Toddlerado: The Wonderful- Literal- World of a 2-Year-Old

When Layla woke up and I asked her if she wanted to go to the Farmer’s Market, I did not expect the reaction I got.
Her eyes got big, she exclaimed, “YES!!! I want to go to the Farmer’s Market!” And then a very fast pitter-patter of feet down the hall to Court and, “Daddy, Daddy! We’re going to the Farmer’s Market!”
A quick exchange of quizzical looks that said, has she even been to a farmer’s market?, but in a few seconds we understood.
“I want to see the cows and the chickens and the pigs!”
Of course. What else would be at a ‘Farmer’s Market?’
It’s what we have been doing a lot of lately. Explaining the world one literal interpretation at a time. We explained it wasn’t that kind of farm and it was where the farmers brought their vegetables to sell. To our surprise she seemed OK with this, but we figured after the market we’d go ahead and take her to that kind of farm too. It’d been awhile since we’d gone to Lee Martinez Farm anyway. Layla got to feed a baby goat and we now know the turkeys are always angry, not just in November when we last visited them.
And then this week. Do you want to go camping, Layla?
“YES! MARSHMALLOWS!!” she yelled.
I ignored the foreshadowing. Obviously after our Memorial Day Weekend camping trip where she tried her first s’more a very real and finite equation had formed in her mind. Camping=Marshmallows.
I must have been asked a hundred times for a marshmallow. Sometimes this ended in tears, sometimes we successfully distracted.
My parents are giggling while reading this. One of my more infamous tantrums as a child revolved around the same squishy, unearthly substance. So I suppose I had this coming. But we survived and, yes, my daughter got the s’more she wanted, but when we said she would, when it was dark and we had the fire going. Not in the morning with her orange juice. And I am sure from now on we will have s’mores every camping trip for all of time, because Camping=Marshmallows.
But luckily there are sweeter examples of the inner workings of the toddler mind. From the backseat, "You are water, river!" It's like it clicked as we drove up the canyon. Rivers aren’t some foreign thing, rivers are water! We had a great camping trip minus an unhealthy obsession with marshmallows. It was worth it to witness her wrap her little mind around the world one truth at a time. And yes, Layla, we are all together. And we are here. And no, you may not have another marshmallow.