This past weekend, I noted that Ana’s tiny tummy was… well, not so tiny, thanks to all the mac-n-cheese she’s been consuming over the holiday break.

“Ana,” I said, poking her. “Why is your tummy protruding?”

She took a look, then said, “I don’t know. Why is YOUR tummy protruding, Mommy?”

Before I could take offense to this, I told her, matter-of-factly, “It’s called tapering and carb loading. I have a marathon to run next weekend.”

She looked at me for a minute, then said, very slowly, “Riiiiiggghhhhtttt.”

Oh, my.

It’s easy to forget sometimes that I’m trying to explain myself to a six year old. Because that six year old? Clearly understands a whole lot more than I believed it was possible to understand at six years old.

Time to stop poking her (and my!) protruding tummy, y’all.