Rain Smoke

As we were pulling out of the driveway this morning, N pointed to the sprinklers going off next door.

"Where DAT water coming from?"

"It's from their sprinklers, honey."

"Like ours?"

"Yep."

A second of silence.

"LOOK! Smoke!"

I look. "Oh, that's not smoke, sweetie. That's just very, very tiny drops of water from the sprinklers that the sun is hitting so they're kind of lit up. It's called mist."

He considered that for a second. "No, not mist. I call dat rain smoke."

I swear that my whole soul leapt for joy when he said that. How wonderful to be a child and see a world where everything is new and beautiful, and needs to be named. How wonderful to be a child who isn't yet constricted by the words and phrases of others. How wonderful to be a child who looks at a ray of sun through droplets of water and sees rain smoke.

And how wonderful to have a child who helps you see it, too.