Flashback

Elijah is home from school today. He is still trying to get over this cough. It seems like he will never be cough free at this point.

Anyway, Dan is sick as well and was still home sleeping when I left to take Madelyn to school so I left Elijah with Dan. On the way home I remembered a similar time when I left Elijah home with Dan. I came home and Elijah was nowhere to be seen. When I asked Dan (who had been sleeping) where he was he had no clue. I was trying not to panic and was on my way out the door trying to figure out what direction to go in first when Elijah came around the side of the house. Oh my. HUGE sigh of relief. He was looking for me and Madelyn and was walking around the house on the walkway. He was 2 1/2 at the time.

Then I remembered another time when Elijah made his way out the door. I was upstairs. Dan was in the shower and I heard Daisy barking like crazy at the front door which was unusual because she's not one to freak out like that. I kind of passed it off until I realized my son was no where to be seen!

I went to go outside and here he comes in just his swimming trunks. He said he wanted to go wave to the ice cream man. Oh my. He was 3.

So, while he is almost 5 I still had that curious feeling today on the way home wondering if he would be outside when I came home. Even though he knew I was leaving and knew his dad was in the house you just never know. If he needs or wants something he definitely prefers to ask me knowing he will most likely get it. I confess. It's true. Just like Dan letting Madelyn have ice cream pretty much whenever she wants it even if she's had it for the last 5 nights in a row and I just said I don't think she needs more that night. But, that's a blog for another time ;)

Madelyn

My dear sweet tender-hearted Madelyn.

She made a birthday card for Dan (his b-day is on the 28th) and had all of her classmates sign it for him. She gave it to Dan yesterday. I thought that was so sweet.

She has been opening up to me a lot lately. When I say a lot I mean absolutely positively pouring her heart out to me about all things under the sun. I love it mostly. I only say mostly because I hate the fact that my innocent girl is discovering that the world isn't all sunshine and princesses and bunnies and puppies and kittens and happiness and whole as she has known it to be most of her life.

She's discovering and questioning and I am thrilled she is okay with doing all that with me. Life is rough and it's easier to go through it with someone whose got your back.

The other day she told me she had things she wanted to talk to me about. It turns out that PollyAnna, you know the one from the book, is an orphan. Her parents die. This got Madelyn thinking about life if I died. (Oh my goodness just tear my heart out and feed it to the dogs.)

Hear is my little girl all teary eyed with this weight on her that I had no idea about. I told her that yes it would be very sad if something happened to me, but she has a whole big family who loves her and would do their best to take care of her and that's when she lost it. Crying in my arms over the thought of her parents dying. I finally just told her that so far I am doing okay. I am healthy as far as I know and Lord-willing I will be around for a long time. I assured her that meant that she will grow up, get married, have children, and I will definitely still be trying to tell her what to do through all of it to the point I will drive her crazy. That's what moms are for right? That got her giggling.

When they say still waters run deep they aren't kidding. I have always known there was a lot going on her head. She is very thoughtful about things and internalizes a lot of things. I wondered if it wouldn't all come pouring out eventually. I have to say I really am glad they did. I feel like I know her that much better now and we have a stronger bond because of it. I praise God for this and He has helped stabilize the heart attacks that come on during some "discovery conversations" so that I am still able to speak. My little girl is growing up!

4 Year Olds

I love them! They say the funniest things ...

Ellie: "Elijah, my mom said you could spend the night at my house for, ummmmm, 29 days if you want. Do you want to???"
Elijah: "Yes! Mommy, can I spend the night at Ellie's for 29 days?"
Me: "Aw, I would really miss you."
Elijah: hmmm
Ellie: "Okay, how about 10 days? That is still a lot of days."
Elijah: "Well, I want to be with my mommy."

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Elijah: I don't know how God can see everything all the time.
Ellie: He has very big eyes. And heads. And hands. And hair, but not like girl hair.
Elijah: No because he's a boy.

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Elllie usually tries to tell me that he mom said she doesn't have to take a nap when anymore when she's at my house. So today I said, "Really? She didn't tell me that." To which she replied, "Oh, that's because she's not feeling well today and she couldn't call you to tell you that because she was in the living room watching tv. And that's the real truth."

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I am trying to teach Elijah why lying is so wrong. He's just not getting it. In his mind it's very simple. You lie, you get out of trouble. You tell the truth, you get in trouble. So, he lies. Understanding the fact that he and Ellie are obsessed with the idea of Satan these days I played off of that by telling him that Satan is VERY happy when you lie. Well, I think it's starting to sink in. On the way home today Elijah explained to Ellie that if you lie, you make Satan very happy. If you tell the truth, you make God very happy. Poor Ellie feeling guilty already just blurts out, "I am not even lying. I really am not!!" She hadn't been saying anything at all. Poor thing. Then she says, "I LOVE Jesus and that is not a lie." Elijah's response to that, "I would never punch God." Keep in mind he is all about super heroes these days. He is always pretending to be one or another so punching is a big part of his pretend lives as super heroes. He is okay with the idea of punching Satan though.

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Elijah-isms

I wish I could remember EVERYTHING this kid says. I truly never know what is going to come out of his mouth next, but here are a few ...

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This past weekend we had all of Dan's siblings here and most of their family members. Elijah was so excited to see his cousins and everyone he said, "I am so lucky today! I have all my best friends here!!"

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They are learning in school that Satan is bad and God is good. I am learning a lot about Satan as well as a result. Such as ...

Satan picks his nose.
Satan lives in total darkness and wants you to eat junk. God wants you to eat food.
God wants you to love heroes. Satan wants you to love villains.
Satan says "Oh my God."

I bring Ellie, Elijah's classmate, home twice a week. She has had lots of input on the subject as well. They have quite the discussions. Here are a few of Ellie's thoughts ...

Satan would shave all boys and girls heads if he could.
She also had a dream where Satan "really did" try to give her a boy's pull-up.

Elijah: "Ellie, we shouldn't love Satan."
Ellie: "But God tells us to love our enemies!"
Elijah: "Mommy, I don't want to love my enemies!!"

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Elijah said "Oh my Gosh" the other day and Madelyn said, "Elijah, you shouldn't say that. It's bad." Elijah: "Why?" M: "I'm not sure. I just know it is."

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We have gotten a ton of snow lately and Elijah said, "The stop sign is getting lower and lower!" Later that day he told my mom, "Everything is getting lower except the houses with the toys in them." (the sheds)

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Elijah loves the ladies. We had Madelyn's friend Isabelle here the other day. The girls were talking to Dan and Elijah goes up to them and hugs them from behind saying, "I love these girls!" He did the same thing with Dreama and Kim, his cousins. He was hugging them at the same time :)

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Elijah: The Hulk is the strongest super hero. Ellie: Stronger than Jesus? Elijah: hmm ... no.

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Elijah prays that I will get older on my birthday. This is his prayer most nights. The other night he mentioned it twice in his prayer! Should I be worried. If you read this, please pray the opposite for me to hopefully counteract his prayers. Thank you.

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Last night Elijah said to me, "I wish I had bunk beds so you could sleep on the top and I would sleep on the bottom ... Actually, I would sleep on the top, you can sleep on the bottom."

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Elijah: "Mommy, if you had 100 million boys standing in front of you, would you still pick me?" Me: "Of course I would!" Elijah: "You are my best mommy"

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We have a wii now and Elijah is so verbal when he plays. During the racing games his car is going all over the place, but he keeps saying, "Weee!" and "Woo Hoo!" He is such a happy kid. Of course when he's down he is very dramatic about it, but mostly he is happy. He wakes up happy while the rest of us are just trying to figure out how to function in a new day, but he keeps us laughing.

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We don't have any sledding hills nearby so Dan usually ends up pulling the kids around on the sled, not very quickly I might add. It doesn't matter to Elijah though. He was yelling, "Woo hoo!" and at one point said, "This is like a video game!"

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My First Snow Storm

Behind the wheel.

Saturday Madelyn and I had tickets to go see The Nutcracker. Another mom from her class arranged for us to go. There were sixteen of us all together, 8 moms and 8 seven year olds. Our friends were driving to our house and then we were going to ride together to lunch and go to the show afterward.

Sounds fun right? Add to that a bunch of snow. We were okay driving to lunch. There was snow on the ground, but it had only just picked up in intensity. Well, an hour and a half at a lovely lunch and boy oh boy did the snow pick up. The roads were covered. It was crazy. I got stuck just trying to get into the parking garage. Thankfully the guy cleared a bit of snow away from my tire and I was able to gain traction.

It was no better by the time we left the show. Oh, The Nutcracker was great by the way. I was a little distracted during the first half due to the impending drive home I had, but at intermission I called Dan and he gave me pointers on how to drive through snow. I did what he told me and we had a pretty easy drive home considering the conditions. It helped that there were barely any other cars on the road. We didn't get stuck. We didn't slide off the road, and we made it home in one piece.

Then poor Serena had to drive a half hour home still. She lives up on a mountain so she had to take the long way. She made it home in one piece too though. I felt like it was such an accomplishment though. Usually Dan is the one driving when we go through snow storms, but he wasn't available at the time. I will admit though, I wanted to call him and ask him to come rescue us, but he told me we would be fine.