Tea Party

I wake Abe up from his nap at 5pm. Late, I know. I lay next to him in his bed and he sloooowly wakes up. Lots of stretching and long blinks. I ask him, "Want to have a tea party?" He stares at me blankly for about 5 seconds then says in this soft, sleepy voice, "Yeah, sure."

Pause for another 10 seconds or so.

"Mom? What's a tea party?"

We sit at the table with a fresh pot of Barry's tea, pitcher of milk, sugar bowl, cups, spoons, toast with butter and jam. He is so methodical about doing exactly what I do, putting small spoons of sugar in his tea, then stirring, not wanting me to help him with the little milk pitcher.

His spoon is covered with sugar, which he is licking. I tell him he can put it in the tea, and he cuts his eyes at me and says, "I like licking things."

Ted comes in the room and Abe asks him, "Dad? Would you like to join us?"

He's in the middle of a work project but says he'll come back later.

Abe says, "Mom, I like this tea party. Do you like this tea party? This tea party is great."

We quietly drink our tea. He tells me a long story about something funny that happened in a Little Bear video, ending with, "And then I laughed. That was funny."

More quiet sipping of tea.

He says, "Mom, would you like to talk about sumpin'?"

I say, "Sure, what do you want to talk about?"

He pauses a quick second and says, "Let's talk about life."

No kidding. My son actually says this. I stop myself from cracking up and crying all at once by biting hard on my bottom lip. Oh the love of a two-year-old boy who wants to discuss life.

I ask him what he thinks about life, and he says, "What do you think about life?"

I tell him that I think life is pretty great.

Later, we're reading this book, one of our favorites from the library, and he tells me, "Mom, I want that girl to jump out of the book and be my sister." He's starting to talk a lot about big sister. He regularly tells strangers we meet that he's going to have a sister (on a side note, I'm dying to find Abe some tshirt saying something about being a "little brother in training" or the like but can't seem to find anyone catering to our particular brand of adoption t-shirt needs...let me know if any of you know of something like this).

Last night, we put Abe down for his regular bedtime. Three hours later, he's still awake. He's laying in his bed kicking the wall. I tell him to stop. He stops. I walk across our bedroom right across the hall from his, and the wood floors of our old house creak. He snaps to attention: Hello? Helloo-oo? Dad? Daddy? Hello? ...3 second pause... Doe a deer, a female deer, ray a drop of golden suuuuun... (at the top of his lungs).

No more strong Irish tea at our afternoon parties. Only chamomile or mint for our boy from now on.