Can you be more specific please?

Back in the day, before we were married, but not too much before, I would let Tara borrow the Escort to go places. This was either went dating had already started or was very eminent. It was the Escort that really salted things for Tara, by the way...

One of the times I let her borrow the car was on a Saturday when I was at work. (I used to close the computer room every Saturday, and worked from 2pm to 8pm.) Tara went shopping or something, towards dinner, her and one of her roommates stopped by with a ham and pineapple pizza. Tara asked me if I wanted a piece, I very politely passed. We visited some, but they couldn't get me to take a piece.

A couple of years later, Tara let me know that she bought that pizza for me. (This was during a discussion we were having about pizza and how pizza should not include cooked fruit.) I didn't know she was trying to to be nice... Consider this: I would have been a lot less clueless about it had she walked in and said "Hi, thanks for loaning me the car, I bought this pizza to share with you to thank you, come have a slice." (Tara wasn't that forward...) That's the kind of clearness I need sometimes.

Tara knows now that when she calls in the afternoon, the question to ask is "When are you coming home?" This question leads to less ambiguity than other questions she could ask.

I haven't really gotten this concept through to the girls yet. A couple of nights ago, I found Emma pouting in her room 2 hours after she went to bed. I asked her what was wrong, she said "I wanted you to get me some milk." There didn't seem to be any indication of that before. Today, she started flipping out while were were trying to get everyone out of the house to go over to the school for Mary's thing. After a bit of crying, she finally started screaming "I'm Hungry! I'm Hungry! I'm Hungry!' Maybe I'm starting to get through to her. I sat her down and gave her some food.

So, if you ever some across my kids, and they are very direct and upfront about something they want, that means the lessons are being won. If they sit there and don't say anything, they are just channeling their "Inner Uncle Dave".

Just kidding Dave.