Things Will said

I wish when Laura had been a little person I had kept better track of the interesting and unusual things she said—my favorite of all these is what she used to call hydrogen peroxide, which we used on her anytime she had splinters (boy she thought that was rough—imagine what would have happened if we’d used alcohol): “Not the rotten peroxide, not the rotten peroxide!” But I don’t remember many more of them anymore (although my favorite parenting line is “Don’t lick the boat!”).

Maybe I can reform for William. His class is studying astronauts this week—apparently they’ve been most curious about why we would send monkeys into space. I walked into his class the other day and they were all lined up sitting in a row of their lunch chairs with milk carton helmets on with the lights out and a disco ball projecting “stars” as they rode in their rocket. Sometimes I just love that daycare so much. So yesterday morning on the way to school, he said to me—out of the blue—“I would like to be an astronaut like on Star Trek.” I love how suddenly his always complete baby sentences have now become these more complex structures (this morning he told me “You stay right there. I’m going to get my ball, and I’ll be right back for you.”). Later in the car that same morning we were playing the guess who Mommy loves game (for some reason, the correct answer is William and Josie, my brother’s dog); I asked the question, and Will said “Will Hammond Astronaut.”

My favorite thing lately is when I asked him “How did you get to be so cute?” Usually he says “By myself,” which is his response to how did he do anything. Last time I asked him, he said “Because you smiled at me.” Awwww.