Conversation . . .

At breakfast one morning recently, I made chocolate chip pancakes (gluten, egg, dairy free of course).
E got hers, looked at her pancakes and said,"Ooo, T, they're chocolate chip!"
T: "I know. You don't have to tell me."
Me: "T, I think she told you because she was excited about it, not because she thought you didn't know."
T: "The only reason to tell someone something is to tell them something they don't know."
Me: "Actually, conversation is for many purposes, sometimes it is to communicate new information, but often it is to connect. That's what E was doing, trying to connect with you and share her excitement."
T: "Well, I think you should only tell someone something if they don't know it already."

My children are so different from each other - dare I say opposite? - in how they communicate and their desire for, level of and means of communication. It is already difficult to get information from T about his school day unless I ask the right questions and even then, only bare bones info comes out unless it is something that sparks him (rarely). E, on the other hand, likes to share stories but hers are so imaginative and chronologically-challenged that there's no way of knowing what really happened. If they can learn now how to love and accept the other now . . .