Love & Blunder

Rob’s Grandmother passed away a few weeks ago, and thus began Olivia’s questions about death. “Why did Daddy’s Grandmother have to die, Mama?” (she always calls me Mama when she’s feeling small). Not what I was expecting to hear from my not yet 3 year old.

“Because she was very old and sick, and Jesus said it was time for her to die and go home to be with Him.”

“I don’t want to go be with Jesus.”

“It will be a long time before you have to go be with Jesus.”

I can’t remember exactly what she asked next (this was weeks ago, really) but it was something about if we would see Grandmother with Jesus. I think she still confuses Pastor with Jesus, so perhaps she was asking if Grandmother would be at church. I’m not sure. But anyways, I answered her, “We all love Jesus, and all the people who love Jesus will be together with Him after they die.”

That seemed to satisfy her. Though the topic has come up regularly since then.

At bedtime tonight Olivia told me that her ponies went to be with Jesus because they died. Then she said, “But we will see them when we die.”

“Yes, we will all go be with Jesus.”

“Will we be people?”

“Yes,  Jesus will give us all new bodies that won’t ever get sick, or hurt, or sad.”

“Mine will be pink,” she said matter-of-factly.

The video speaks for itself…

She’s walking. That’s an obvious first. But Elise has made another milestone this week.

She slept the whole night in her own bed!!!!! I slept really well, even though I had to go to her room twice and nurse her for 5 minutes or so. That was still better than what had become her night-time ritual of trying to find Rob in the middle of the night. “Da-Doh? Da-Doh?” she’d whisper while crawling all over the bed.

For the past 11 months Elise has started her night out in her own bed, either the bassinet when she was smaller or her crib, and then around 2 or 4 she’d wake up and I’d bring her to our bed. Everyone slept really well. It was a glorious system.  But then she got really close to learning to walk and having us around was too much incentive to practice moving, even if it was pitch black.

This is the same stage that got Olivia moved into her own room. She would stand up in her crib and sing to us for hours at night, just because we were there.

There are some families who can co-sleep with their kids for years. I don’t know how they do it.  Eventually, no one in our house is sleeping anymore. And if there’s no sleep, it’s not co-sleeping, it’s torture.