I’m a fairly intelligent person (at least that’s what I tell myself) but the older Jack gets, the more I question my intelligence.

Communicating with my children was relatively easy when they were babies. I talked, they babbled and cooed. They cried and, depending on the sound of their cries, I fed, diapered, burped or soothed them. Jill had a toy that said the words: mommy, daddy, bottle, doggie and baby. “Baby” could be changed to say whatever we wanted and so we recorded “Jill.” Before Jill could speak she used the toy to communicate with us. She would press the buttons to say, “Mommy, Jill, milk.” She’s a pretty smart kid as far as we’re concerned.

As Jill grew, her interests and her vocabulary expanded. Holding conversations with her is generally easy. Once in a while she thinks she’s given you all of the information you need to answer a question and she gets frustrated when you don’t understand what she’s asking. Suddenly she’ll say something like, “Remember the other day? What color was that?” Somehow we’re supposed to know what “that” is because she’s explained it fully in her mind. Even with these confusing conversations, I still usually understand what language she’s speaking. When she was little I understood Polly doll. I knew who Ariel and Aurora were. Hey, I even knew who that Dora chick was. I still understand Jill, but then she hasn’t hit her teen years yet.

Jack is another story though. I am a woman. I was a little girl. While I had a tomboy side, I was never a boy. Therefore, I have had to employ my best acting skills to look like I understand when Jack talks. Our family only speaks English so imagine my surprise when my son started saying things like, “Mom, who do you like better, Makuta or Mata Nui?” (I have since learned that those are names of Bionicles which are Legos. I liked Legos as a kid but they were blocks then and didn’t have storylines and a language to learn!) Or “Guess which Star Wars guy this is?” Umm, Princess Leia? Darth Vader? Yes, I’ve watched the movies, but I haven’t earned my master’s degree in Star Wars and you try to identify a little Lego Star Wars guy!

I guess I should have expected this. When Jack was just a little guy he asked, “What’s your favorite dinosaur?” I answered, “I like the big one with the really long neck.” Jack asked, “Which one, the Brachiosaur or the Diplodocus?”

I’m learning but you can see by the look in Jack’s eyes that it takes a great deal of patience to explain things in terms I can understand. Luckily I’m a quick learner but it does make me wonder what subjects we’ll be covering in the future.

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