The Apple of My Eye

The other day I was engrossed in a book (Draw Closer to God by Henry B. Eyring, which is FABULOUS, by the way) when the house just seemed a little too quiet. The kids were outside playing and it was Emma and I in the house. Emma had been crawling around playing with toys in the family room. She often makes her way around the circle (the "round-about" is what Bryson calls it) on the main floor, so there is a time when I don't see her. However, this time it had been a little longer than most. I instantly knew that something had caught her attention!

Ah ha! An apple. We have several fruit trees in the backyard, however only one of them brought forth half-sized fruit (due to lack of watering and care this summer before we moved in). The kids have stripped the tree from all of the fruit on the lower branches, and in order to get the fruit above, they climb up into the tree and shake down the fruit. Needless to say, they consume several SOUR apples a piece before they are done playing outside. And quite often, they don't get eaten completely, and get left everywhere - outside and inside!!

I caught her, sitting by the table, devouring a little, half-eaten apple that one of the kids had left somewhere in the house that was within her reach. She was absolutely consumed with it. She didn't budge when I grabbed the camera to take pictures of her. All she cared about was the sweet taste of that apple. She was determined to get every bit of it, although she only has little teeth stubs. I am pretty sure all she was getting was juice, but it was sweet enough to keep her committed.

Interesting and random: I thought about Adam and Eve, and just how sweet that apple must have tasted for Eve to enjoy it so much that Adam HAD to try it! Something so tempting and so sweet, that she just had to know for herself. Then I thought about Lehi's vision and the tree of life. Oh, how sweet the fruit was, too.

I chuckled as I watched and photographed her, literally enveloped with this apple and the new adventure that she was tasting for the first time. Such a small, simple event, but it made my heart smile. She LOVES food. She was never a baby food eater, she wanted the real stuff, and she flat loves it. Her cheeks, arms, and mid-section tell the story well. I'm thinkin', as evidence would reveal, she gets PLENTY to eat...