Explaining Things

I've noticed a theme this week of having to explain some pretty grown-up concepts to Evie.  For one thing, Evie's interest and confusion about death and heaven is still very active.  Edgar recently had a birthday and this got us talking about Winston again, and Evie's confusion over why Winston had to go to heaven.  We explained that he was sick and old and it was time for him to go.  Later that day, though seemingly out of the blue, she says, "I'm not gonna live here forever."  Seth said, "Well, no, some day you'll be a grown-up and get your own house."  She said, "No, I'm gonna be here for 5 weeks and after 5 weeks I'm going to heaven."  I have to admit, I kinda freak out when she says stuff like that.  The crazy part of me thinks, Does she have some kind of premonition?  Is this a self-fulfilling prophecy?  Should I keep her under house arrest the week of March 7th?  I don't like it.

Another fun topic for all parents is the birds and the bees.  Evie has been under the impression that the way she got into my tummy was because I ate her when she was a baby.  I wondered how I was going to set her straight in an age-appropriate level of detail...  I tried explaining to her that she started out in my tummy, that mommies don't go around eating babies.  I think she gets that concept now.  She came home the other day and reported that the mom of one of her classmates has a baby in her belly, so I'm sure we'll be getting many more questions about this...

Evie kicked off this week with her first violin recital.  Of course, she doesn't have a real violin yet and can't play anything so I was surprised when her teacher said she would be on the program for Monday.  But she got exposure to the idea of standing in front of everyone, bowing, taking playing position, and standing with her violin while everyone watched, so I suppose that's the idea behind these lessons and recitals.  I like that we are practicing every day, but I do think that Evie will enjoy it more and try harder when she gets the real instrument.  Right now all the exercises are more about building the right kinds of movements with you arms and fingers in preparation for the real instrument, which I get, but I think it's so abstract that Evie loses interest much more quickly than she will when she gets the real instrument.

Taking her first bow

Holding her cardboard violin in playing position

Evie likes singing "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho" and when I come into her room in the mornings she is often singing it.  I realized this week that she's singing, "And the wolf came tumbling down."  That mental picture is priceless.