Litter

We were sitting in a cafe, resting our legs, having a snack, noticing that after spending much of the day walking around in the pouring rain, we were going to be lucking into some lovely weather for a pre-dinner walk. The kids finished their hot chocolate and Adriana pulled a book out of her backpack and began to read to Lyra.

I love the National Geographic Kids early readers. Adriana reads them with ease, and they’re about animals so Lyra loves to listen to them. Which means I get to read my own book in peace for almost ten whole minutes. This one was about wolves and included a lot about pups, so Lyra was particularly pleased.

In the back of the book were some quiz questions and vocabulary lists, and I heard the girls begin to argue about the word “litter.” Lyra was insisting that “litter” meant trash, and Adriana was launching into a lecture about synonyms. Their voices were rising, and I was about to cut Adriana off by telling her some arguments weren’t worth having with a three-year-old, when suddenly Lyra interrupted herself.

“Oh, I get it! Wolf pups make a mess. Just like baby peoples! That is why they are called a litter.”

“Exactly!” Adriana agreed. I don’t know if she was just pleased to have Lyra stop arguing or whether she believed Lyra was right, but some arguments aren’t worth having with a six-year-old either, so I went back to my book and they went back to theirs.