Another houseful, Shopping Buddies, Imitation & Taking Notes

Mama’s little buddy, Jake, the six year old spent the night with us last night. It was partly to spend time with my wife and partly because there was houseful of teenagers – mostly female at our apartment last night and he is quite the flirt. Most of the day had been spent at the Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall and I guess it was just too much fun to leave.
Jake is also Mama’s shopping buddy. Between his mother and my wife I am not sure how this poor little fella will turn out. My rough guess is that prior to going to kindergarten, he spent about a third of his life shopping with either his mother or my wife. I know he has been shopping with my wife for over five years – and they both love it. Mama tells me they were at a Bath and Body Works and because there was some promotional sale going on, the store was packed.
There were no plans to buy anything – besides the line was way too long – but my wife loves their candles. She is the typical female shopper, cracking open lids to smell the fragrance of the contents, body washes, lotions, soaps, etc, but especially candles. There were several dozen different candles and each one had to be checked out.
Now my wife is not a quiet person, neither is she shy about communicating her comments, whether positive or negative, about whatever she happens to be doing. Jake has learned this expressiveness. As they worked their way through the candles it was, “OH! I love this one.” Or “Oh, my gosh, that’s awful!” “Whoa Mama Kim, smell this!” Once in full swing Jake could only cheer her on just to get her evaluation, complete with facial and verbal expressions. “Try this one Mama Kim!” “See if you like the green one!” “I bet you’ll love this one. It’s apple pie.” Reveling in whatever outburst followed since he had instigated it. My wife got dizzy a couple times and Jakes face hurt from smiling so much by the time it was all over.
While we were in church last night for the Wednesday night service, Jake had to sit with us since the normal children’s program was not going on this particular night. He has been with us to church many times and he is well behaved during the services. He is usually occupied with coloring, drawing, or some other quiet activity.
He must have noticed the girls he had been shopping with that day taking notes during the preaching part of the service so what started off as a page of scribbling and doodling turned into a full page, front and back, of printed letters jumbled one on top of the other. When the service was over, he casually turned the page into me and flew off to see what else was going on.
As I stared at the page I prayed he would remember what he had done when he is old enough to realize what he was doing. I suppose that as we teach our kids, that is our greatest hope.