With the passing of my Grandma, it's been a hard week, but I'm finally back on the blogging bandwagon....
Oh. My. Goodness. Sometimes I don't think I give the kids enough credit. They're much smarter than I think they are. They understand significantly more that I thought they would. They're more perceptive than I thought they were capable of. In short, the way their little minds work is amazing.
With the passing of my Grandma, I struggled with how much I should tell them.... and how elementary the explanation should be.... and unfortunately I got TONS of unsolicited advice. At last, I decided that if Katherine or Caleb were mature enough to ask the difficult questions, I owed it to them to give them an honest, frank explanation. Any question they had, I would answer the best I could. I'm not sure if that was the right decision, or the best way to go about it, but it's a decision I could live with...
So....
Last night I made chili for dinner and it was a little on the spicy side. Since Matt and I had a few errands to run, we told the kids we'd take them out for ice cream and check out the Christmas lights. I had to mail the Christmas cards, so we ran through Dairy Queen on the way there. Right before we turned onto the boulevard where the post office is, Caleb pipes up from the back seat and says, "Dat's Grandma's house. Grandma lives right dere". I was shocked! Directly behind the post office is the Hospice house where my Grandma stayed for the past 2.5 months. (You enter both the post office and hospice house from the same drive, so he was exactly right). The remarkable thing was that Caleb had only been there a handful of times, and none of them was very recent, as I didn't want to bring him in there when she got really sick.
I thought I was hearing things (literally) so I turned to Matt to see if he heard it. We were both shocked. I decided not to acknowledge Caleb's comment. I wanted to know if he really knew what he was talking about. Sure enough, as soon as we turn into the parking lot, he says, "I see Grandma. Dat Grandma's house. Grandma lives dere. I see Grandma.... I want popcorn MMMM tooo???" (Caleb LOVES popcorn sprinkled with M&M's -- what kid wouldn't???) Matt and I couldn't believe it. He really knew. He remembered being in there weeks ago, and not only that, but he knew exactly why he was there. He recognized the "house". We were amazed.
Then today....
I'm usually on top of things. Katherine's homework is always done. Her show and tell is never forgotten. When she's snack helper, it's always a big production. Today I failed. Big. Time.
On the way to school I remembered show and tell -- and the fact that we hadn't brought anything. We were already running late, so turning around wasn't an option. How could I forget? *** Show and tell is a HUGE deal when you're in preschool. I apologized a million times and asked her what she wanted to bring today, as I was going to rush right home and grab it and bring it back. As luck would have it, show and tell is at the end of the day, so I could put it in her cubbie and no one would be the wiser. She told me what she wanted to bring, and then gave me "second choice" in case I couldn't find it. How sweet is that?
As soon as we got to school, I took her coat and bag so that I could hang them up for her while she washed her hands. When I walk into the classroom, I notice their ABC books are setting out on the table and my heart sinks... (Each week the kids are to look through magazines and cut out pictures starting with the corresponding letter that they study that week. This week they were working on "I" words"). It's their homework, and I totally and completely forgot.
So while she writes her name, I start looking through magazines. I couldn't feel worse at this point.... Not only did I forget show and tell for the first time, but she doesn't have her "homework" done. Talk about a loser mom....
Well, this loser mom has been blessed with one amazing little girl I'm proud and thrilled and honored to call my daughter. She comes over to me, sits down and closes the magazine on my hands. Then she looks up at me and says, "Don't worry about it Mommy. I don't need magazine pictures I'll just draw my own". I couldn't help it... Tears started spilling down my face. It would have been so easy for her to be embarrassed that we didn't get her homework done, or angry that she didn't have pictures just like everyone else, but she wasn't. She couldn't have been sweeter. She couldn't have been more perceptive. I'm so proud of her. I'm so proud to be her Mom.....
After I picked Katherine up from school, she suggested that we head down to the Science Center, so down we went. One of the programs they wanted to watch was the "cold blooded critters" demo. They got to touch a salamander, hold a turtle and pet a snake. Yea, good times! LOL. In one of the compartments where they keep the "critters" they had an empty turtle shell and lots of snake skins.
The guy conducting the demonstration asks the kids if they can see the turtle in the empty shell. They answer NO and have this conversation...
Katherine: Doesn't the turtle need his shell anymore?
SCI guy: UUUUMMMM, no he doesn't need his shell anymore.
Katherine: Why not?
SCI guy: Well, he's not in there anymore.
**** OK, I totally know where this is going.
Katherine: Why doesn't he need his shell? Did he die?
SCI guy: ** shocked** uuuh, yea. ** Any and all eye contact is suddenly gone. I can tell how uncomfortable this is making him...
Katherine: Is the turtle in Heaven?
*** At this point, I step in and start answering her questions. All of a sudden, Katherine looks up, puts her hand on the turtle shell, looks directly at the SCI guy, and says, "Don't worry, I'm not sad. My mommy's Grandma just died this week, and she'll get to see the turtle. They're both in Heaven playing together".
I was at a loss for words. Wow... just wow... She understands more that I thought...
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Tonight when Matt gets home from work, we're heading to Jordan Creek mall for little last minute shopping and to have dinner. I'm getting Matt the
iPod Classic for Christmas, so we're going to check them out before I actually order one. Katherine wants to see Santa again, so we'll take the kiddos for another Santa visit and let them play in the play area.
For Christmas, I'm getting a digital SLR, but still haven't decided which one. I had planned on going to the camera store just about every day for the past month, but with my Grandma being ill, time got away from me. At this point, I'll probably end up getting it after Christmas. It's a good thing, I'm much more mature than I used to be! LOL.
Anyway, thank goodness for Friday! It seems like we haven't had any really great family time lately, so I'm looking forward to it!
