Conversations with Younglings

My eight-year-old niece is learning to knit. She had about 6 inches of a scarf hanging off plastic needles at a family gathering on Saturday. In the midst of said gathering, I grabbed my sister and headed off on an excersion to the local yarn store.

"Kiddo, do you want to come to the yarn store with us?" I asked her.

"What for?"

"For yarn."

"What would I need more yarn for? I have yarn in my bag."

My husband joined the conversation at this point. Laughing. A lot. He looked at my niece. "You knit beautifully, but you're not quite a Knitter yet."

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On Sunday, I was giving my son a piggyback ride home from the park. He was miming holding something out in front of him, over my head.

"What's that?"

"It's a carrot hanging from string on a stick. See? I move the carrot to the direction I want you to go and then you go that way."

"I like carrots well enough, but I don't know if I like them enough for navigational motivation."

"Okay," he said cheerfully. "It's a vanilla latte on a stick."

"That'd do it."