I know I write a lot about my conversations with Little Brother. But he’s here with me all day long, while the Big Kids are off to school now. And I think that it took me until the third child before I could really enjoy the wacky, wonderful ways that a child’s mind works.

Today he asked me how long it would be until he’s 5.

“You’re birthday’s not until March.”

“Is that in 6 days?”

“No, more like 180 days.”

“A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY! That’s TOO MANY!”

I wondered why he was in such a hurry to be 5. I had two theories: he either had some special birthday present in mind, or he wanted to go to kindergarten.

WRONG!

“When I’m 5, I can almost catch up to Back-Door Neighbor Girl.” (She’s 6).

Poor guy. He’s always going to be 20 months younger than Back-Door Neighbor Girl, no matter how much he rushes things. He’s in such a hurry to be big….I don’t want him to miss out on the fun of being 4 because he wants to catch up to Big Brother, Middle Sister, or our friends’ children. Slow down, little guy. You’ll be 5 soon enough. (Though it was nice to know that it wasn’t “birthday present greed” that caused his big hurry….)