Candy Land

More snow in Hoboken this morning.

Ian and me, in the park. Ian has thrown his head back and stuck his tongue out, eyes closed:

"What are you doing, Ian?"

Suddenly it occurs to me that only an unimaginative adult would have to ask that question. I feel a little pang of pity for myself and work on blowing it off while we continue the conversation.

"I'm catching those little balls on my tongue," he says.

"Ian, those little balls are called snowflakes."

He doesn't answer. Tongue out, still catching. I decide that playing along might lift me out of my drab adulthood and make me feel a little better.

"OK, so what do they taste like?"

No hesitation from Ian: "Chocolate!" He sticks his tongue out again: "And vanilla!"

"No other flavors? No strawberry? No pistachio?" OK, now I'm hamming a little.

"No, Mom, all chocolate and vanilla!" Ian is elated by this.

Chocolate snowflakes? Now that's a world I'd like to live in.

As I drop him off, I realize that today is the day he learned the word "snowflake" and that before today, he apparently didn't know what they were called. (I'm not sure how we missed this word with last week's dumping, but we miss a lot of things so why not this.)

I tried to remember when I didn't know what those little twinkling white things were called and I really couldn't. Fortunately, every day, Ian and Julian remind me of things I've long forgotten. And isn't that what it's all about?