It started as a game, over the phone, before I even got to Washington DC for this last trip. The opening dialogue went like this:
Michelle: “Tahli, do you want to come say hello to Auntie Lisa?â€
Tahli (in the background, is clearly none too thrilled at the prospect of yet another phone conversation with invisible and distant relatives): “No. I’m very busy right now.â€
Lisa: “Ask Tahli if she wants to come live in Laos with Auntie Lisa.â€
Michelle repeats the question to Tahlia.
There is a very long silence then a small, tentative, voice, “All my friends come too.â€
So during this trip I asked her a couple more times at random intervals, until the dialogue went like this.
Lisa: “Tahli, do you want to come live with me in Laos?â€
Tahlia: “Yes.â€
Michelle rolls her eyes.
Wednesday, picking up Tahlia from pre-school on our way to Dulles airport. Tahlia climbs into the car:
Tahli: “We go to my house now?â€
Michelle: “No, we’re going to the airport to drop off Auntie Lisa.â€
Tahlia (quietly, to herself): “I go with Auntie Lisa to Laos.â€
Michelle (to me): “Did she just say Laos? She can’t even say Australia yet and you have her saying Laos?â€
Michelle (to Tahlia): “Tahli, can you say Australia?â€
Silence.
Michelle: “Tahli, why do you want to go? Do you like the planes? Do you like Laos? Or do you like Auntie Lisa?â€
Tahlia: “I like Laos.â€
Wednesday, three hours after dropping me off at Dulles airport I receive a text message from Jed that reads:
Tahli: “I want to go with Auntie Lisa, cause I miss her soooooo much.â€
Jed: “But if you went with Auntie Lisa, wouldn’t you miss Daddy?â€
Tahlia: “Someday I’d come back Daddy.â€