More conversations with a 4 year old

There have been a lot of things Trevor has been wondering about, and for a while we haven't really gotten into the exact details because I feel like I could scare him with the reality of a few questions he would ask. This doesn't apply to every question I've listed below, but I know that there are some questions that run through my mind where I have to censor myself and find other ways of explaining an answer to him without causing nightmares.

My dad got me a Chicago Bears laptop cover that I just recently put on. When I put the laptop on my lap, Trevor started asking me a lot of questions. He has always talked about the "good" team and the "bad" team. We can't seem to shake him of that idea. Even if the "good" team doesn't win, he shakes it off quickly by saying that HIS Twins team (in his imaginary game that he puts on then and there) won the game. And last year, during the football season, I can't quite remember if he was really not all that into the game (because since the baseball season started, he has been into learning all about the game: strikeouts, home runs, how to score, etc.) or if he just enjoyed tackling and throwing the football to dad or the uncles if they were around watching the games on TV. But with his dad already talking about the football season starting, and now I'm guessing that he remembers a bit about last year, and definitely enough to know that the Vikings are from Minnesota and the Bears are from Chicago. So he sees the cover on my laptop and Trevor asks if I like the Bears. I tell him that I do and he starts talking about how he doesn't like the Bears. He likes the Vikings. And then asks me why I don't like the Vikings. So I tell him without going into a rant. I also tell him that Papa and Uncle Kevin also like the Bears. He has so far seemed to warm up to the fact that if the Bears ever play the Vikings, there are going to be more cheers for the Bears than the Vikings and I don't know how he would hold up. Maybe the fact that the Bears don't always play the Vikings will be another thing that he might just warm up to. We'll have to see. I'm guessing that the questions and thoughts of cheering for Boston College even though we live in Minnesota will actually help clear up the Bears/Vikings discussion. Either he is going to have to figure out that we are an exclusive Minnesota team family, or we choose who we want to cheer for.

So another conversation or I should say a lot of conversations lately with preschool through Vacation Bible Schools that he has been going to have revolved around religion. He has talked about when Jesus is coming back to life. He has talked about dying and going to heaven. He has asked me to read stories out of his children's bible. His favorite story right now is Moses and the burning bush. But I think it is natural to be fascinated with heaven and dying. I know he has talked to my mom a lot about going to heaven because she is someone that does not have her parents because they have died and gone to heaven. I think he even likes to hear her say it and hear why they died, what their names are, and how it relates to him. He has said that God has told him that his parents will never die. So it isn't something that he can entirely comprehend, but again, not something I really want to scare him about either.

I don't commonly wear tank tops or swimsuits. The house is kept cool enough and for the most part I don't want to venture out in hot hot hot weather with Gwen. But one day last week we went to the water spray park in east Bloomington so I had a swimsuit under a tank top. I got in the car and Trevor was in his carseat. He saw my Kermit tattoo and while he has always known I've had it, we called it a freckle before. He had a freckle that we named Zelda. But I think now that he has had some experience with temporary tattoos at school or camps or other places, he asked me in the car, "How do you get Kermit off?" Assuming that I would say: by washing it off. But I told him that it doesn't come off. I explained the entire process, minus the needles and pain (although I didn't think it was at all painful) how someone drew and put ink on me to keep it on me. He then asked to go to the store that I had the tattoo put on. I told him he would have to be 18 years old before I would take him into the store. For some reason he accepted that answer and when my mom got into the car, he quickly asked her if she had a freckle too. When she said she did and showed him, he was a little disappointed that it wasn't colorful like mine.

And I was surprised it took him this long to start talking about having a baby in his tummy. Since he was very aware when I was pregnant with Gwen. Perhaps they are talking about it at bible school this week but he has been saying that he has a baby bee in his tummy since Monday and that it will be born on August 27th. From the very beginning of baby discussions I have always said that the mom is the one that has babies and that boys cannot have babies. I guess he thinks he can overcome that obstacle. I'm just letting him pretend after reminding him of the fact.

Last but not least, I have to say that I'm a very happy mom when it comes to Trevor's love of math. He's been able to count up to 100 for a few months now and while we've been trying to teach him adding and subtracting, I was just able to stock up at Target's dollar shop with a bunch of stuff from reading and rhyming to math. They have a few workbooks and one of them is math for Kindergartners - 1st graders. They teach simple adding by counting and pictures. Then you are supposed to write the numbers you see to show how to read the math problem. I brought only two pages for him to try and while he has a little problem writing the numbers since he hasn't had any practice doing it, he really gets instructions and how to do things once he has done it once. He finished the pages within 5 minutes and asked for more. Guess I should have brought more, maybe the whole book. But I also should go back and get more of the same book because I think he even thinks it is fun.

He is also on the verge of reading, but with his want to be independent, it is hard to teach him and get him to ask for help or try things on his own if he didn't seek it out. His spiderman laptop has been a good help as well as the leapster games that he has. But simply reading a book is hard because I don't think he has made the connection of how reading will convey a story. He can either repeat a story he has heard many times before, or he can read individual words from a new story he doesn't know about, but it hasn't sunk in yet that those new words can tell you a story. I think math is more fun anyway ;-)