Our imaginative little girl is often telling stories, making up songs, or helping her dolls talk to each other. And lately Eva's enjoyed playing very specific role-playing games with me. While she still likes to be a baby bird/monkey/llama/any animal, she also likes to pretend that she's the mommy. The game usually entails her calling me "sweetie" a lot, reminding me to eat vegetables, and teaching me to not be afraid of shadows (which you could say is a funny commentary on my parenting, but I digress...) This morning she wanted to play being the mommy, and she directed that we have a "camp out" (blanket picnic) in her room near the "cave" (dark bedroom), and she helped teach me my "letters" (pointed out objects in the room and told me how to say those words.) The upside is that the baby (me) usually gets lots of hugs, clear instructions on what to do, and lots of encouragement when I do a simple task right. Where does she learn this stuff?Hee hee...
One of my favorite playing grown-up stories happened this past weekend when we spent a couple days at a cabin with my parents on their anniversary. We had two fold-able chairs out on the deck set up next to each other, and Eva came over to me and pointing at the chairs, said, "Let's sit down and say our news." I asked, "Do you mean share our news? Like talk to each other?" "YEAH!" she exclaimed, and jumped into a chair. I was curious to see what this game was, so I turned to her and said, "So, what is your news?" And she said, "Well, we are both ladies, and we have a lot of news. I have many children, and they are doing fine. Did you see them?" She then went on to make up names for her - get this - 18 children, and tell me how she loved them and how busy they were doing fun things together. Then my three year old turns to me, with a totally serious face, and asks, "So what is your news? How are your children?" Apparently she's seen me sitting with my friends outside, swapping our news about our children and catching up (I am mainly thinking of you, Kate D!) Not a bad idea for what to do when you see two chairs outside and you need to catch up with someone about your 18 children!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Rapunzel, Rapunzel
Today we attended the Chicago Kid's Company production of "Rapunzel" along with a couple hundred screaming youngish and school-age kids. It was surprisingly good :) - by that I mean, for low-cost tickets and while playing to a kid audience, the cast did a great job of entertaining older and younger kids, and making me laugh a few times too! They were great actors, sang songs that engaged the kids, did several costume changes, used music and lighting to signal changes in scene and emotions, and the experience kept Eva's arms flapping most of the performance.
The five-member cast was also very sweet afterward and greeted the streams of kids who stopped by to meet them. Eva loved Rapunzel's hair, petted it a little, and then talked to the actress who played Rapunzel in order to explain to her (very seriously) that her hair did not grow as long as Rapunzel's did. :)
We went to the play with our family/friends who had seen this company perform before, and we got front row center seats in the auditorium. All three kids did great and seemed to enjoy themselves a lot. Our godson Isaac even developed a mini-crush on Rapunzel; here is his little-too-long hug with her after the show.
Eva wasn't too sure about going to a "concert," as she kept calling it before we went, and wondered if she would like having to be quiet or the lights going to dark between scenes. But - she loved this show. On the walk out she was already asking when we got to go see them perform again. During the show she waved her hand to volunteer information and sang along with the songs when asked, laughed repeatedly, and also jumped into my arms a few times when Nexus (witch/mean gardener figure) was on stage. What a fabulous memory of Eva's first time attending a play!
We went to the play with our family/friends who had seen this company perform before, and we got front row center seats in the auditorium. All three kids did great and seemed to enjoy themselves a lot. Our godson Isaac even developed a mini-crush on Rapunzel; here is his little-too-long hug with her after the show.
Eva wasn't too sure about going to a "concert," as she kept calling it before we went, and wondered if she would like having to be quiet or the lights going to dark between scenes. But - she loved this show. On the walk out she was already asking when we got to go see them perform again. During the show she waved her hand to volunteer information and sang along with the songs when asked, laughed repeatedly, and also jumped into my arms a few times when Nexus (witch/mean gardener figure) was on stage. What a fabulous memory of Eva's first time attending a play!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Quoteables
Eva: "What is that thing in my ear again? You know, the big round thing, the hard thing? You know, the loud thing?"
Peter: "I don't know hon, are you thinking of your ear drum?"
Eva: "Yeah, it is big and loud! It is a huge drum in there! But how do I have a drum in my ear?"
...and...
While looking at a light bulb that needed replacing, Eva said: "Is that lightbulb dead mom?"
Me: "Yep, and we can put in a new one soon."
Eva: "But in three days it will be alive again!"
Peter: "I don't know hon, are you thinking of your ear drum?"
Eva: "Yeah, it is big and loud! It is a huge drum in there! But how do I have a drum in my ear?"
...and...
While looking at a light bulb that needed replacing, Eva said: "Is that lightbulb dead mom?"
Me: "Yep, and we can put in a new one soon."
Eva: "But in three days it will be alive again!"
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Three-Year-Old Theology... Easter
Eva has been more and more aware of faith and theological concepts lately. It fascinates me to hear what things stick out to her from stories or conversations we have, and what logical connections her little brain makes. It is also interesting to me how challenging it can be to describe to her the sometimes elusive concepts that describe having a relationship in an all-knowing, all-powerful, creator of all; a non-corporeal God, who then was a person for awhile and taught a lot of things and loved a lot of people and made a lot of people mad, but then died, then was alive again, and now is back in heaven and you can't see Him, but we can talk to him, listen to him, and thank him for things. It IS just a little confusing, right?
I also laugh at myself at the temptation to both under and over-explain faith concepts to her. Sometimes I give a one sentence "Jesus loves you," rainbows and butterflies, kind of answer, and I swear she kind of looks at me with an expression that says, give me a little more to work with here mom. Other times, I try to connect all the big concepts we've talked about and get all excited about how profound and amazing something is, and she pulls me back to earth with the one detail that she cared about in my long rant and the way she heard it. A friend gave us this super cute kid devo book this week and I was loving the reflection for the day and all she would talk about was the baby bird in the picture. :) Oh well. It is a good reminder that she is experiential right now, connecting the dots to her feelings and her world. I am always surprised actually when she asks a specifically theological question, since I mostly leave it up to her to probe or go deeper. I figure our job right now is to immerse her in relationships and ways of life that will be explained logically when she is older...
But I think I am getting closer and closer to perceiving what level she understands and responding to what she is actually putting together, which is really kind of fun. We have conversations about a lot of topics lately, where she explains things and connects the dots for me, and its both hilarious and touching to hear how her brain reasons. Whether its her idea of what clothes should match, or where dad might be when he's at work, to why things are scary or not - her little brain is definitely thinking.
Last night we were reading an Easter storybook that she always asks me to read her for bedtime. The book does an okay job of explaining to its characters - a family with three kids - how the Easter bunny/eggs, springtime, new life and Jesus are all related to Eastertime. I always read it a little differently then the author intended, however, and add a bunch of details around why Jesus was buried in a tomb with a big rock and then how he could be alive, and try to get across both how big of a deal dying was, and how big of a deal being alive again was. Lately she is wrestling with figuring out who God and Jesus are (as in both the same and different, we mostly stick to same), and wondering about where God is physically. And she's also been interested in connecting the creation story and Noah's animals to the idea that God made everything. During the story, she asked me about a dozen questions about the tomb, the stone, how God who was so strong and made everything could die, how God who was so strong was alive again, etc.
Then she paused and said, "I just miss Jesus... I am tired of him being in that faraway country, you know heaven?" I kind of melted, and asked her where she thought that was. She said it was too far away, and also "upstairs, maybe with our neighbors?" :)
I was thinking, yeah, its hard for most adults to not see him too... I get it. I've tried the whole "Jesus is with each of us" a couple different ways as an explanation, but she doesn't go for that one yet. I asked if she talked to Jesus when she missed him, and she said yeah, but she was still sad he was gone. I said Jesus is with us whenever we ask Him to be, and told her that we pray so that we can talk to Jesus and listen to Him too. She asked where Jesus' mom and dad were, if they missed him back in Bethlehem, or where they were. And she wondered if they were sad when he was behind the rock. Then she looked at me really seriously and said something roughly like, "Well, our house is really strong, 'cause God made it, and my books won't fall over, cause God made them strong too, but I think that God was really, really, really strong to get out and come from behind that rock!"
So - big creator God, overcomes big scary death, made all she has cause He is big and strong, and keeps her and her treasures safe, but is sometimes too far away to see or sense, and she wants to see Him more, so she misses Him. That is not a bad paraphrase of the message of Easter, actually. It is really fascinating what makes sense in a three-year-old's head, and what it helps me think about along the way!
I also laugh at myself at the temptation to both under and over-explain faith concepts to her. Sometimes I give a one sentence "Jesus loves you," rainbows and butterflies, kind of answer, and I swear she kind of looks at me with an expression that says, give me a little more to work with here mom. Other times, I try to connect all the big concepts we've talked about and get all excited about how profound and amazing something is, and she pulls me back to earth with the one detail that she cared about in my long rant and the way she heard it. A friend gave us this super cute kid devo book this week and I was loving the reflection for the day and all she would talk about was the baby bird in the picture. :) Oh well. It is a good reminder that she is experiential right now, connecting the dots to her feelings and her world. I am always surprised actually when she asks a specifically theological question, since I mostly leave it up to her to probe or go deeper. I figure our job right now is to immerse her in relationships and ways of life that will be explained logically when she is older...
But I think I am getting closer and closer to perceiving what level she understands and responding to what she is actually putting together, which is really kind of fun. We have conversations about a lot of topics lately, where she explains things and connects the dots for me, and its both hilarious and touching to hear how her brain reasons. Whether its her idea of what clothes should match, or where dad might be when he's at work, to why things are scary or not - her little brain is definitely thinking.
Last night we were reading an Easter storybook that she always asks me to read her for bedtime. The book does an okay job of explaining to its characters - a family with three kids - how the Easter bunny/eggs, springtime, new life and Jesus are all related to Eastertime. I always read it a little differently then the author intended, however, and add a bunch of details around why Jesus was buried in a tomb with a big rock and then how he could be alive, and try to get across both how big of a deal dying was, and how big of a deal being alive again was. Lately she is wrestling with figuring out who God and Jesus are (as in both the same and different, we mostly stick to same), and wondering about where God is physically. And she's also been interested in connecting the creation story and Noah's animals to the idea that God made everything. During the story, she asked me about a dozen questions about the tomb, the stone, how God who was so strong and made everything could die, how God who was so strong was alive again, etc.
Then she paused and said, "I just miss Jesus... I am tired of him being in that faraway country, you know heaven?" I kind of melted, and asked her where she thought that was. She said it was too far away, and also "upstairs, maybe with our neighbors?" :)
I was thinking, yeah, its hard for most adults to not see him too... I get it. I've tried the whole "Jesus is with each of us" a couple different ways as an explanation, but she doesn't go for that one yet. I asked if she talked to Jesus when she missed him, and she said yeah, but she was still sad he was gone. I said Jesus is with us whenever we ask Him to be, and told her that we pray so that we can talk to Jesus and listen to Him too. She asked where Jesus' mom and dad were, if they missed him back in Bethlehem, or where they were. And she wondered if they were sad when he was behind the rock. Then she looked at me really seriously and said something roughly like, "Well, our house is really strong, 'cause God made it, and my books won't fall over, cause God made them strong too, but I think that God was really, really, really strong to get out and come from behind that rock!"
So - big creator God, overcomes big scary death, made all she has cause He is big and strong, and keeps her and her treasures safe, but is sometimes too far away to see or sense, and she wants to see Him more, so she misses Him. That is not a bad paraphrase of the message of Easter, actually. It is really fascinating what makes sense in a three-year-old's head, and what it helps me think about along the way!
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