Things my kids said this week

Sometimes I really feel like my kids mentally outpace me. I can barely keep up with their little personalities.

I sat with Luna last night as she told me all about her friend’s birthday party that she had been at earlier in the day. 

“We were playing downstairs and I was dancing, but Talia came down and said ‘Doors stay open, kids’. And I asked her what if I am EMBARRASSED to have people see me dancing??? But she said ‘doors still stay open’. They gave me water in a jar but I did NOT drink that *judgmental expression*. And when we ate lunch, Aria ate a RED POTATO and it squirted all over my food!! And my dress! It had SEEDS in the juice!! So I didn’t eat anything else.” 

“Were you rude about these things, Luny?” I asked. “Did you speak disrespectfully?”

“Well… I think… yes. I’m sorry to say that I think I WAS rude. I didn’t remember that you said to have self control,” she responded, crestfallen. 

We had talked about rudely blurting things out before she went to the party as this is a daily issue with Luna.

We were silent for a minute, then she said nervously,”I have a secret, but I can’t tell you.”

“Maybe you should tell me, Luny. Secrets aren’t great to have,” I said.

“I am VERY worried. If I tell you my secret, PLEEEEEASE be merciful to me!!!” She clasped her hands together in supplication.

“I promise to be merciful!” I laughed.

“When I said that Daphne tripped over her doll, I just got away with it. And when I said that Daphne tripped over her stick, I got away with that, too. All the times I said Daphne got accidentally hurt, I got away with it every time,” she looked at me, worried.

We have had several instances, this past week, of Daphne getting accidentally hurt, and I was suspicious of Luna’s involvement but couldn’t prove it since I was in the other room. And it had been eating her up.

“I didn’t have self control,” she mourned, little hands waving around.

We had a little chat about whether or not she felt good after hurting Daphne and then lying about it. And then she explained that she tried to be good, but rude words would press against her lips and burst out, and when Daphne was frustrating, she would just hurt Daphne in spite of good intentions. In the end we decided that it might be helpful to write “Be Kind” five times in a row on a piece of paper which Luna bedazzled with jewel stickers. It’s now one of her prized possessions and sits on her dresser where Daphne can’t reach it. She’s looked at it multiple times today, reminding herself to be kind.

Last week we had our bedroom door locked for *reasons* and Luna got out of bed and tried to come into our room. She knocked hard,”Hey!! Let me in here! I need to potty!”

“Luna, go use your own bathroom, baby,” Aaron said.

Silence from Luna as she stomped to her own bathroom down the hall.

A few minutes later she was back and pressed her mouth against the crack of the door,”I have something to say to you two. You don’t DESERVE me to do my morning chores tomorrow! Since you won’t let me in your room, you don’t even deserve it!!” 

And then, as she walked back to her room, she irritably flung over her shoulder,”You.. you, NUTHEADS!!”

Luna learned the words simpleton and lunatic this week. Now we hear her saying condescendingly,”Oh, Daphne. You simpleton.” 

As Daphne yells back angrily,”NO! I NOT A PIMPLETON.” She has no clue what simpleton means, but she understands Luna’s tone. 

And then,”Fine, you lunatic.”

And Daphne,”Nooooo I DAPHNE!!”

We always wave goodbye to each other from the front door anytime one of us leaves the house. Daphne and I waved goodbye to Aaron and Luna yesterday morning as they left for church. I have a sinus infection so couldn’t go. Daphne absentmindedly pinched my boob with one hand as she waved with the other, and said in a faraway voice,”Dis you tiny boobie.” Then she turned and looked directly at me and said critically,”Queens have big boobies.”

Daphne says “queen” for anything she believes is beautiful, and we have never once discussed boob sizes.

So it seemed clear that Daphne, at age 2 years old, roasted her own mother by insulting her boob size. I have not achieved queen bra size, apparently.

I have prayed more frequently lately that I will be able to teach my girls to love a relationship with the Lord at a young age. I was saved young, but didn’t know what a real relationship with God looked like until I was much older. It weighs heavier on me now that I have seen how easily uprooted I was during postpartum depression and I hope for my girls to never go through a faith crisis like I did. So these little things mean so much to me:

The other morning I woke up early to find Luna sitting in the living room next to a little lamp, Bible in her lap (she can’t quite read yet). It was dark outside. She said happily,”I came in here to read my Bible and see the face of God. Did you know, Mama, that Jesus is all man and all God? I think it’s magic of some sort.”

The same day Daphne came up to me in the kitchen and took my hand. “Walk, Mama,” she said. So we walked around the island, and she said,”Pray, Mama, pray.” So then we walked up and down the hallway 5 or 6 times and I prayed aloud. Then she ran off to play, content.

I think God prompted them to do these things to encourage me, and increase my own faith. I read the other day that we don’t own our children, we are just the stewards of them. They belong to God. Although my brain knows this to be true, my heart struggles to let them go and see them as God’s. But I’m striving for that because I believe it to be the only way I can teach my kids to truly love the Lord. They belong to him, and if they have faith in that themselves, then they will know better how to love God.