Random photos, conversations, and events

(Gratuitous photos of Abbie eating whipped cream with her fingers)

Abbie continues to make me squirm with some really interesting questions. A couple weeks ago I got hit with questions about death, religion, and the environment all in the same weekend. Here is a rough transcript:

1. Upon driving past a cemetery:

Abbie, "What's that?"

Me, "A cemetery"

Abbie, "What's a cemetery for?"

Me, "Umm, that's where people go to visit people they love."

Abbie, "I love you, Mama."

Me, "Thanks honey, I love you too."

Abbie, "Maybe we could go there sometime."

Me, "Oh, no honey its not quite like that."

Abbie, "Why?"

Me, "Umm, can we talk about this later?"

Abbie, "Why?"

Me, "Umm, because its kind of a long story."

Abbie, "I like long stories."

Me, "OK, honey. Umm, sometimes when people get really, really old, they get so tired that they can't walk anymore and they need to lay down and a cemetery is a place where they can lay down, but they don't leave the cemetery so people have to go there to visit them."

From here the conversation continued, but I had gotten through the worst of it (describing a cemetery without actually mentioning the D-word) and my squirming stopped. I guess that I could have launched into the whole death thing, but I really just wasn't prepared, and I wasn't sure how she would take it, and I didn't want to run the risk of some massive trauma.

Then, later the same weekend:

2. Upon driving past a church,

Abbie, "What's that?"

Me, "That's a church, honey."

Abbie, "Can we go to church, Mama?"

Me, "Umm, no honey. We don't usually go to church."

Abbie, "Who goes to church Mama?"

Me, "Umm, people with similar ideas that want to spend time with each other."

Abbie, "I like to spend time with people."

Me, "Umm, yeah, but we can just spend time with people at our house."

Finally, the third question of the weekend. This one really has no answers, which is good because I don't need to squirm to decide how to say something without saying too much.

3. Randomly and for no apparent reason,

Abbie, "What happens when the environment is all used up?"

Me, "That's a really good question honey. I don't know."

Then we proceeded to talk about how we needed the Earth and about how we don't really have anywhere else to live. The whole time I'm happily blabbing away. After the other questions, the opportunity to talk about something that I don't know anything about is pretty refreshing.

As for other events, not much to report. Abbie is very excited about starting a swimming class tomorrow which will meet once a week for 12 weeks. She now has pink goggles, a pink swim cap, and a new pink bathing suit and is looking pretty spiffy.

For the most part, it has been business as usual. However, just in the past week Abbie the Demon Seed has been rearing her head. She has been testing boundaries, demonstrating manipulative behavior, and sometimes throwing fits. Her tactics are much more advanced than they used to be. For instance, in one recent disagreement this past weekend, I asked her who was in charge to which she replied, "I am." I informed her that when she was as big as Mommy then we could discuss it, but until then, she definitely was not in charge. In addition, she has been saying things that allow her to get what she wants (aka. lying). For instance, she told Daddy that I told her she could have something (I forget what, probably candy). Then, subsequently, Daddy found out that I had known nothing about it. Tonight, she was unexpectedly upset about something and without warning she came at me, yelling and hitting. Hello! Unbelievable. Where the heck is the manual for this little peanut? Oh wait, they never gave us one. Damn! :)