December 1st

Amelia could not wait to go back to school today. Ever since her Thanksgiving program I've heard, "I can't wait until December 1st! I go back to school December 1st! How many more days are there in November?" etc. etc. etc.

One time I took the opportunity to tell her that December 1st is the day that Grandpa died. I didn't say much about it. It's been two years and we do talk about him so I thought she should know.

Yesterday morning on the way to Nana's Amelia suddenly announced that Nana was going to die soon. I was flabbergasted. I was worried that she had some kind of premonition or something - I do believe that small children often know/notice things that we as adults don't because we have too much going on to notice. When I asked her how she knew this she said that Nana told her "not last Thursday but two Thursdays ago". She was very specific so I felt a little relieved. I thought perhaps it was in the context of one of their conversations about Nana being old. Amelia will ask, "Nana are you old?" and I thought maybe Nana had elaborated on her usual, "Yes, I'm old," and said, "And I will die soon," or something like that.

When it came up in conversation Nana denied saying that to Amelia. Amelia emphatically said, "No, Nana you did! You stood at your basement door and said you were going to die soon!" A lightbulb went on and Nana said that she made a comment to herself that she needed to clean her basement before she died and Amelia must have overheard her. She was a little embarrassed.

I was impressed at Amelia's recall and her ability to defend herself. She isn't always as articulate about things, especially on demand. If I ask her what she did in school she will often not say much and then about 15 minutes later babble on about something and that's when I learn what she did.