Conversations

A couple nights ago, Little Bug cuddled up to me in bed. “Daddy Bake?”
“Yes Bug?”
“I swim whale sharks.”
“You want to swim with whale sharks?”
“Yeah… tiger sharks, bee white white sharks, sand tiger sharks, blue sharks, hammer sharks- scawy for me. Just look. Bee hurt me.”
“You’re right; all those sharks could hurt you. Can whale sharks hurt you?”
“NO! No teef!”
“You’re right, they don’t have teeth.”
“You come with me?”
“You want me to go swim with whale sharks with you…. Anytime.”

He rolled over, content in this conversation. He closed his eyes and cuddled in between me and Nick. Within seconds he was asleep.

When Nick and Little Bug come pick me up from the bus stop, I always ask Little Bug about his day. He normally says that he “paid twains” and that’s about it. Sometimes, I get a garbled sentence about his teacher with lots of hand motions. Yesterday, he surprised us all.

“How was your day, Little Bug?”
“I paid twains.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed thinking that this would be the usual end of our conversation. “How was your lunch?”
“I ate. Raidins. Ham. Capcakes.” He frowned furiously. It was obvious that he was really trying to figure something out. “I shared with O. O is my friend. N. too!”

I burst into tears. He has never mentioned friends. He has never mentioned people from his class before. He went to his last school with O and although O was Little Bug’s favorite person to play with, he never talked about him. In fact, they never talked to each other. They would hold hands during Red Light, Green Light, and play next to each other. Apparently, he always holds O’s hand when getting off the bus and going to lunch.
Little Bug has also decided he has a west fiend- which I am assuming is a best friend… our dog Frank. He gave him a hug last night and said, “Frank, you my west fiend.”