{the kind of conversations I sometimes have with Drew}

Yesterday afternoon after a marathon drawing session at the dining room table:

Drew: (bringing me a drawing he has just completed with random letters written all over it) Mom, will you read this to me?

Me: Maybe you could tell me what it says?..... Since it is your drawing?

Drew: (blank stare)

Me: What would you like this drawing to say? Can you tell me what you wrote when you made it?

Drew: (in exasperation and in a tone implying what he currently thinks of my intelligence) Mom, you know I can't read.



Or, at dinner last night while the rest of us ate salads:

Drew: Can you make me a salad just like Luke's....... but without the lettuce?....... or the dressing?

Me: So you basically would like a bowl of cheese?

Drew: Yes, but a salad made of it.