About a month ago, when we were driving to day care in the morning, I had forgotten to pack Ro’s beloved Pluto stuffed toy. Pluto is his special toy and goes everywhere with him. Thinking of it, he’s probably the most traveled stuffed toy on the planet with multiple trips to India, Germany and around the US :).

So I had to come up with a strategy to explain, why it’s OK to drive without Pluto that day, so I didn’t have to turn around. I noticed that U2’s “With or without You” song was playing on the radio, so I explained that sometimes you can do things (here: going to day care) with or without someone (read: Pluto). After explaining this a couple of times to him, Ro was happy and was humming along with the tune – problem solved.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, when we were driving again to day care -without Pluto.

Ro: Daddy, can we listen to the Pluto song?

It took me a moment to decipher his logic, but then remembered and played U2 on the radio for him. That made him smile.