At the споривная

Mose and I went to the park today with a two-year-old who only speaks Russian.

At one point, she pissed on the slide, a little puddle at the top, which I threw sand on, the way I'd seen old stable managers do. I thought that was pretty clever until, later, I had to come back and sweep it off the backside of her fleece pants after she'd sat in it.

At another point, a woman arrived with her two-year-old son. She asked me how old my daughter was, and I said, "Two," since that's all I knew how to say in Russian. Only later did it occur to me that this was probably the first time in my life that I'd ever lied and said I had a child.

"Do you think there'll ever be a time when I lie about having a child and it matters?" I said to Mose.

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe."

"Do you think I'll lie about having a child and not have one, or do you think I'll lie about not having a child and have one?"

Mose didn't answer right away. Then he said, "I really don't know what you're talking about."