Late night request

"Moooooommmmm. Mooooooommmmmm."

I heard the plaintive cry from Larien's room. She should have been asleep. She met me halfway down the stairs. I asked her what she needed. I assumed she'd beg for a drink or a snack. She already knew she could leave her light on to read.

"Where's my multiplication table?"

I'd introduced it to her a few days earlier to help her with some math problems. "It's in your notebook."

"You mean my binder," she said with her eyes rolled up in her head. My inability to call her school things by the proper term annoys her. She stomped off to get the slip of paper from her bag.

"Why do you need this right now?"

"I need to do more math, Mom, right now."

I'm so proud of my nerd.