While Mama was walking Thalia around Chili’s the other night (the Patriot’s ended up losing but that was after we left), Siena was eying my frozen strawberry margarita, thinking it compared favorably to the strawberry breeze she gets at Not Your Average Joe’s and having wished we had gone there instead. She asked why she couldn’t have any of it, and I told her that it was a grown-up drink that contained alcohol (and a surprisingly robust amount of it; the bartenders were generous that evening, probably due to the sparse attendance in the restaurant).
Siena asked the expected follow-up, “What is alcohol?”
I fumbled for a moment and replied, “It’s something some grown-ups have that helps them to relax. It’s only for grown-ups.”
She seemed to accept this answer, especially once I let her lick the sugar off the rim of the glass.
On the way home in the car as Mama and I were talking with each other, and Siena and Thalia were making noises at each other, the volume level started going up. Siena mentioned something about a drink that contains things that makes adults relax, which I had to explain and we found humorous, and a few minutes later, as we continue chatting, Siena tells Mama to relax. This makes us start laughing, and then Siena says, “Relax, mom, relax,” with a heavy emphasis on the second relax.
We ask her if she knows what relax means, and she says that it means someone calms down and gets quiet, so we explain that being quiet is not necessarily a part of relaxing, but she keeps telling us to relax periodically throughout the remainder of our drive home.