The "Eyes" Have It!!

Noah came home from school a few weeks ago and the first words he said to me when he walked through the door were, " Mommy! We had a substitute today!" Those words are usually followed by complaints of how horrible his day went because it wasn't as he anticipated. He is a creature of habit and does not deal well with change. He is his mother's son.

On this particular day, I noticed a bit of a chirpiness to his proclamation, though. Before I could inquire about what atrocities were committed at the hands of this inferior human being that was not his teacher, he breathlessly continued: " She was beeeeautiful!!!"

My ears perked up. Noah never uses phrases like this to describe someone and, frankly, I didn't think he noticed the physical qualities of anyone except, of course, the M&M people and Star Wars characters. Still not letting me get in a word, the rest of the conversation went like this:

NOAH: She was wearing a very pretty shirt; AND she had brown hair and BLUE eyes! I've never seen blue eyes in REAL LIFE before!!

ME: ( summoning the long-lost theater nerd in me and feigning complete and utter outrage and insult) HEY! *I* have blue eyes!!!!

NOAH: WHAT!!??? ( then walks right up to me, gets nose-to-nose with me and looks at my eyes and says..) HUH! I thought this whole family had BROWN eyes! ( and walked away)

I guess I was right... he doesn't notice physical characteristics of anyone but M&M people, Star Wars characters and one Miss Nicole of Fort Dix Elementary. All those hours I spent staring blissfully into the eyes of my son.. bonding.... or so I thought. Now I find out, he was paying no attention and probably just wondering when the goofy brown-eyed lady was going to give him his next meal.