Yesterday, we held a family get-together to celebrate my husband’s birthday. As it was unbearably hot and humid, we had picked up a little wading pool for our grandchildren and set it up just before they arrived.

Within minutes of arriving, they wanted to be in the pool and especially wanted to splash Grandpa. Then, our grandson kept telling me that he was going to take the water out of the pool because he was going to take it (the pool) inside the house. I kept explaining that we weren’t going to take the pool inside, and he kept scooping water until he finally asked me “Why?” Why couldn’t the pool go inside the house? Really, Grandma, wouldn’t it be fun to have a pool in the house? It made me laugh, he was so insistent that it would be a good idea, and I was so sure that it was a bad one. Ultimately, the pool stayed in the yard, but we had an awful lot of fun both with the splashing and the conversation.

It made me think that one of the wonders of childhood is the lack of rules and expectations in thoughts — in his mind, I was the one who wasn’t thinking clearly, and maybe he was right!