Nora Droppings

Nora loves being a mother. A couple months ago I took the kids to the park and while I was busy playing with Jack, Nora found her way over to an 8 month old baby in the swing. I went over to make sure she was playing gently enough and the mother assured she had been “very sweet”. The baby’s name was Rex and Nora was happy pushing him and talking to him in a baby voice until it was time for Baby Rex and his siblings to leave. For the entire ride home and several days/weeks after she kept talking about Baby Rex and when we would see them again.

As a good older sister she also likes to mother Jack, at least when she isn’t picking on him. She will try and comfort him with toys, or songs when he is upset. She also like to be the “mother” during baths and tries to wash him, which results in the bathroom floor being covered in water. Sometimes she will talk to him in a baby voice, “You like trucks don’t you, Jackie?”, “You’re a good little boy!” and react like a proud Mama, “awwww, he is the cutest!”.

She has been talking like an expert and using the phrase “of course”, as in “Well, I needed to get the dinosaur eggs, of course”.

This confidence has cause her to argue with us on some phrases, such as when Wendy said we will be home in a jiffy, she said, "No, it's jippy. We will be home in a jippy!"

She also called Wendy's beauty mark a "booby mark".

Conversation with EKG the other day, as I was watching her eat an apple.

EKG:”Daddy, why are you looking at me?”

Me: “Because you are my daughter and I love you.”

EKG: After taking a bite of apple and thinking. “Daddy, ask me why I’m looking at you.”

Me: “Nora, why are you looking at me?”

EKG:”Because you are my daddy and I love you.”

The other night putting them to bed, Jack said, "Your beard is getting long, Daddy. You need to cut it." I asked Nora if I need to cut it and she looked up at me and touched it and said, "No Daddy, it's beautiful!"

Jack Droppings

Here is a post of some random things I've jotted down about Jack, but never made it into a full post. Better clear out the drafts before the new year.

Jack, and one other girl in his class, have been using my/mine instead of I/I’m so we get

“Mine Burp”
“My love dump trucks!”
“My am poopy”
“My help you please, Mommy?”

Twinkle Twinkle has been his favorite bedtime song for months and months. He loves to sing along, off key, and sings it, “Twinkle twinkle, little star. How my wonder what you are.”

Other phrases that make us laugh:

“That unbelievable!”

“You amazing , daddy!”

"That an excavator!"

"My am Super Why!"



He also doesn’t say the “s” in words that start with an s and consonant, so he gets “crapes” (scrapes) and “cracthes” (scratches), he likes to “pie with my little eye” (spy) and he is a “peedy runner” (speedy). He likes “cool” (school) where the other day he made a “tar” (star) for the tree. He loves to point out “quirrels” (squirrels) and sometimes at night he gets “cared” (scared).

He has the sweetest, “Hi daddy!” I’ve ever heard, even when he uses it when I catch him on the stairs after he has gotten out of bed after bed time. It's followed with, "What are you doing,Buddy?" "Ummmmm, Nothing!"


He has also been a great delivery man, “my am making deliveries”, with his dump truck which he fills up with water bottles and brings to us on the couch.

"How did he die?"

Ever since Nora was 2 or so she took an interest in how things died. I think this stems from her fascination with dinosaurs, since at the end of almost every book it talks about how they went extinct. I remember the first time she really understood that dinosaurs were extinct and how sad she was talking about missing them and never being able to see them.

Since then she has asked how my mom and Wendy's dad died, as well as how all of our old pets died. We have also talked about how plants die and she got sad this year when the trees lost their leaves. It was kind of striking at first, but since Wendy and I are "reality based parents", we were happy to explain how our loved ones have passed. Nora has always taken it in stride and has asked a lot of questions, about how we felt and how we still fell ("Do you miss her?"). There is a reason multiple teachers have called her the most empathetic kid they have ever taught.



About a month ago we were reading a book about Washington D.C. they showed the mint and a $5 dollar bill, so she asked who he was.

G:"Abraham Lincoln, he was President of the United States."
EKG: "Is he dead?"

G:"Yes he died a long time ago."

EKG:"How did he die?"

G:"Well, he was shot and died."

EKG: Looking confused -"But I get shots and I don't die."
G: Realizing I just crossed a line of childhood innocence - "Well a man shot him with a gun and killed him"
EKG:"What was that mans name?"
G: "His name was John Wilkes Booth."
EKG: "Why did he kill him?"
G: : Wish I had given cancer as the cause - "Well Lincoln did a lot of great things, but some of those things made some people mad."
EKG: "He must not have been a nice man."
G: "No he was not a nice man at all. But Lincoln accomplished so much before he was killed we still celebrate him as one of the greatest presidents."

She got very quiet and had tears in her eyes, so I hugged her and tried to be comforting. Well, as comforting as one can be about murder anyway.

It's funny how desensitized you become about murder and violence, it's on the news and in almost every tv show or movie. It was sweet, and a little sad, to see her shocked reaction to the idea that people would willingly kill each other. She is used to things dying and animals killing and eating meat, so I didn't think of the difference until I saw it in her eyes. I'm glad at almost 4.5 years old it came as such a surprise to her that humans can be cruel. For many kids her age person on person violence is a reality not a revelation. She will have plenty of time as an adult to deal with hurtful people, she should enjoy the innocence for as long as she can.

Of course, she was fine the next morning and the next time we read that book she remembered Lincoln's name. How he died didn't come up in the conversation.