"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched….but are felt in the heart." - Helen Keller

"Just a Spoon full of Knowledge Helps the Oatmeal Go Down"

Sheldon didn't know how he felt when Leonard and Penny first announced they were going to have a child. They weren't married or anything but logically Sheldon knew it was a gift and a very amazing thing. It was a joyous thing, his friend was going to start his own family but at the same time, he felt a feeling of abandonment and jealousy. It was almost childish really, but Sheldon couldn't help himself.

He loved so innocently it was like being a child. He just did what he could to be the best he could be for his friends. Though they didn't really seem to need his help, Sheldon always volunteered his time to do anything at all. Carry the baby, feed her, send her to bed, read her a bedtime story, or even just watch her for a few minutes, but every time, they refused him.

It was almost insulting, the many times he offered his services, not once did the new parents take it. Not once! Sheldon only wanted to help. He was just as much their family as she was. It wasn't fair and it seemed as if life would always be like that, until one day…

"Grace, sweetie," Penny begged, "Please eat something. You have to! You haven't eaten all day."

"No!" the two year old cried stubbornly, crossing her little arms. She stuck out her dark pink lip, trying to show she meant business. Her little eyebrows were pushed together making her forehead wrinkle and it only made matters worse.

"Okay listen you little pink mash of me!" Penny finally snapped, pointing the plastic toddler spoon at her daughter. You would think a mother raising her voice would frighten a toddler, but Grace was smart. She knew she really wasn't really in trouble, so she laughed instead. "You have been sitting in my woub for, I don't know, a little over nine months and it wasn't pleasant. That makes me the mommy and you the baby and the baby has to listen to the mommy and Mommy says, EAT!"

Two year old Grace Hofstadter, had her father's brain and her mother's attitude. This was not a good combination and Grace broke into tears laughing so hard. It was hearing the commotion, Leonard left his bedroom, and entered the kitchen, "What's going on in here?"

"I'm sorry Leonard," Penny cried frustrated. Finally giving up, she threw down the spoon, "I know I said I could handle feeding her so you can finish your work but she just won't eat anything I give her." Gesturing toward Leonard she says more sincerely, "she wants her Dad."

"Still?" Leonard asks, growing a little concerned she hadn't eaten all day. "How about it sweetie?" He asks approaching his daughter. He picks up the spoon and shovels up a small portion of brown mush. The sweet smell of brown sugar was tempting her, but still she refused. As soon as Leonard offered the oatmeal to her, she turned her head.

"No!" she cried again.

"Please Gracy," Leonard begged, "For daddy. Just one bite."

"NO!" she cried again, pushing away his hand. "I don' wan it!"

Sheldon was watching carefully as he took a sip of his coffee, studying the child's reactions.

"Grace please," Leonard plead but she just shook her head. "Are you sick, honey? Are you not feeling well?" He got up and went to the cupboard to look for the thermometer and as he did Sheldon approached the miniaturized sized person.

"You have to eat you know?" Sheldon whispered to her in his normal monotone voice. Grace turned her attention to the thirty year old man wearing the lightning bolt t shirt. She didn't really know him, but she had a strong feeling he was apart of her family. "You should just do as they say, instead of incessantly denying food, you so obviously want." Sheldon awkwardly picked up the spoon and just like her parents offered her some, but amazingly this time she didn't just flat out deny it.

Instead she just looked at the hot oatmeal and turned her attention back to the strange man offering her food. "Why?" she asked him. She wasn't really sure what he said, but asking 'why?' was how she responded to everything, she didn't understand.

"Because if you don't the acids in your stomach will start to bubble and stir, kind of like in a pot when your mother makes soup. The stomach acids starts to rise and then burns the walls of your stomach until it will eventually make a hole and it'll pour out into your body, and you will slowly die painfully, drowning in your own fluids."

Don't ask how but by some impossible way, Grace, sort of, understood what he was talking about, and slowly took the bite from Sheldon. Penny and Leonard both watched amazed as Grace licked her lips and swallowed down the hot cereal. "What's a-acid?" Grace asked stumbling over the word a little.

"A chemical substance that neutralizes alkalis, dissolves some metals, and turns litmus red," Sheldon answered, shoveling another spoonful of oatmeal.

Grace didn't understand that at all but she was somehow satisfied with the answer and took another bite. With food still in her mouth she asked, "What's a chem… chem…?"

"A chemical is a compound or substance that has been purified or prepared, especially artificially."

Grace took another bite. This continued on and on. Grace would ask a question and Sheldon would answer it until there was one bite left. Grace just had one more question to ask, "Shell?" It was her own personal nickname for him, because she couldn't pronounce Sheldon.

"Yes dear?" Sheldon asked in his monotone voice, already ready with the spoon.

"Watch TV wit me, please," she asked.

Sheldon smiled genuinely before answering, "Sure."

Grace smiled taking the last bite.

Sheldon picked up the empty bowl victoriously as he headed toward the sink. He was surprised when he felt a strong pat on the back, but relaxed when he realized it was only Leonard. As Sheldon washed the bowl thoroughly, Leonard smiled. "Thank you."

Sheldon smiled back and almost humanly answered, "That's what friends are for."

Yes, at times maybe Grace makes Sheldon feel a bit envious from the attention she gets but at the same time Sheldon is alright with it, because just the same Sheldon understands why they do it. Grace is a smart and special kid and even Sheldon feels the honor of watching her grow up in this crazy world, of course under the strange circumstances.

...

DEDICATED TO MY BABY COUSIN! She is only two and already she is saying things like "Grandma! Yor grandaughter is herrasing me!"