When we talk about something that happened before she was born, Maddie asks, “But where was I?” Answers vary from the standard “you weren’t born yet” to “twinkle in mommy’s eye” or “a tiny cell…sort of” … none of which make sense to her, of course. “But…where WAS I?” she usually responds. She thinks about her place in the world, and just how the whole life thing works. Both she and Joseph have expressed the idea that you are little then you get big then you get little again–the adults become kids again, taken care of by the kids who are now adults. Not far off, really!

That my parents are her grandparents is another topic she is working to figure out. Apparently she has been pondering this family timeline recently. In the car this morning, Maddie says, “You and daddy had your first wedding to get married and all your friends came. Then you went home and decided to have a baby. Then Joseph was born then you decided to have a girl one. That’s me! Then I was born. And when you were a little girl you had a mommy and daddy and that is grandma and grandpa and you lived in their house and they took care of you. Right?”

“Pretty much!”

Maddie and Noah were tossing a whiffleball back and forth. She can throw pretty well.

“So, Mads, what’s your sport going to be?” I say.
“I want to have green shirts.”
“Ok, but for which sport?”
“Seventeen. Is that old?”
“Nevermind.”
“I’ll be three then.”
“Sounds good.”

Maddie: What if you had to go to the hospital if you had bad manners!
Me: What would they do at the hospital?
Maddie: Fix your bad manners!

(If only!)