Normally.......

My oldest daughter is a bit of an odd duck. She learned her letters at 20 months, not just saying them, but typing them on a keyboard. She didn't speak to her preschool teacher at all until the last week of school, she just sat quietly and did as she was told. She has also shown an unusual amount of empathy from a very young age. She is very in tune to the emotions of others, and always wants to comfort them or make them happy. Of course, being our first, we thought this was normal. It wasn't until we thought our second one might be a psychopath that we did a little reading and found out that early empathy was unusual, and that he was actually the normal kid.
Like most parents we tend to just roll with the eccentricities of our kids, and after a while it all seems normal. When she had a school field trip last week she was pretty excited, which seemed normal. It was to a Texas heritage festival, which, living in Texas, is also normal. There were going to be booths there, and the kids would have an opportunity to buy things if they wanted, so the school reminded them to bring money if that's what they wanted to do. She was excited because that meant that she could buy things for all her siblings, which is getting a bit odd but is very normal for her, she wants to make others happy. It wasn't until I picked her up from school that I realized that she had gone a bit farther than normal. Click through the jump to find out why.


 My wonderful daughter met me at the car carrying a smoked turkey leg. She already knows me well enough to know that I don't really like trinkets and, even more than that, I don't even like receiving gifts that I view as useless, no matter how well intentioned. I guess I'm a bit odd too. Knowing all of that, she still wanted to get me something, she didn't think it would be fair to buy a present for everyone but me. She looked all day, and finally settled on something that I could use, and something that I would enjoy. She walked to the car brandishing it like a large tinfoil wrapped club. She was triumphant, and she knew she had done well. If you've got to have a kid that's slightly different from the norm, having one that brings you smoked meat just to make you happy is a pretty good way to go.