For some reason, the little girls like me. To a grumpy old man (which I CAN be) this can be rather off-putting. It’s been a long long time since our girls were this little. But we made some pretty good memories at the time and I think I made some good memories with the two latest young girls in my life.

A while back Abby came to visit from Tennessee along with her Granny who is raising her. Abby is eight. We had a great time while she was here, mostly because she isn’t your normal 8 year old girl. (Is there such a thing?)  Abby didn’t bug me, she didn’t whine, she wasn’t demanding, she loved to help – and she followed directions. Remember the line from On Golden Pond?

What’s the point of having a dwarf if they don’t do chores?

When Abby was around the hardest thing for me was finding chores for her. She can’t mow the lawn or clean the gutters, so she was the designated pool-cleaner.

Now Nazareth, the 7 year old daughter of our housecleaner, has taken a liking to me.  I put her to work running some Spanish flashcards by Nancy. She shows Nancy the card with a word and then pronounces it very slowly. Amarillo is AH-MA-REE-JO. She surprised us by then saying Yellow.  I guess she’s been holding out on us that she knows some English. Not uncommon, just as we are reluctant to use Spanish, many Spanish speakers are hesitant to use English.

Today, she sat with me at the table and colored in her Little Mermaid book. She gave me a refresher course in Spanish of the colors.

When I got tired of that I started her pool-cleaning internship.

She should be in school. Hanging around me she’ll only pick up bad habits.

I started her tutorial on pool-cleaning.

SIR-BAY-SAH.