Annabel keeps telling me it's still Christmas.
"See mom! There's snow! It's still Christmas!"
We've explained that Christmas is over, that Santa will come again next year. We say we can have Christmas every day in our hearts, if we want. She likes that idea.
She also likes the idea of decorating for Valentine's Day. Tonight, as I followed her up the stairs to bed, she exclaimed "and we can put up the little lights, mama! In my room!" And I had an instant vision of her sleeping in a princess bed, snuggled into fluffy pink pillows and duvet, with white twinkle lights wrapped around the headboard and footboard.
Actually, that might not be a bad alternative to leaving on her lamp all night (she's going through a fear-of-the-dark phase).
She talked to my mom tonight on the phone and asked for coupons that she can use to buy unicorns. My mom said "You want grandma to bring you a unicorn next time I visit?" And Annabel thought that was a fine idea - 1-2-3-4-5-6 unicorns, grandma! So I guess we're into unicorns now.
She is not a child who is easily swayed once she's decided something. She said one morning at church, "I like God," and I realized she thinks our dear, funny pastor is God himself. After the service we chatted with him about it, and he assured that he worked for God but wasn't God.
Two weeks later, she said something about God and church and it was pretty clear that she still thought Pastor was God. If I try to correct her now, she just gives me a sideways look, as though humoring me by listening. "Sure mom," she seems to be thinking. "Whatever. You can try to tell me different, but I know better." I've stopped correcting her directly, but take chances when I get them to talk about the other things Pastor does besides lead the service wearing his robes. We sat next to him at Advent soup supper one night, and she chattered away telling him all sorts of things. It made me think we've either done something very right or have really missed the boat on the whole religion thing so far. Maybe a bit of both.
My oldest is, as far as I can tell, more of a born skeptic. He's starting to like Bible stories, and now that Bel is there to egg him on he'll go up front for the children's sermon. Mostly, though, he goes for the toy room.
He got several fantastic LEGO sets for Christmas, which he and Jon promptly put together. One of our New Year's weekend projects was to create a LEGO play/storage place in his room. I've been collecting ideas on-line at Pinterest, and with Jon's help and a vintage type tray found in Nana's basement, we created a spot in his room where his LEGO fantasies can run wild. Tonight he wanted me to take a couple of videos with my phone, and he was so delighted with the result that I promised to set up the Flip and tripod for him tomorrow so he can do his own videos. I have a feeling there are several more episodes of The Pizza Shop & The Alien in the works.
We have the rest of this week to finish recovering from the holidays. Otto heads back to school on Monday, so for the next few days he gets to sleep in a little bit, go to day care and hang out with his buddies all day, and have real peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. Simple and happy things.
Bel and I had better start working with hearts cut out of construction paper, doilies, and twinkle lights. Valentine's Day isn't just going to celebrate itself, you know.
