Friday

Anna, on the way home from preschool, to no one in particular:
Mrs. Warrington moved away to Kansas. But I got a new teacher. Mrs. Smith. But Mrs. Ryder did not moved away. It's okay that Mrs. Warrington moved away to Kansas. Mrs. Smith is nice.

Anna, on the way home from preschool: Where does God live?
Me: Uh, where do you guys think he lives?
Jonathan: Heaven.
Me:Yep, that's right.
Anna: Where does Mary live?
Me: Mary?
Anna: You know, Jesus' mama and dada. Mary and Joseph.
Me: Oh. Well, they are in heaven too.
Jonathan: Are ALL the Jesus people in heaven? (referring to people like Peter and Mary.)
Me: Yes, they all lived a long time ago and now they are in heaven.
Anna: That's why Jesus was a baby. Then he grew and he grew and he grew. Then he was a man.

After a full week of puzzling over one phrase Anna was saying, I figured out what she was talking about. She kept telling me something about school, and I could not figure it out. Finally, I realized (after she brought home a clown costume and a lion) that she was talking about the circus. Which, somehow, sounded like a bad word when she told me. I asked Jonathan earlier this week, What is Anna saying, buddy? And he said, matter-of-fact, She's saying S**T. I just said, No, I really don't think that's what is in her class this week (hoping that he did not even realize he was saying a bad word. I figured if I drew a lot of attention to it, he might be more apt to repeat it.) When we realized that she was talking about the circus, Jonathan sighed and said, I wish you were 5 already! I asked him why and he said, So she can talk better.

Last night, my Mom sent home a new sweater for Jonathan. He was thrilled because it had a half zip collar. He kept saying, is it a sweater or a jacket? Why does it have a zipper? He wanted to sleep in it last night, so I said fine. He came running in this morning and said, Hey, Mama, I slept in this SWEAT-er all night last night and I did not SWEAT at all! That's cause I put this t-shirt underneath it! And now I am already dressed for school.
Which was great, but I reminded him that today was their Hibernation Party, and he was supposed to wear pjs to school and take his favorite bear. So he thought for a minute, and said OK, but can I wear this sweater over it? I said sure. He quickly decided on his dinosaur pjs, and got his sweater on over it, and his shoes and everything. He brought Snowstorm, his polar bear Webkinz, to school, and was thrilled that he fit up the sleeve of his sweater. His sweat-er that does not make him sweat!

Jonathan burst into tears at bedtime last night. He was just crying his eyes out. I spent some time with him, and kept asking him, does something hurt? Did someone hurt your feelings? Are you mad? Then I said, are you worried about something? Yes! he sobbed. I finally got him to tell me. He was worried that his loose tooth was going to fall out while he slept and he was going to swallow it and then the tooth fairy was not going to give him any money! He was sobbing and hiccuping as he said this. I reassured him that we would vouch for him if there was any question about his lost tooth. Mama and Daddy would leave a note under his pillow explaining to the tooth fairy what had happened! Then he said, but what about my tummy? I told him that it would not hurt his tummy at all, he would just poop it out. This completely satisfied him, and he fell asleep peacefully. I have to tell you, it is nice to be able to solve (most) of my kids' problems. I am not looking forward to the day when there are things I can't fix for them. Tooth fairy issues are easy compared to what may lay ahead someday.

Today I got the kids both Happy Meals as a special Friday treat. Our ketchup bottle at home is almost out, and when I gave Jonathan ketchup, he giggled because it sounded very, um, gassy. I was like, alright, alright, just eat your food. Then Anna got upset because I had not given her the "toot ketchup." She started stomping her feet and crying, "Why you not give ME that toot ketchup, Mama! I want the toot ketchup like Bubba." I was very exasperated and said, Fine, Anna! I will get you some toot ketchup too! Just calm down! And then I proceeded to try and get the ketchup bottle to make enough flatulent noises to satisfy my 3-year old. I stopped suddenly and thought, What on Earth am I doing ! And then I started laughing, and then we were all giggling over the whole thing. It's little moments like these that make me stop and think, hey, maybe I am taking life a little too seriously! Sometimes you have to really dig, but there is always something funny or joyful in day to day life. Sometimes it may be potty humor that you find, but on a day like today, I'll take whatever I can get. My stepdad's back in the hospital, Biscuit (my Mom's shi tzu) ran away from home this AM and almost gave me a stroke (he's back home safe), I spilled my precious coffee all over the hood of my car (which I really needed because I had been kept late by the crazed Gator fans, but I was glad that I had not stopped to wash my car first like I had planned), and some other large and small sorrows and annoyances that I could list, but I need to wrap this up... Gonna go get my hair cut by Maura.
I felt SO terribly grumpy this morning, but it is hard to maintain a miserable attitude with these two precious little ones around. They are always saying and doing such cute stuff. As I type this, I can hear them talking in the other room. They have my camera, and they were taking some pictures with it. I guess it stopped working, because I heard Jonathan say to Anna, "Oh, that message, it must be telling you that the camera's out of memory. We need Mama to take the memory out and put it on the computer so we can take more pictures. Come on, I'll watch her do it, so I can remember and help you the next time."
I guess that's more of an example of what a brilliant little "mini-Dave" Jonathan is than an example of how cute they are. But it works, right?