Conversations with Little People

A glimpse into a 4-year-old's mind...

Getting ready for school one day..."I think I want to try a different mom." Glancing up to see my expression she quickly hurried on with "actually, no, no, no, I think I'll just keep you."

“Sophie, would you please come here and help me?” “Certainly.” A long pause ensues and a quizzical expression fills her face. Then, “Mom, what does certainly mean?”

Power cuts are frequent and rather miserable in Phnom Penh. Many times in the evening we are busy getting the kids to bed and suddenly we are plunged into complete blackness. We all groan and say, “aht plung!” (no electric!). Sophie was praying before lunch and then with a surprised look said, “Mom, when I close my eyes it’s like…aht plung!” It does make me wonder, what was she expecting to see?

“It takes so long.” What takes so long? “It takes so long to be a kid.” What do you want to be? “A mom…sigh…it just takes sooo long.”

Last night riding in the car Sophie wanted to sing “Angels We Have Heard on High”. After singing the first verse I said in passing to Darryl, “Every time I sing Christmas songs I get such an ache inside.” It fills me with memories of good, warm, precious things like family, apple pie, conversations, hanging out with my sisters and brothers. At night Sophie wanted to sing it again before bed. After singing she crossed her arms and with a very satisfactory “hmmph” …said “There, now I’ve got an egg too.” I stared blankly at her… “Well,” she proceeded to explain, “you got an egg when you sang that song and now I’ve got one.” Too tired to go into explaining what an “ache” was and why I get one, I just smiled and said, “That’s right honey, now we’ve both got an egg.” *Wink*