When Doctrine Gets Dirty

Highly recommended series

Ham (my 3 1/2 year-old) and I went to the library yesterday to get one of her favorite videos. She wanted to share it with Smooshy (my 8 month old), which in and of itself, is just precious. (I am constantly amazed at how thoughtful Ham is when it comes to other people.) Sometimes, however, her observant and curious personality comes back to bite me.

I guess 'fate' is getting me back for when I was little and asked my dad questions like, "Why is 'y' a 'y?' Why isn't it a 'b?' I mean, who decided that it was a 'y?' Who decided that blue is actually blue? What if blue is actually green? What if we've got it wrong?" (That was when I was 8 years old) Later, it was, "How can 'x' equal anything? A letter is not a number! An 'x' is an 'x.' I'm not doing Algebra. I hate Mathematics." My poor parents.

So, as we are checking out her video, Ham notices an unusual-looking coffee cup on the librarian's desk. Unprompted, she looks over at it and says, "That's coffee. I know what that is. But why is there no handle on that cup?" I look at it and notice the inside is a green enamel, like the old depression-Era green. On the outside, it's stainless steel.

Any guesses?

The point is, the librarian explained to us that her father had passed away at 93 years old and left her this special cup. Ham asked why he had died. The librarian said he was sick and old. I watched her to see how she'd react to that, and Ham seemed to take it in stride.

Once we walked outside, however, she wanted a recap.

"Her daddy died?"

"Yes, honey."

"Why?"

"She said he was sick and he was old. God gives us these bodies and one day, our bodies get old and we leave them here, we die, and our new bodies go to Heaven."

"Our new bodies? How do they get to Heaven?"

Hmmmm. OK. At this point, I stop and wonder if this is supposed to be a theological discussion or just a matter of geography. I decide to approach the theological side...because honestly, I can't even describe where Heaven IS. How do you explain a fourth dimension or a parallel universe? And I don't even know that those explanations are accurate.

"When your body dies, and you believe in Jesus, you go to Heaven."

No such luck. She wanted the geographical answer...

"But where is Heaven?"

"Well, Heaven is beyond the sky. Beyond the stars, even."

"So, how do we get there? Do you have to have a parachute?" (Brilliant baby girl)

"No, not even a parachute will get you there. We have to have our new bodies to get there."

At this point, she's crawling up into the car and getting in her car seat. She looks down at her Baby Dance video, and very thoughtfully asks, "Why do babies wear diapers?"

FINALLY, a question I can answer with confidence and brilliance!

"So their poop doesn't fall on the floor."

By the time I got in my seat and was buckling in, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Ham starting to giggle uncontrollably. We giggled all the way home about it.

I love being a mom. 

Answer to what kind of 'cup' Ham discovered:



Vintage Stanley Thermos



When Can I Proclaim "Genius in the Hiz-ouse?!"

No, I'm not talking about my husband, Genius #1. I am talking about Ham, formerly Peanut, presently One-Who-Amazes-Us-Daily.

Every mom thinks their child is a genius, I know, I know. I'm no different than the biased mom who thinks that a child who can count to three is a prodigy, even when they find them with half a roach hanging out of their mouths. (They know good protein when they see it!) LOL

Everyone that is close to us knows we teach Ham American Sign-Language. She has a sign vocabulary of about 20 words and can also speak several different words. I've said that before. So, to reiterated, we know that signing is not hindering her speech as some studies and sceptics say. However, I tend to forget that not all children are taught signs and that it's still kind of rare. However, for us, it has become a way of life. Not to say that we aren't still enthralled with our little baby girl, but her communicating her needs and wants with us has become second-nature and I forget that some people will think it's weird or cool that she can sign, "More fish crackers, please."

For instance, we have an uncle, Fun Uncle Anthony, that still makes jokes about her and asks her, "Hey, can you sign, 'I want to eat my head'?" He's hysterical. At his house this past weekend, he was routinely making fun of us for teaching Ham all these things and making her a 'freak' and his little baby boy (who is 6 weeks older than Ham) did a sign. I said, "Look, look! See, he can sign!" Uncle Anthony (kidding, of course) mockingly said, "Yeah...'chicken'. Great." We just all started laughing.

However, we are surprised when Ham takes the initiative in learning new things or pointing out things we have not taught her. Here is a twist-tie that she picked up yesterday while Hubby and I were talking:

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, it's a twist-tie. And when Ham had it in her little hand and started to put it in her mouth, I said, "Whatcha got there?" She immediately, without hesitation, signed "fish." I took the twist-tie from her, and saw what you now see in this picture above.

OK. I mean, I know it looks like a little fish, but...HOW does a 13 month-old put that together? They really are smarter than we think.

GENIUS!

Next, we're setting up ink-blot tests. LOL

NOTE: For those of you concerned that Hubby and I may be forcing this stuff on our precious child, please be aware that Ham walks up to us and signs "Baby video" when she wants to watch the sign language video we rented from the library and she gets giddy when we understand what she is trying to communicate. She's a girl. She wants to be heard. :)