My parents sent along venison summer sausage with us when we came home last week so Anna and I had some for lunch one day. (As a side note, this kid eats meat now! I mean, she'll actually ask for seconds on meatloaf, salmon, cheeseburgers, etc.!) I told Anna that the sausage was special because it was from deer. It didn't occur to me until then that Anna probably has no concept of where meat comes from. I realized my mistake when she said that we should thank the deer for the sausage, and that we must have gotten our crackers from the deer, too. So I tried to explain how a hunter shot the deer and (I glossed over a little here) parts of the deer were made into our sausage. Anna's response, without missing a beat, "Look, there's a part of the deer right there. And there's another." And then she ate up the rest of her sausage. I guess we don't have a vegetarian.
Another day Anna went to the bathroom by herself while I was feeding Kate. When she flushed, there was a bit of air in the pipes and the whole system made some loud, groaning noises. I didn't think much of it until the next time Anna had to go potty and she told me she wanted to use the other bathroom. When I asked why she said it was because there were cats (specifically Pounce, who hasn't lived with us for about 8 months) trying to come through the floor the last time she went. I understand the sound was odd, but cats coming through the floor? Really?
I think in relation to this previous story, I was talking with Anna about how Jesus is always with us even though we can't see Him (you know, He can even keep us safe from cats coming through the floor). Well, Anna latched onto that idea and proceeded to talk to Jesus for the next half hour, inviting Him to come into her room and see her toys and her bed and then having Him follow her into the kitchen, etc. For the next few days whenever she had to go to the bathroom, she'd also ask "Is Jesus here with us now?" I'm sure God must have a sense of humor :)
Along the religious lines, we've been doing the Resurrection Eggs with Anna this year to help prepare her for Easter. In case you've never seen them, here's a brief description. A small visual reminder of some part of the Easter story is placed in a dozen plastic eggs. Each day for the 12 days preceeding Easter we've been reading the Bible verse, opening the egg, and having the mini-devotion provided.
Anna really gets a kick out of seeing what's inside, but I didn't realize quite how descriptive we would have to get with some of the objects. For instance, yesterday's object was a whip, for when Jesus was whipped. So we had to explain how sometimes when people would disobey, they wouldn't get a time out they would be whipped, at which point we had to explain what actual whipping was. Anyway, then Anna took the little leather piece from the egg and said "I whip you, Daddy." And a few minutes later, "Daddy, Kate isn't obeying. You should whip her." So we went through another explanation of how we don't whip people in our home.
Today's object was a crown of thorns ... another whole series of explanations. Teachable moments, right? At least she understood the praying hands pretty easily :)
On a different note, we went to the lambing barn again this year to see the baby lambs and other animals. Anna loved it and was running from stall to stall to see what other animals she could find. Kate was a little overwhelmed at first (there were a LOT of people there), but she warmed up to the situation after awhile.
1 comment:
I love the conversations with Jesus. Thanks for the laugh Anna!
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