“How was your day?” Not the first words I had expected to hear from our 3 year old at the dinner table, but they were, and I was dumbstruck. I started to respond and I was interrupted with, “Mm-hmm, oh, and what did you do today?” Then the penny dropped, this is apparently how, and what, I sound like to our daughter when she returns home from preschool. She wasn’t saying any of this with sarcasm but with obvious pride. The satisfaction at mastering conversation with an adult and, let’s not overlook, good natured teasing.

She’s become so independent, confident, and thoughtful of others. I would like to say it’s all because of our handiwork but I know it wouldn’t have happened without the good influence of others like her wonderful friends and their mothers, her grandmother, the wonderful teachers at her preschool, and lastly (but not without begrudging acknowledgement) PBS. Not that she doesn’t have her maddening moments like any other kid because she has plenty.

Today for instance, she’s sick yet again with a cold and a particularly foul mood to go with the copious amounts of snot and coughing. Because of this her voice is nasally and certain consonants sound a little different today. Like “boat” sounded like “goat”, “soap” became “dope”, and “corn” was now “porn”.

She was watching her favorite show, Super Why, when I was on the phone to our insurance carrier when she exclaimed, quite clearly, “The porn is all gone!” At that point I informed them, “I’ll have to get back to you.” She then elaborated to me the finer points of the story that she was watching and their growth of “porn”. I was panic stricken until I followed her urgent gesturing and saw the “corn”.

This event was then followed by pushing her brother over on “ax-dent” (phonetic irony there), using her snot for play-doh, and insisting that Owen’s duplo blocks were her “candy” (which sounded like “pangee” due to congestion).

I let her sleep in our bed today in hopes they both would nap. They did, just not at the same time except for this photo.