Nicholas and I had a neat conversation the other day in the car. Here’s how it went:
N: Uh-oh!
M: Uh-oh? What happened? (Only slight dread on my part because there isn’t really much he could do while strapped into the carseat.)
N: Water bottle.
M: Did your water bottle fall down?
N: Bottle … broken.
M: Broken? I don’t think so. (It’s a plastic bottle that I don’t believe could break when falling out of his lap into the back seat of the car, although I guess I could be wrong.)
N: Mummy … (sigh) … other bottle!
Ahhh, now I understand. He’s talking about the water bottle that he broke last week, when he threw it really hard and broke the top, drinking part. He has a wonderful memory for someone so small. Ah, here I go again, underestimating his abilities. I seem to do that a lot, even though I wish the world for him. How is that? Is it worse to overestimate or underestimate? Or is it possible to find a happy medium? Oh, this parenting thing can get confusing at times!
Speaking of memory – he blew me away again a couple of weeks ago when we were downtown. We drove past the library, which he has been to all of twice in his life, and he called out, “Bye-bye library!” How on earth did he recognize it? I guess the same way he knows that certain streets lead to a “casa bombero” and “casa policia”. Car rides are never boring when the tour director in the back seat is pointing out all the best sites … firehalls, police stations, basketball hoops, Andi’s house, etc.
