Most of my days are spent with a 12-year old and an infant, and part of the day with my 15-year old as well. My husband works odd hours and often is sleeping when the rest of us are awake. I have to say, I love them all, but none of them are sparkling conversationalists.

Last weekend my husband tried to engage me in a conversation to determine what to call the shade of blue of the sheet we were putting on the bed. He was once able to go on for about three days, off and on, as to what hue exactly one would call purple. I guess color is a bit of an obsession for him, especially if we are talking about the hair color of some Hollywood actress. I’m not saying everything out of his mouth is equally meaningless. He babbled at me for a good 10 minutes the other day on how the style of the Beatles differed from the style of Ricky Nelson. It took him the whole 10 minutes to realize I wasn’t paying the least bit of attention. Now if I were actually interested in the starting lineups of both teams in the 1969 World Series, I’d be in good shape for a chat partner. But this is honestly the extent of what I get in terms of adult conversation.

With a 15-year old around you would think maybe our talks would be beginning to have a little bit of substance to them. But you’d be wrong about that. Mostly what TR likes to tell me about is whatever he last watched on television, or the latest exploits of one of his video game characters. I do once and awhile get him to talk a bit about his friends at school. He lets me know what video games they are playing. He especially likes to remind me over and over that their parents, unlike me, let them play the “Mature” rated games. Honestly, for the most part, the most adult sentences coming out of his mouth are the ones where he’s angry and telling me how I’m ruining his life and he never wants to talk to me again.

Now SW is capable of some very interesting insights. He occasionally astounds me with the cleverness of his observations. This is in between telling me he’s hungry, or he would like for me to buy him some more toys. We must be on the edge of some growth in maturity though. He has a fantastic, although sometimes stinging, wit. One day I made a wrong turn, and pulled into the nearest parking lot to get turned back around the right way. It happened to be the library. My son piped up with the question, “What are you gonna do here Mom, get a map?”

So that leaves the baby. I have to admit; sometimes the most intelligent sounding exchanges heard in my house all day are between her and me. They go something like this:

Mom – “How’s the little girl doing today?”

RM – “Aah bah ba ba buh.”

Mom – “Really? That good huh?”

RM – “Mum mum, ba mum aah bah.

Mom – “And what would you like to do this afternoon.”

RM – “Ack aah, ack ack oooohhhhhh.”