It was inevitable that the topic of Jasmine suddenly getting sick and dying would come up last week while we were in Indiana. It was, after all, the first time we had been there since it happened. We never go anywhere without dogs in tow, so everyone is used to seeing us with them when we are visiting. Some people already knew what had happened, but more often than not it was news to people that we had lost the sweet little girl.

The topic was apparently heavy on Alexis' mind, just as it was on ours. The first night that we were at Grandma's house, Alexis sat with her 4-year old cousin, introducing him to Meg and Cody. Then she went on to detail her version of why Jasmine wasn't there. I sat a few feet away teary-eyed as my 2-year old explained something so complicated using phrases and words far more mature than her age would seem to dictate.

It was one of those soft conversations that I might have missed if I weren't cursed with the inability to filter out background conversations. I've always been that way--stuck with Super Ears. It's a blessing when I'm running a training session because I definitely hear every side conversation going on in the room, and can either adapt the class to resolve issues, or freak people out with the realization that I totally know what they are whispering about in the back of the room. It has been a curse when I have had to work in cube land. It's really hard to focus on your own work when people all around are engaged in a million random conversations. It's not that I WANT to hear them, I just do. The only thing that works to block it all out is a good set of headphones and some very loud Linkin Park.

I suspect Alexis has inherited those Super Ears from me. Of course little people always hear everything that is going on around them, but some of the things that she's been saying since we returned to Pittsburgh have convinced me that she heard WAY more than she should have while in Indiana.

I know for a fact that Alexis was cheerily playing thirty feet away in a play room on Thanksgiving Day when I was talking to one of Mr. Husband's Aunts about the whole Jasmine situation. And yet, Alexis has recited that conversation to me almost verbatim. She overheard conversations that included words like "dead" and "cremated." She didn't know those words before, and I'm certain they weren't used when she was in close proximity. She must have been tuning in those Super Ears at some very inopportune times.

I hate that any two-year old has reason to have a vocabulary that includes death terms, and I really hate that mine does. So, don't mock me when I give her my old iPod and load it with some really loud Linkin Park.