Inquiring Minds Want to Know

In the car this morning, Bella was singing songs and it started to rain a little so she broke into "It's Raining, It's Pouring". After 'the old man is snoring' she said, "How does the rest go again?" so I finished it "He bumped his head and he went to bed and he couldn't get up in the morning." 

Then she said, "And then what happened?"

Huh? I have no idea what happened after that...never really thought about it before. My guess is that the prognosis was not good, considering his age and the fact that he probably went to sleep with a concussion, but I wasn't really prepared to explain all of that to a  4 year old, so instead I asked her what she thought happened next.  Her version went something like this (sung in the same tune as the song). 

He went outside

with his pajamas on

and he looked pretty silly without his rain hat on.

Everyone loves a silly ending.

Three Blogs for the Price of One

In about 45 minutes it will be 2009. The days of late night celebrating are long gone. My family and I spent a quiet night at home, happy to be with each other and looking forward to the adventures the next year has to offer. The past few weeks have been busy so I have been jotting down notes on scraps of paper here and there of things I have been meaning to write about...

Holiday time. We are not church-goers or religious people, so I have struggled as to what to teach Bella about this time of year. So far, we have celebrated by decorating a tree and exchanging gifts, but we haven't really talked about Christmas, Hanukkah, etc. and what the holidays really mean. So the day after Christmas I asked Bella, "What is Christmas?". She replied "It's a special day to celebrate". "What do we celebrate?" I asked. She replied, "Well, we celebrate snow and presents and dogs and people and EVERYTHING!". " I asked, "What else do we celebrate?". She said, "Hanukkah." Then she sang the Dradle song (and she knew all the words?). Surprised, I asked her what Christmas and Hanukkah had in common and she said, " Celebrating with our families". I guess maybe I should not worry about what we can teach her, and think about what she can teach us.

Bella got a new piggy bank a few months back. It is divided into 3 sections. Spend, Save and Share. Every week she gets an allowance and we divide the money by percentages into the three banks.  A few days ago we counted up all the money and Bella made her first purchase. I told her she could buy anything she wanted. She walked up and down the toy aisles at Target, carefully looking at all her options. She finally chose a Barbie doll that came with a dog with 3 puppies. She counted out all the money at the checkout line and handed it to the cashier. Mommy was a little teary-eyed as we walked out of the store.  From there we counted out the "Share" money and went to Brent's Place, an organization that provides a home away from  home for kids with cancer and their families. Bella donated $5.07 (mostly in quarters and dimes!) and Mommy and Daddy matched it. They were very grateful and told her her money would be used to buy hot chocolate and cookies for the kids as a special treat after playtime. We told them we'd be back again at the end of next year. Mommy walked out even more teary-eyed from there. No words can describe the joy in seeing your child growing up to be a loving, responsible and comapssionate person. This year has been filled with moments like these and for that I am thankful.

And finally, yesterday we were walking into the supermarket and Bella reached for my hand and said, "Mommy, let's skip and sing, "Shiny! Shiny! Shiny smiles!". So we did.

Happy New Year to you. I can't wait to see what 2009 brings.