Everyone's seen it on TV, at least; the shows like to focus on it in the Navy, but it happens in all branches of the military where someone is standing watch: the oncoming watchstander arrives a few minutes before their shift is officially supposed to begin, receives a briefing about current events and the standing orders, and then relieves the offgoing watchstander, who then, probably 90+% of the time, heads immediately to their bunk to sleep.

Olive has independently invented this ritual. We go through the same bedtime routine we've had since moving into this apartment, which culminates with me singing a song and bidding her goodnight, leaving her with Christina to actually fall asleep. For the last few weeks, Olive has taken this opportunity to spend the next half hour telling Christina in some detail what the events of the day were.

It's such a pure phenomenon: Olive is honestly eager to share her experiences, and finally has the vocabulary to effectively do so. She tells her mother what's happened, everything she's feeling, and then finally calms enough to attempt to sleep.

Of course, extending the bedtime routine is a matter of some chagrin for Christina; she'd already been spending non-trivial time each night in there helping Olive fall asleep, so it's not the best possible news that the process now takes longer. Still, we'll be sad when she stops unloading to us like this.

We are now entering what, in retrospect, we'll look back on as something of a golden age: Olive loves us wholeheartedly, trusts us completely, and is willing in most cases to obey us. This is the most open she'll ever be with us.

I remember being in middle school, answering my parents' inquiries about how my day went with the minimal facts: nothing happened, really, the days' classes weren't that interesting. At the time, it felt like I was advancing, improving my ability to filter my experience by interestingness instead of just dumping everything unconditionally. What I didn't realize at the time was that in all likeliness, my parents remembered the unconditional dumps with fondness, and were sad when they stopped.

I'll be sad when Olive stops telling us everything. That's why it's important to listen now.