Last week - exactly a week ago today - I was talking with my Dad,
Bobbin's 'Grandpa Jerry', on the phone and he was telling me about how
he had just spent 3 hours stuck in a storm in Port Dover. There's
actually quite a bit more to that story, but it's not mine to tell :-)
Bobbin was hearing only my side of the conversation but it was full of
exclamations and she heard me say exciting words like "lightening" and
"storm" and so she asked me what we were talking about. I summarized
the story for her something like this:

"Well, Grandpa Jerry had to go to Port Dover. Do you remember Port
Dover? It's the place that had the beach we went to, where Grandpa
Jerry buried his feet in the sand" She nodded and added some detail to
the memory, and then I went on "Well, Grandpa Jerry went there
yesterday and a storm came in from the lake and it got really really
windy and rainy and he was trapped there for a long time until the
storm was over".

So today, a whole week later, we're driving to the park this morning to have some fun and
exercise, and out of the blue Bobbin asks "Mommy, why Grampa Jerry got
stuck in the storm and he was trapped?"

The way she was asking I knew she had some mental picture of Grandpa
Jerry, standing on the beach in the rain, his feet and legs encased in
sand up to his knees making him literally stuck and trapped in on the
beach in the storm as lightening flashed overhead, and thunder rumbled,
and waves broke over the rocks, and the rain poured down on Grandpa
Jerry's drenched head. Because that's what "stuck" and "trapped" means
to Bobbin. It means physically not being capable of moving.

I clarified that what I really meant was that Grandpa was forced to
sit in his car in Port Dover until the rain and wind stopped so that he
could get home safely. He couldn't drive the car because there was so
much wind and rain that he couldn't see. Of course, "couldn't see" to
Bobbin means physically not being capable of seeing what is in front of
you. And so she asked

"Why Grampa Jerry could not see? Was Grampa Jerry wearing his eye glasses?"

She must think we're all a bunch of idiots sometimes, with the
mental images that our words create for her. Like Grandpa Jerry going
off to the beach and burying his feet in the sand and then being stuck
while it rained on him and then not being able to drive home because he
lost his glasses. Geez, Grandpa Jerry, what were you thinking? I mean
really?

So I explained that Grandpa Jerry was wearing his glasses (it's
interesting to note that she remembers that; she hasn't seen him in
over a year) but that even with his glasses, there was so much rain
fallng that it made it hard for him to see what was in front of him,
like when it's really foggy outside and the fog makes it hard to see
what's in front of us (we get a lot of fog in the spring).

That seemed to satisfy her but I'm pretty sure that all it did was
add a pair of eye glasses to the mental picture of Grandpa Jerry
standing in the sand up to his knees, drenched, and stuck waiting for
the storm to blow over. But she had moved on and so did I.

Next up was the subject of Newfoundland.
Not sure how we got on this topic, but I was telling her how maybe next
summer she and Daddy and I should try and take a trip to Newfoundland.
Of course she asked where Newfoundland is, and so I explained that
"Newfoundland is the Eastern most province of Canada and.." I was about
to go into the historic details of Newfoundland and our family
connection to it, but she stopped me and said "And that's where the
Eastern bunny likes to go and hide eggs for all the kids in
Newfoundland! I want to go to Newfoundland!"

So now I have a mental picture in my head of my Newfoundland uncles standing at the St. John's airport arrival gate
dressed up in giant bunny costumes waiting to greet Bobbin as she comes
through the door.

That alone is reason enough to start booking the trip.