frog and Toad, and If You Give a Pig a Pancake...
Then you'll pull out her first cane from when she was 3 years old. 
It'll seem hardly tall enough for an American Girl Doll to use, 
and she'll want to try it out for fun,
and you'll laugh at how tiny it is. 
She'll decide she wants to take it to DC with her as a keepsake. 
Then she'll probably hug you. 
And chances are, 
she'll thank you for believing in her and pushing her to grow, 
then she'll want to take a walk with you again before it's time to go off to her new, independent life. 

Inspired by the Laura Numeroff "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" book series, and by my daughter.