Yesterday Sophia casually told me about a boy at school that had saved her from another boy that was chasing her. She said that the M. was pretending to be a mean dog and had her backed into a corner, but then T. also pretended to be a mean dog and chased M. away.

When she said it, I didn't pay much attention, she always has little stories to tell me. But then, a few minutes later, she talked about it again, and she had this little something in her voice and in her smile.

Oh boy, a crush! Already?! I'm guess my life is downhill from here. Once I caught on to the whole situation, I engaged her more and said things like, "oh, wow, that sure was nice of him." "Yikes, that was brave!" You know, stuff that gets 4 year old's excited. She had this little cute grin on her face the whole time.

Then I suggested that we go upstairs and look at her class picture and she could show me who he was. She lit up even more and we ran upstairs. I got her picture down and she pointed T. out for me and when she did, she had this dreamy look on her face! (What the what?)

I told her I thought he looked nice, that he had a great smile. Then she said, "He is the most handsome, isn't he?"

Oh boy, really? I seriously felt like a mom. But in a good way. It made me hope that 10 years from now she will still want to have conversations like this with me.