10-3-12 Eli’s comments

Children have so many things to figure out – the world around them, the meaning of words, God and their future. Elijah evidently was puzzling over his future responsibilities the day he turned to his mother and asked, “Mom, boys are supposed to take care of girls, right?”
“Yes, they are.”
He sat and thought about that a moment before announcing, “I don’t know if I can take care of girls with lipstick. I could take care of girls with curly hair, but I don’t think I could take care of a girl with lipstick.”
I’m sure he will figure that one out in a hurry.

He discovered a neat thing about candy one day and said, “I have some candy. At first it is really hard, but after you get your spit on it, it becomes as smooth as a blanket.”
The origin of a word initiated the following conversation.
“I know why they are called ‘wisemen’.”
“Oh, why?”
“Because they are guys and they are always asking ‘why.’”

Wind dynamics caught Eli’s attention the day he built a little house that the wind blew over. Disappointed, he told his mom, “The wind blew my house down,” and added with some puzzlement, “but the wind is not heavier than my bricks.”

The perpetual preschool problem of naps will not be resolved easily for this lad who has his own ideas about nap time. He does not like naps, but his mother still told him, “You need to take some quiet time.”
Eli looked up at her and declared, “I think I’ll have some loud time to go with that.”

He got time for loud later and was marching around when he turned to mom to say, “I am in God’s army. I’m going to keep God safe. And my job is to protect. And if I see a devil, I am going to bop him right out on the porch and he’s gonna bump off right onto the street.”

Eli’s mom talks about God with him, but he does not totally understand. When a friend came over one day, Eli shared what he knew about God. It was evidently not enough. Eli came to his mother and said, “Mom tell him about that ‘God guy’ we are always talking about.”

They do talk about the “God guy” a lot, and read Bible stories together.
Eli likes his reading time, so for a while, when he misbehaved his mother withdrew reading privileges one book at a time.
It had been one of those days and she warned him, “you have already lost two blocks for two books.”
“I don’t care.”
“Okay, so no books for you tomorrow,” she said.
The next morning, he wanted her to read him a book. “Can we read the Bible?”
“No reading.”
He was shocked, “But, Mom, you have to read about God!”

She could not argue that. “You’re right. It is very important to read about God.”
He has a lot of books to read and knows that I like to share books with him. After they finished reading one book, he turned to his mom and said, “Mom, we really need to read this book when Grandma comes, ‘cause I think Grandma will really like it.”

With all those books, Eli is more than ready for kindergarten this year.
It is five whole days of sharing space and time with many other kids his age. He enjoyed the newness and importance of being big enough for school, but then there was the teacher’s five cards a day system of discipline. One pulled card is a warning and most children will lose one card, but the discipline steps up with every card pulled until a child has five pulled and must go to the office.
About half way through his second week of kindergarten, Eli began crying before school.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to go to school.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have to obey all day!” he moaned.

To encourage him, Eli’s mom promised that if he would collect no more than a few reprimands per week she would eat lunch with him on Friday.
But it is difficult. He did not make it the first time and came home quite chagrined to have collected one reprimand too many.
He did manage to make it through the next week and earned a lunch with mom at his school. Before leaving, he begged her, “please, Mom. Please, don’t send my lunch today. They have pizza. Don’t send my lunch today.”
They shared pizza at school.

This year Elijah lost his first teeth and he quickly became fascinated with the fantasy of the tooth fairy.
His mother finally turned to him and said, “Eli, I just want to you to know the truth about the tooth fairy.”
She paused for effect while her husband shook his head and silently mouthed, “No! Don’t say anything!”
She pressed on, “The tooth fairy is really me, Eli.”
He studied her for a moment, then quite seriously shook his head, “Uh-uh. You can’t be the tooth fairy.”
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t have any wings,” he said with a finality that brooked no further discussion.
And that’s the news from this grandchild who has at least one thing figured out for sure.


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