Conversations with a 3-year Old

During my brother's wedding weekend, there were many times when my 3-year old niece was more or less my responsibility. Other than getting her down the aisle at the wedding, the most notable time that I spent with her was the car ride on Sunday. While Shawn flew back from Raleigh to Seattle, I drove with my parents and my niece to Ohio. I took a relatively short shift driving, but except for that, I was in the backseat with my niece for the 13-hour drive.

Now that she's 3, she's pretty fun to hang out with. She has some very interesting (read that: funny) things to say. I really wish that I'd been writing her comments down all weekend long as she said them, but there were a few things that stuck with me that I thought I'd share here. As you can see, lots of our conversations centered around Uncle Shawn. :)

When first seeing Shawn:
Me: "This is Uncle Shawn. Can you say hi?"
Her: "Uncle Shawn has scruff."

On Sunday, she wanted to know if Uncle Shawn was going to ride in the car with us to Ohio.
Me: "Uncle Shawn is going to get on an airplane and fly back to our house."
Her: "Is he going to fly to infinity and beyond like Buzz Lightyear?"

While we were waiting for the wedding ceremony to start, someone brought us the basket full of flower petals a little early.
Her: "I want to hold the flower basket."
Me: "If I let you hold the basket now, do you promise not to throw the flowers until I tell you it's time?"
Her: "No."

We were in the car on Sunday evening. At this point, she's probably asked us at least 10 times "Where's Uncle Shawn?"
Her: "Where's Carrie's Uncle Shawn?"
Me: "Well, he's not my uncle Shawn; he's yours. See, I'm your Aunt Carrie, and since he's my husband, that makes him your Uncle Shawn."
Her: (with wide eyes and a big smile) "He's MY Uncle Shawn??"
Me: "Yep, he's your Uncle Shawn."
Her: He's MY really big Uncle Shawn??"

At Wendy's, we got her a kid's meal, which came in a bag that had pictures of sports equipment on it. I was asking her if she knew what the different balls were.
Me: "Yep, that's a basketball. Now do you know what this is? (pointing to a football)"
Her: "Buckeye!" After a few second pause, "Football!"
**Yes...her father is an Ohio State fan.