The World According To Milo Or Boy Do We Have Much To Worry About In The Years To Come

This afternoon on the way home from school Milo and I had the following discussion, which made me both wince and smile, as well as worry about his forthcoming teenage years.

Milo: Ms. Smith (his teacher) told me today that there's a wishbone in a turkey and you can pull it apart and make a wish and it will come true. That's not right, is it?

Me: Well, it is a tradition that when you carve the turkey at Thanksgiving, you and a friend can pull apart the "wishbone," which is a bone in the turkey, and whoever pulls apart the longer piece gets to make a wish, which may or may not come true. Why were you discussing that?

Milo: We read a book about it and I asked her about the wishbone. Why don't we do that?

Me: If you'd like, we can do that the next time we have a turkey, maybe next Thanksgiving.

Milo: Okay. Why don't wishes come true?

Me: Well (trying to veer away from this topic), there are many reasons. Maybe you're wishing for something that's not at all possible. Sometimes they come true though.

Milo: Well, if I could make a wish I'd wish that you wouldn't tell me what to do, unless it was something really important.

Me: (silence and a giant smile)

Later in the day, as Milo and I shared some hot chocolate, which is when we also usually have a little afternoon chat, Milo said he had a second wish: "that he could eat hot chocolate all the time." Oh yes, I love him so, despite his fierce independence and willfulness. This second conversation reminded me of something my darling son said last week, as we shared some hot chocolate: "these are good pants for hot chocolate." Yes, those cozy gray sweatpants he was wearing are "hot chocolate pants." Good thing I have a pair too.