Day 26 - Mess

Dave often encourages behavior that leaves me, as the mother, torn between stopping it and throwing my hands up while letting the fun continue. This is one of those things - times 2.

He asked them, "How do the piggies eat?" They showed him without a moment's hesitation. This was before he showed them his most beloved Christmas movie of all time, so they did it without even having the Christmas Story reference. I was equally horrified and amused at their eating like pigs and that he showed them the movie.

They loved it, of course. The first night, I fielded 284 questions about bullies and licking frozen flag poles, but since then, they ask him to turn it on every time they go downstairs with him. He loves having someone to share it with, as I've only just started tolerating the movie. I hated it when I was little - because of the bully and the flagpole licking and the mean Santa.

It also led to a good conversation with Ella when she asked me, about the bully, "Why does God make bad people?" I explained as plainly as I could that God made us with free will and that we are all sinners - we all do bad things. Sin separates us from God, but God wants us to be with him, so he sent Jesus to die on the cross for us. Jesus paid his life for our sins so that, if we love Him and ask Him to live in our hearts, we can live in Heaven with God after we die. It's not the first time we've talked about this, but it is the first time she's asked me to explain God in terms of something she views as negative. I hope I didn't make a mess of it.

Day 17 - On the floor.

There are lots of things on our floors at any given time of the day. We can't seem to not have things on the floor. Sometimes it makes me batty and I start to kick the things (mostly the 10 pairs of little shoes that never seem to make it past the threshhold of the front door), but most of the time I just let it go knowing that eventually it will get picked up. Sometimes I do the picking up (when I get to the kicking point) and sometimes the mess magically disappears without me even having to request it. That's what I like best, when they come along behind themselves and put things away just because it's nice to be able to find what we need - and they both do this fairly often. Except for shoes, of course.

The best things that get on our floors are our very own selves. We play and play in the floor - games, puzzles, Barbies, trains, cars, ball, Mommy Mule, Goody-Hog, and most recently, Don't Wake the Daddy Bear. Dave started it (thus, the Daddy Bear) but we all play. Ella is Sister Bear, Luke is Baby Bear, and I am Mommy Bear. Basically, we pretend to be asleep and wake each other up by sneaking up and yelling or patting. It's loud and rowdy, and you might get an actual slap upside the head when Luke gets caught up in the moment, but they love it and they are terribly cute when they fall out on the floor and pretend to snore. Even Georgia plays with us; we call her the Doggy Bear.


Daddy Bear and Baby Bear Sleeping.
Not really, but aren't they convincing?
 Luke is the best pretend sleeper I've ever seen.