Conversations

Emma is officially in her "what if" stage. Andrew did this too. It's not that they never ask at a younger age or an older one, it's just that there seems to come a time when they are particularly fond of the question.
Andrew's stage was so completely different from hers. He asked broad questions about how his environment would change if something were different. I remember him asking once what would happen if all the oceans, rivers and lakes were made out of milk. I think I responded with how all the fish would be dead and it would smell terrible when the milk curdled. A particularly brilliant friend pointed out that I had missed it entirely. Cows would produce water. The fish would be just fine swimming in the milk. The whole family would go out for ice and we'd skate on ice cream in the winter. Water and milk would merely trade places. Of course!
Emma's questions are much more personal. And I've had so much fun with them now that I'm a bit more experienced with answering. Here are some samples of recent conversations (they mostly take place in the car):

Emma: What if I was a squirrel?
Me: I would come to the park every day with a brown paper bag full of peanuts. Then I would sit on a bench and hold them out, hoping you would eat out of my hand.
Emma: I would always sit next to you on the bench and eat your peanuts, Mom.

Emma: What if you found a basket of puppies at the front door?
Me: Well, I might be a little bit freaked out at first. Then we would try to find them all good homes.
Emma: No! I would be one of those puppies.
Me: How would I know which one you were?
Emma: I would be the one on the top that was the friendliest. I would crawl up and lick you in the face.
Me: Well, then, I guess you'd be the one I'd keep.

Emma: Mom, what if I was a baby cheetah?
Me: Well, I'd probably love to hold you at first, but the you'd grow up and I'd be afraid of you. You might eat me accidentally.
Emma: I would never eat you. I would know you were my mom and you could ride on my back while I went running.
Me: Okay....well....if you promise not to eat me....

Emma: What if candy was good for you?
Me: Then I would tell you, "No spinach for you, kiddo. You didn't finish your jelly beans."
Emma: Yuck!
Me: No. Spinach would, of course, be like candy, and you would always be asking me if we could buy some cauliflower while we were in line at the grocery store. BTW, thank you, Mark, for the logic (from the milk/water question) that also applied to this question! I just now realized it's actually the same type of question....sometimes I'm a little slow.

I love "what if." We grow out of that question, don't we? Grown-up what-ifs, though, are more treacherous. They can seem to betray people that we love or they make us feel discontent with our lives as they are. The childhood what-ifs are so much more fun. This is my last shot at this phase. I plan to fully enjoy it.

DAILY BLISS: Knitting - I'm not very good at it, and my practice-square-that-may-be-a-scarf-if-it-gets-longer has many, many flaws, dropped stitches and a mysterious five more loops than I started with (I'm sure there's an official term for the loops, but I really don't know it). But it's so much fun to learn something entirely new!