Surprises Around Every Corner

While driving home from preschool today, I asked Berit the usual questions: What was your snack? What was your project? What was your favorite part of school today? Who did you play with? What did you play? (Because she is already a preteen who doesn't offer information, and tells me her day was "fine.")

When I asked her who she played with, she said, "My friends, MOM." And I said, "Oh, that's nice! Did you play with (enter all names of children in class here)?" And she said, "No, not Sage. He wasn't at school today. He's home with a cold."

I told her that was sad, and maybe we could color him a picture to cheer him up. She got excited by that idea, and said, "Yes! Sage loves dinosaurs and cars. Maybe we could color a picture of a dinosaur and cut it out for him."

And I thought, hm. She remembered that about Sage? I mean, we love Sage, but it's not like we're together all the time. So I asked her what the other kids at school like, and one by one, she told me about each child's interests. Not a blanket, "princesses," which is what I expected, but "Lili likes ballerinas" and "Alex likes little cars best."

I thought that was very sweet of her, to have learned and stored the information away. And now very into this, I said, "What does Marta like?"

She thought about it for a full minute and said, "Messing everything up."