Now for the Cute and Funny

I like to balance out my posts with a good one about the kids after I bore you non-knitters with my knitting stuff, so here are some cute shots of Lily modeling the new sweater her Grandma Deeds made for her. One photo also features the matching purse (somewhat stretched out by the pounds of change she poured in there from her piggy bank). Also, it's hard to see, but she insisted on posing with two of her Barbies in a couple of the photos.






That was the cute, in case you couldn't tell.

This is the funny -- here are a few things that the kids said this week that I found amusing:

Lily, talking about how God filled up the rivers and ponds: "He must have used his mother's garden hose!"

Jack's stock response when asked about school: "I play with friends, I play with fun mag-a-nets, I play outside, I have 'nack, I play with fiahfucks." Translation: mag-a-nets = magnets, 'nack = snack and fiahfucks = firetrucks.

Jack, talking about an upcoming trip to North Carolina: "I go walk with Papa to the rainmoo. Papa show me the rainmoo." Rainmoo = windmill. Of course, Jim isn't going to North Carolina, and the "rainmoo" is actually at the home of Jack's other grandparents! He's a little confused. I doubt he remembers the last time he visited North Carolina, but he sure remembers the "rainmoo" in California!

Lily, explaining why she doesn't cry when I drop her at school now: "I don't have to cry if I don't want to." Too bad she didn't feel this way for the last six months.

Finally, time to make fun of myself a bit. Remember that one time that I complained about Jim? And his scraping of cream cheese and two olives? Remember how annoyed I was? Well, I guess I believe in karma because yesterday Jim had good reason to be annoyed with me. He called me at about 8:30 (shortly after he left the house) and asked me to put the steak tips in to marinade. The catch? I was supposed to look on the internet to find a recipe and make the marinade myself.

As some of you may be aware, I am not a good cook. In fact, I can barely make macaroni and cheese from a box. Baking? Love it. Cooking, on the other hand, usually leads to me setting something on fire. Anyway...I was not thrilled about having to find a recipe and put together a marinade, but I agreed to do it and hung up.

Within about 15 minutes I completely forgot about the conversation. I'd like to blame my heart medication or lack of sleep. One or both of them probably contributed to my forgetfulness. If I'm being brutally honest, however, I suspect there was some element of a subconscious passive-aggressive desire to forget about it! Either way, I did not give the matter a second thought until Jim arrived at home and told me he was going out to start the grill. I didn't even remember it when he mentioned the grill! Then he asked "Did you remember to marinate the steak tips?"

Oops. He seemed a little annoyed and he said with a sigh, "I suppose I can try to marinate them while the grill is getting ready." He did and they tasted great.

Later, as I was telling my mom about the incident, she told me you can marinate steak tips in Caesar dressing. Umm, that would have been easy, even for me! I mentioned it to Jim and he said with a tone of annoyance "I know, that's what I ended up marinating them in." Good to know. Perhaps he should have mentioned that option to me instead of suggesting that I hunt down a recipe and make marinade from scratch.

So, seeing it from Jim's perspective, he probably has even more reason to rant about me than I have about him. Although, I would like to mention that those two olives? They're still in the fridge and no one has made a sandwich out of them to date.

Still Sick at My House

Jim got sick in the middle of the night, and Jack started throwing up this morning. Lily seems to be fine now, so she went to school. I'm suffering from a chest cold, but so far I'm staving off the stomach virus.

Jack got much better after he napped this morning, and is now running around the living room playing with his trucks and hot wheels. I had to go into the kitchen for something, and I told him "Don't do anything naughty while I'm gone." As I stepped out of his sight, he kept repeating "anything naughty!" over and over again. Then I heard some crashes, so I ran back into the room. He was dropping everything he could find behind the couch. Perhaps this explains the large number of items I keep finding there!!!!

Lily asked me more questions about God on the way to school this morning. She asked again if God had any pets, and I told her he had all the pets who went to Heaven. Then she asked if the cats took turns sitting in his lap. I told her that God was so big, all the cats could sit in his lap at one time. We then had this conversation:

Lily: "Is he bigger than those trees?"

Me: "He's bigger than the whole world, because he made the world."

Lily: "Are we in his stomach?"

M: No, but we are all a part of God and God is a part of all of us.

L: He must be humungo! Did he make that house?

M: Yes.

L: Did he make me?

M: Yes. He made everything in the world.

L: Did he make all the worlds? (To Lily, a "world" can mean a different town or country)

M: Yes. And he did it in 6 days.

L: That was so fast!

M: On the seventh day he rested.

L: He was probably tired out.

M: Probably.

Then we got to school. I asked her if she wanted to go to church some time.

L: No. I don't want to go to church.

M: But at church you can hear people talk about God.

L: I already know about God.

M: They sing songs about God there, too.

L: No thanks!

I'm really curious what is making her ask all these questions lately!

Are You There, God? It's Me, Lily.

Lily has been asking a lot of questions about God lately. I think I triggered it on Thursday morning when we were driving to school and we had the following conversation:

Lily: I'm the boss of Jack, right Mom?

Me: No, you aren't the boss of anyone. If you saw Jack doing something wrong, you can stop him from doing it, but you're not the boss of him.

Lily: But you're the boss of me and Jack, right?

Me: Yes, and so is Papa.

Lily: And the teachers are the boss of me at school?

Me: Yes. And do you know who the boss of me is? (I asked because I was curious to see if she would say my parents or Jim were the boss of me).

Lily: God. Because God is the boss of everyone.

Me: Well, I suppose that's true.

Lily: Does God love everyone?

Me: Yep.

Lily: Even if they're bad?

Me: He always loves you, but he gets very disappointed and sad if you're bad and wants you to stop it and try to be good.

Lily: Even bad men?

Me: Especially bad men. God loves everyone the same.

Then we got to school, so the conversation stopped. I felt pretty comfortable with our discussion, but I was totally unprepared for the questions that she asked at dinner that night.

Lily: Papa, who's the boss of God?

Jim: (looks at me in a panic) I guess God is the boss of himself, right?

Me: Yes. He is in charge of everything.

Lily: Does he know everything I'm thinking?

Me: Yes.

Lily (concerned) Does he know where I hide all my secretest treasures and what I'm going to do with them? I don't want anyone to know that!

Me: (praying that her "secretest treasures" are not Sharpie markers) Yes, but God would never tell your secret to anyone in the world, as long as you aren't planning to do something bad (I said this in hopes of thwarting any plans that might damage our house or furniture).

Lily (relieved): Oh, okay. Does he know everything you and Papa are thinking?

Me: Yes. He knows what everyone in the world is thinking.

Lily: Does he have a mother?

Me: (not sure how to answer) No.

Jim: Yes, he does. Mary, Mother of God.

Me: Oh, that's right.

Lily: Why isn't his mother the boss of him?

Jim: I don't know (looking at me. I shrug, I have no idea how to answer that one).

Lily: Does he have cats and dogs at his house?

Jim: I don't know.

Me: Yes, in Kitty and Dog Heaven (because I gave Lily a book about Kitty Heaven when Cooper died, and it quite clearly states that God lets his cats eat their supper on the counter and sleep on his bed).

Lily: That's right. If he's God, he can have whatever he wants at his house, right?

Me: Right.

Lily: And heaven's up in the sky, right?

Me: Yes.

Lily: Okay. Can I be excused?

I would like to think that she is asking about God because she's interested in the subject, and not because she has secret plans to do something naughty and wants to make sure God won't find out and dime her out to us. I'm keeping my eye open for any large amounts of time spent out of our sight, just in case.