Ok Maybe Not but There are Sprinkles!

Zachary loves the cookies that you buy from the store – you know the ones that are the sugar cookies with the bright frosting and sprinkles. We were down to one and I told him I would put it in a baggie and save it for him. He worried constantly that someone else would eat it.

So tonight after eating a very good dinner, finishing his homework in record time, and completely picking up all his toys AND his sister’s toys I told that I thought he should get his cookie and sit down to eat with Chad who had just gotten home and was eating dinner.

Zachary said that he thought that maybe Daddy would want the cookie. I was stunned – I mean he LOVES these cookies and he had been panicking that someone would eat it. I thought it was so “sweet” (HA!) that Z was offering this prize cookie to his hard working Dad.

I think Chad was also taken aback. He told Z that it was such a generous offer but that cookie really had Zachary’s name on it.

Zachary said oh ok and went to the pantry retrieved the cookie and came back. He stared at it for a while and then told Chad "Daddy I don’t think they put my name on it."

Raising Couch Potatoes

I read somewhere (I am thinking Newsweek) that we shouldn’t give today’s parents such a hard time about letting the TV babysit their children. The writer said that while growing up his mother made him go outside all day long to play unsupervised in the neighborhood. Essentially she was letting the outside babysit him. The writer continued by commenting no parent these days will say “Go run around the outside all day without any supervision” because of the ugly things that exist today.

I do remember living in NJ and mom letting me run around outside without her. My only real rule was I had to stay within the col-de-sac. We moved when I was five so I was younger than Z when I ran around with my friends.

I also know I had tons of freedom in Broken Arrow – riding bikes, running from friend’s house to friend’s house, going to the pool – all with out supervision.

To summarize, according to the writer parents of the good old days were just as guilty as us parents of the here and now about letting their children be “babysat” while the parental units try to get something done around the house.

Do you think they felt as guilty?

Well, She Does Speak the Truth

This story is long overdue for documentation. Back in December, Rylee was just starting to make sounds like she was talking. She could say MaMa but it wasn’t necessarily in reference to me but to almost anything. One “word” that she said in reference to herself was money.

Now I am not sure if she was saying some sort of “mine” or “mommy” or what but it came out money. If you picked up her toy it was MONEY at the top of her lungs or if she wanted a snack moneymoneymoney. Anyway, we were amused by our daughter’s choice of words.

For Christmas, we went to the afternoon mass (during the blizzard I must mention!) and because it was Christmas we were in the overflow in the gym. We were sitting in bleachers and I was struggling to pay attention because I was trying to make sure Rylee didn’t plummet down the concrete steps. However, I did try to listen to the homily.

Fr. Jim talked about a Mexican Tradition of acting out what the Holy Family had to go through right before Jesus was born trying to find a place to stay. The tradition is called Las Posadas. The participants knock on doors and are refused a place to stay. Fr. Jim then tries to bring it home to us saying “what will the answer be when Jesus knocks on our hearts? What do you think Jesus will hear when He knocks on the doors of Hollywood? What do you think Jesus will hear when He knocks on the doors of Wall Street?”

It is at this moment that my darling daughter decides to answer Fr. Jim yelling like the 17 month old she is:

She responds “NO MONEY!”

Good thing Fr. Jim, the congregation at Prince of Peace, and God have a sense of humor.

I think I Would Prefer J.K. Rowling

My husband is incredibly creative. He “oozes” it actually. I have always hoped that our children will inherit this trait and Z is showing signs of creativity in his imagination. However, crazy mother that I am starts to twist this interesting streak into something to worry about – roll your eyes with me - of course I have.

It started with me trying to talk about “stranger danger” with Z. I told him that if anyone he doesn’t know approaches him when Daddy or I are not around to not talk to that person and to never follow that person anywhere. He told me not to worry he will uses his karate on them and kill them. Hmm. So I try to tell him I am serious and that he should not use his karate on anyone unless he is in class and I don’t like him saying he will kill anyone but don’t go anywhere with strangers. He responds with “I am serious Mom. I will use my karate and get him.”

So I have been tossing the scenario in my brain – can he tell where his imagination ends and reality should begin? I am frustrated because I do not feel that he took away from our conversation the dangers of strangers but rather had an elaborate play in his head where he is some superhero karate dude.

Then adding to world that is Zachary’s he has recently announced that we, the Martins, are his second family. He says he used to live with his community helper family (HUH?) in England (which he explains is "an island with a king" --???) when he was little. He added his community helper family in England call cookies biscuits, fries chips and dogs lickers (don't know about that last one!).

What the heehaw???? He loves to share stories of his other life with the community helper family all the while throwing in tidbits about England. I am thinking he must be learning about England in school or else they have changed Boom-a-rang from Cartoon Network into some sort of discovery channel because I did not teach him those things about England.

He is quite open about this other family with people he meets or friends we see. The people we know just smile and look at me saying “he has quite an imagination doesn’t he?” Those that we don’t know haven’t a clue how to process the information and smile and move on.

I am trusting this is a phase kind of like having an imaginary friend which I have heard is actually a sign of intellect and creativity. That is what I have heard. So I am choosing to believe that while I haven’t actually taught him about stranger danger that his stories of his other family and karate heroes are signs of a successful career in the future in the arts some how.

As my friend's mother said over the weekend “Maybe he’ll be the next Stephen King!”

I was inspired today...

OK – I know these seems totally and completely random for me but it struck me so much that I wanted to share. I have pulled these sentences out of context from Richard Rohr’s daily meditation and the point of the meditation was more about sharing in Christ consciousness but the bold sentence lead me in another direction.

We have to let go of the passing names by which we have tried to name ourselves and become the “naked self before the naked God.” Your bare, undecorated self is already and forever the beloved child of God. When you can rest there, you will begin to share in the universal Christ consciousness, or the “mind of Christ.”

It is so hard for me to wrap my brain around that bold sentence. Naked to me is pretty much the most vulnerable position you can put me in – to stand before God naked with my sins, my bad decisions, my anger, my hurt is a frightening prospect to say the very least. It is not as easy as one would think to remember how very loved we are by our Father – ironic huh? We love our children unconditionally and yet there are many moments in my life I forget that I am loved unconditionally with all my flaws and in my nakedness by God.

As my dear friend Debra has said – There is nothing I can do to make God love me more and there is nothing I can do to make God love me less.