Last weekend after visiting my brother and sister-in-law, we went up to Virginia to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We were there through the day after Labor Day, which meant that we were there when all of the kids returned from vacation to the daycare that my aunt runs.

As I am used to spending my days either alone, with cats, or with grownups, it was quite a different experience for me to be surrounded by a group of one and two-year-olds, especially when I overheard the kinds of conversations that routinely took place.

Like the time that my aunt had to yell out, “[Name of not-quite-two-year-old child], will you please STOP licking my chair!”

Or the time that I heard her helping another child to practice subject-verb agreement.

“Yes, she has,” I heard her say to the child. “She has poo.”