Maybe
"Maybe!" you sing-song, and it could mean "Maybe we should have a cookie for breakfast" or sometimes it really means "Maybe my idea is warranted and you shouldn't dismiss it offhand." Maybe it is possible to track down that girl from the cover of the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, the cute one in the pretty dress whispering to a friend; she does look like a fun girl. Maybe you could take Daddy and me on your blanket train, with an elephant conductor and a pathway through the livingroom, and maybe we really could end up on the moon.
You nod emphatically and gesture like you're running for office. It is possible. Surely. We can do it. Let's do it! Maybe we can make everything the way you dream it... Now. And then, when we're pumped! and we buy in! and you have us hooked! you sometimes say: "Maybe Not." There are wistful shakes of your head for what could have been. There are convincing frowns for what you told us we wanted, and then removed with your two year old chicanery. Every sorrow comes with a twinkle in your eye for what you control, and a consolation prize of Dinner! Now! In your room! With everybody!
You're learning to make everything the way you dream it.
You help me see things differently. "Maybe" is a whole world of negotiation, luck, whiplash and possibility. It's contagious, this heady linguistic push of determination and promise. Maybe Daddy could have his own design business and I could write a book, we could paint your new bedroom light blue and cuddle under your quilt together after a happy day of family puttering in our garden.
Maybe.
how sweetly you have captured the truism of toddlerhood!
Posted by:Maggie Pie | April 07, 2008 at 05:07 PM
what an amazing post! thank you.
Posted by:annette | April 08, 2008 at 05:34 AM
Damn these hormones. I have baby #2 coming in 3 weeks (and a little sad for my 2.5 year old daughter who doesn't realize her life will soon be changing). I got all teary reading this!!!!!!
Posted by:Sarah | April 08, 2008 at 07:45 AM
"It's contagious, this heady linguistic push of determination and promise."
Wow. Great sentence!! I love great sentences!!
Rebecca F.
Posted by:Rebecca F. | April 11, 2008 at 11:14 AM