I just love having a four year old. Yes, I do miss the early years when I look through pictures, but I'm finding I enjoy each new stage more than the last (of course, there were a few I REALLY didn't care for). The conversations we have with Spencer sure make me look forward to the day Mia will communicate more.
If you have kids around this age, you probably realize how much they hear even when it appears they're not listening at all. We had a discussion in the car about (finally) paying off our car. A few days later, Spencer brought the subject up. This is that conversation:
S: Mom, what kind of car are we going to get now?
M: Honey, we just paid the money we owed for this car. Daddy and I are happy not to have a loan anymore. We aren't planning on buying a new car any time soon.
S: What's a loan?
M: (Insert my boring and brief description of a loan here)
S: No, Mom! Alone means you're by yourself!
For the life of me, I just couldn't figure out how to use the word "loan" in a sentence without using an "a" in front. So, the confusion continues.
I picked Spencer up from school and as usual, we discuss his day and it's happenings. I was slightly disturbed when he mentioned that the read a book about a man who was shot with a gun. We were in the car at the time which meant Spencer didn't notice my stunned reaction in the front seat. I kept the conversation going and that's when I realized he had "read" a book about Martin Luther King, Jr. I still think this may be a bit of a mature subject for a group of preschoolers, but it did provide an opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about the real world, even the ugly parts.
Last night as we were driving home, he proclaimed the following:
"Martin Luther King said love and peach. Some other people said hate."
And that wasn't some goof up on the keyboard. He did indeed say MLK stood for "peach".
I love this kid!
