I love the way kids think

Last night we had Family Dinner Night with JD's brother, sister-in-law, and niece. These have become a weekly ritual for us, and it's a great time for us to connect and talk and laugh. We get together each week, trading off turns cooking. Every other Wednesday is their night to cook and on the opposite Thursdays we cook. One of my favorite parts of Family Dinner Night is playing board games after dinner. We always have to play something six-year-old friendly which usually means Trouble or something of the the likes. Last night was Scrabble Jr.

Confession: I'm pretty horrible at Scrabble (despite being an English major). I don't know why, but I'm just not great at coming up with words. To be honest, I blame it on the fact that I always get bad letters. I'm just not a lucky person. Like the 4 "c's" that I had last night with no vowels. What's a girl to do with that?! Anyway, last night's game was a great opportunity to EG (the niece) to practice her spelling skills. And she was pretty good at creating words until she started keeping score. Then it took a little more prodding to keep her engaged. But she's six, so what more can we expect?

The best moment of the night came just before EG started losing interest. I was helping her figure out what words she could make based on the letters that she had and the letters that were already on the board. I saw that she could make the word "jets," but I didn't want to tell her what word to make. So, instead of telling her, I prompted her by asking about planes. Or so I thought.

Me: EG, what flies in the sky really fast?
EG: A hummingbird.
Me: This is true. But what flies in the sky really fast that you can ride on?
EG: Pegasus.

She had me there. I was at a loss because I absolutely loved her response and the fact that she thinks about life so completely differently than I do. I've lost that magical component to my life, but it is certainly alive and well within her. It kills me to think that she'll lose it someday. Is there any way to keep that spark alive?

EG and Foxy on the way to the zoo on Monday.