TIME

Oldest Son spent a few days with us recently. I can't think of anything more amazing than having adult children. It means that somehow they survived childhood, and lived through all of the stupid things we did as parents.

My favorite thing to do is recall the absolutely hilarious things they said when they were little. Oldest Son always favored us with his interesting view on things. He also could read at a very young age.

One day The Husband God Gave Me had to run into the bank for a minute. The three kids and I sat in our very small car. The 'minute' turned out to be 'many many minutes'. I had a copy of TIME magazine I was trying to read.

Oldest Son wanted to look at it, so I passed it back to him. He wanted to know who was on the cover. I told him that one of them was President Reagan, and the other one was the president of the USSR. He wanted to know his name. I couldn't remember it (remember that i am also trying to entertain two younger children sitting uncomfortably in car seats).

Oldest Son suddenly piped up with "T" "I" "M" "E". "Mom! I think his name is TIMMY!"

Since that time, we have referred to Mikhail Gorbachev as "Timmy" Gorbachev around our house.