The Big Girl Way

Meg is frustrated today. I know because she was exasperated when she said, "Mom! I keep saying hostible!!"

So I taught her how to break the word up into syllables...hos-pit-al.

I find her practicing under her breath and I think it's adorable.

Then I forget that she's been thinking about that word all day, so I'm caught off guard when she says, "What is it called again?"

We play twenty questions for a bit, until I get smart and figure it out.

Then she practices some more and smiles each time she gets it right.

I smile too. But it's a bittersweet smile because when she says "hostible" it means she's still little. "Hospital" is the big-girl way of saying it, and I'm not ready to call my baby a big girl yet.