I'm trying to get into the habit of telling Dashiell about my day when I ask about his. I keep things pretty simple and might explain that I was working on writing many words for an article or that I helped someone figure something out or that I talked with a friend and we decided to work on something together. Or that I was frustrated and had to solve a problem.

I've found that I really like telling Dashiell about my day; with young children you spend so much time talking about what they want and what they will do and what they shouldn't do. It's nice to talk about myself for a change! Ha! And even though I'm not sure how much he understands I like laying the foundation for Dashiell's understanding of the fact that when Chris and I are away from him we are doing things that we enjoy and that are important to us and that are sometimes challenging.

The other night at bedtime I was laying with Dash, our faces very close, and asking him about his day. He told me about the firetruck with the button he pushed and the book of big trucks that he reads at nap time and the friends he sleeps near at nap time (heart melting!). And then I told Dashiell a little bit about my day. Then we talked about what we might do in the morning when we woke up and a few other things.

And then Dash said, "What's happened your day, mama? What's happened daddy's day?"

My heart swelled! It surprised me at how happy it made me to be asked about my day from my toddler. And how proud I was to tell him what I do at work.

Even if Dashiell doesn't fully understand or have as much interest in my day as I do in his I love that we are establishing that the question of "How was your day?" goes both ways between child and parent.

Understandably, Chris and I usually only ask Dashiell about his day, and tell him about ours, on work days when we are not together. But I'd like to start doing this on weekends as well. It would be interesting to hear Dashiell process his day and I think also important to demonstrate to him that even though we might have been together for most of the day we might have had different experiences.

 So, what's happened your day, friends?