What Easter's All About

There are A LOT of topics that are not easy to explain to your kids - death, homelessness, natural disasters, war, etc. But, as parents, it's our duty to help our kids understand things that we may struggle to understand ourselves. With Easter approaching, I wanted to help Grace, my almost four year old, to understand what we're celebrating. I wanted her to know that it's not just about Easter egg hunts, coloring eggs, and a visit from the Easter Bunny. As I set out to teach her about the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, I realized that explaining these events so that she could understand them would be a huge challenge.

I got a storybook that I thought would help, and it did, although I had to answer questions along the way about things she saw and heard in the story. Here are a few examples of our interactions the last few weeks:

• When looking at a picture of Jesus with a crown of thorns on his head, "Mommy, that looks like it hurts."


• When we read about Simon helping Jesus carry the cross, Grace responded, "Simon? Like the Chipmunk?"


• After finishing the story, as I was asking questions about what we celebrate on Easter to see if she understood, Grace answered, "Jesus died on the cross." I replied, "Very good. And what happened next?" Grace's answer: "He didn't have a shirt on, and I could see his nipples."

All in all, although she had some silly responses, I think she's starting to understand what Easter is all about. I will keep praying for the right words to explain what will happen in the days to come and why we sing ALLELUIA on Easter morning with such joy! Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Colin says YES!!!

Colin really likes to nod his head YES! He does it with such enthusiasm :-) It's SO much better than when he says no with his full-body temper tantrums!

Big, Big Giant Booty

Sometimes your kids say things that are so funny that you forget to tell them they're not nice things to say. Last night my parents stayed at our house because they had an early flight to PA this morning. Grace was so excited to have Nana and Pop-Pop sleep over. She helped me make their bed, complete with a Tinkerbell bedspread that she knew they would love. As we were all hanging out together, Nana told Grace that she wanted to sit in her Winnie the Pooh chair. This chair is a hot commodity at our house lately, as Colin loves to climb up and sit on it. This often doesn't go over well with Grace who likes to remind Colin that it's "her chair." Grace was not impressed with Nana's desire to sit in her chair and told her she couldn't sit there. I asked Grace why Nana couldn't sit there, and she replied:

"She won't fit."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because she has a big, big giant booty!" Grace answered.

We all laughed hysterically, and I'm not sure we ever got around to explaining to Grace that she needs to be nice and not talk about people's booties. And Nana, you're booty's not giant :-)

We Don't Like the Cowboys

You have to be careful what you teach your kids, right? We all know that. Well, as die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fans, we recognize our duty to teach our kids right (cheering for the Eagles) from wrong (cheering for the Cowboys). During this past football season, Grace got pretty into football, and she loved cheering along with us. We taught her the E-A-G-L-E-S chant and the "Fly Eagles Fly" song that we sing every time they score a touchdown.

We also began explaining to her that we don't like the Dallas Cowboys. This was, in part, because several of our devious friends tried to get her to say "Go Cowboys" and "I love the Cowboys" to irritate us. So in our explanations we told her that the Cowboys stink and that we love the Eagles! No harm done, right?

Yesterday we were shopping at Sam's and two genuine cowboys walked past us. They were fully decked out in 10-gallon hats, boots, and jeans and looked like they just came from a ranch. As they walked by, Grace blurted out, "The Cowboys stink. We don't like the Cowboys." Oops...I guess she's confusing the Dallas Cowboys with real life Cowboys. We'll need to work on that ;-)

Thankfully, these real life cowboys laughed, as I tried to explain to Grace that they are nice cowboys.

Another Classic Grace Quote

Last night I took the kids for a walk right after we got home. Colin was in his stroller, and Grace decided to push her baby in a stroller. This is a risky move because you never know when Grace will decide that she can't walk anymore because "her legs are broken." Those of you who spend a lot of time with her know that her legs tend to be broken fairly often.

So we walked to the neighborhood playground and were having a great time. Colin enjoyed the swing, while Grace went down the slide at least a dozen times. All was well with the world...UNTIL I announced that it was time to head home to make dinner. Grace refused to walk home. This time there was a twist on her usual broken legs excuse. She informed me that she couldn't walk because she was thirsty and her "legs weren't filled with milk." :-)

Gotta love our little drama queen!!!

Unicorns at the Zoo

Tonight Grace and I were doing "learning time," working on writing letters and numbers. We got to the letter U, and there was a picture of a unicorn. Grace excitedly told me that she LOVES unicorns. We went to the zoo a few weeks ago, and she's been talking non-stop about it. After she saw the unicorn, she said, "Mommy, can we go to the zoo next week to see if there's a unicorn there? Because I love unicorns!"

So. Darn. Cute.

Grace's Valentine's Dance Performance

We are so proud of our little dancer! Grace's dance class had a special Valentine's Day performance today, and it was so adorable :-) We love our sweet, silly, always full of laughter girl! Grace, you are AWESOME!!!