If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past four years of being a Mimi, it’s that there are always surprises in store.

My granddaughter, who turned four in January, loves making up her own language. Something as simple as a crayon can become a ‘flitberjack’ – heaven knows where she comes up with these words – and then we’re all supposed to remember that and when she asks where her green flitberjack is, we need to know that’s really a crayon. She also likes to make unique names for her stuffies; her stuffed animals. Some of those, granted, are easy, as ‘Zeeb Zeebs’ is her stuffed zebra and ‘Puppy’ is a stuffed dog. But others have seemingly rotating unusual names, from ‘Candaclair’ to ‘Buesford’ – it’s just hard to keep up with them all.

Never mind the fact that Lorelei basically has two speeds: fast and faster.

Everything, to her, is urgent. At least if it’s her idea.

Getting up and getting ready for preschool … okay, not so much. But an art project, blowing bubbles outside, going on a bike ride or helping her daddy in the garage, all must be done immediately.

She never wants to go to school. It’s a struggle some mornings to get her out of the house (she goes three mornings a week) but once she gets there, she’s fine. It’s truly just the thought of leaving the house and, honestly, some mornings I agree – sleeping in another hour sounds much more inviting. But we have schedules and part of that is her time at school. I didn’t know the “I don’t want to go to school” mantra would start so early. When she throws that statement out, I let her know school is her job, just like I have to go to work; she has to go to school.

On the days I take her, there is a never-ending conversation from the time we leave the house until she gets dropped off. Whether it’s a question, playing the guessing game or her relating a story from the day before, she keeps up a steady stream of chatter.

Like many youngsters, she is very fond of all types of stickers. It is a morning ritual for her to ‘sign’ me, her word for choosing a sticker, to put on my shirt, my hand, my jacket. The day just doesn’t get off on the right foot until she ‘signs’ everyone in her orbit.

She has a variety of interests so that makes it easy for her to talk about almost anything. And some of the questions she comes up with make my head spin; I have to tell her I’ll do some research and get back to her with an answer.

It is hard to pull anything over on her, too, since her memory is incredibly sharp and she will tell you the specifics of an incident from last month or last year, correcting you if you get it wrong.

The other night my daughter was watching old videos on her phone of when Lorelei was about 18 months old and she was engrossed in putting the colored rings on the corresponding color peg on a board. As she started to put the yellow ring on the green peg, she shook her head and told herself ‘No’ and then moved it to the right color. Another was her going down a small slide into her kiddie pool in the backyard; splashing and giggling, then sending a couple of her toys down the slide as well.

It’s hard to remember her that tiny but she was a ball of energy even back then and she hasn’t slowed down any … she has just expanded her sphere of influence.

Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.