Rich is taking three classes this semester in addition to working a full time job and commuting 2+ hours a day. He does miss bedtime on some nights because of this. Here's what Allie told me one night:
"I really miss Daddy... I miss Daddy so much... I can't stop thinking about him... And chipmunks."
The mind of a four year old.
We've had many conversations with the girls regarding Heaven. It is definitely a lot of information for a four year old to process. Lately, I've noticed Allie expressing some feelings via stories of Elmo. She told Grammy that Elmo has a sister in Heaven. Then one morning, she told me that Elmo had a friend who died and he was sad because he missed his friend. I replied with, "Oh, Allie. Honey, come here." I was going to give her a hug. She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "Not me, Mommy. It was Elmo's friend."
2 comments:
I know my son is much younger, but he has the "attention" thing going on, too! With the baby in the house, he go out of the bath last night (after we had to drag him up the stairs!), he kept saying "I want to be the "crazy kid" and continued to go crazy, thinking it was funny all over his bedroom, just to get our attention and but the baby down! Ugh, let it play out is my philosophy, for now at least!
And with the death part, we have just started doing prayers and the prayer I was brought up with was "Now I ay me down to sleep, I prayer the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die, before I wake..." and so one. He was not happy with this die part! We need a new prayer!! It scares everyone, even 2.5 year olds!
Good luck! One on one time is a really good thing, even if its just letting them sit in the room while you fold laundry for 5 mins. They def. need it!
I nannied for two kids from May '08-Dec'09. The oldest had just turned 5 when I started watching them. His family is Catholic by inheritance (both sets of grandparents are hardcore Catholics, his parents not so much.) James, the 5 year old, asked ME a million questions about God, Jesus, Heaven, etc. My aunt died in Nov '08 and he knew about it, so that stirred up a ton of questions. His maternal grandfather died in Dec/ '08. He told ME his thoughts about Heaven and death. To this day, every time he sees me (he's almost 9 now) he has a million questions about God, Heaven, death, etc. It's awesome to continue the open dialogue, but sometimes it's SO difficult to communicate such INTENSE subjects to kids that are so young. (I also try not to say anything that's contradictory to the Catholic church, since I am non-denominational Christian.)
It's truly healthy for Allie to express her ideas through Elmo, Rapunzel, Pascal, Belle, whatever. :-) I hope she continues to do so. :-)
xo,
A
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