Let’s start with the little one.  Our two year old (two and a HALF, as I’m often corrected), Oliver, understands just about everything we say, but he’s a (little) man of little word.  Until recently. Don’t get me wrong, there’s mom, mommy, dad, sister (pronounced by Ollie as “tsi-tser”, good Chinese “ts” pronunciation)… mine and “I DO IT!!”. We’ve just been having some interesting conversations. He’s been saying things like, “Nice day, Mom.” and “Nice eat (lunch at a restaurant).”  Then there’s the occasional, “Why you push me, Sister?!”

At the grocery store, Ollie saw a package of pancake mix.

“MOM! Pan…cakes! Pancakes, mom make!”

“Really?  Cool!  You like Mommy’s pancakes?”

“Yah… bes… eff-er! (grin)”

“Did you say, “Best ever,” Ollie?”

“YAH! Bes-t ev-er.”

Wow.  It seems he’s referring to food with “best ever”, like the other night it was the “best ever” chocolate milk.

With our seven (going-on-fourteen) year old, we’re already having those conversations after school that go like this:

“How was your day?”

“Fine.”

“What did you do at school, anything fun or different?”

“No. Same stuff.”

Ugh. I didn’t think it would be like this so soon, but we do have our good conversations from time to time. Abby really likes mystery books, spy-themed short novels, and she likes superheroes… or people with special powers. So, she asked me what sort of super power would I like to have, if I could have one.  I said, “Oh, man, that’s tough. There’s so many to choose from.”  She said, “Mom, if I could have a secret power, I would clean up the house by snapping my fingers so you don’t have to do everything and you can play with me.” Aww…

That was such a bittersweet answer. I know a toddler does monopolize a mom’s time, but as patient as she is… an “Abby” day is long overdue.