Liberty has been discussing the growth of her toenails with me randomly for the past several days. Today, at lunch, she stated in her BIG IDEA voice, "Mommy! I know! I can ask God to make my toenails stop growing and stay the same for always! Right, Mommy?!"
"Well, that's right, you
can ask God for that, but He wants your toenails to keep growing."
"Why?"
"Because He made you that way, and He knows it is best for your toenails to keep growing and for us to keep clipping them."
"But how does God know that is best? I don't think that is really best."
"Because He is way super smart. He is so much smarter than we are, and He knows that it is good for us to have toenails that keep growing."
Liberty pondered this while she munched on her sandwich. After two seconds of silence, she asked, "Mommy? What was your name when you were a little tiny baby?"
"My name was Melissa Jane." I thought about my verb tense as I said it but decided to roll with it.
"Ohhh," Liberty nodded knowingly. "How little were you when you were Mehwisha Jane?"
"Well, I was so little, that Grandpa, my daddy, could hold me in only one arm, like this." I demonstrated.
Mercy looked up from her plate, "Mommy? Your daddy could hold you like this?" She pantomimed holding a newborn in her arms. When I nodded, she said, "That's very little."
"Yes."
"But Mommy," Liberty wanted to know, "how come I never saw you when you were that little?"
"Because you weren't born yet."
"Why wasn't I born yet?"
While I paused to figure out the answer to that question, Mercy piped up with wonder in her voice, "Mommy! When I take my turkey out of my bread, I still have mayonnaise on my sandwich!" By the tone of her voice, this obviously was a Great Discovery.
"Wow!" I responded, matching her excitement.
"Mommy? Where you this little when Grandpa could hold you with one arm?" Liberty indicated the size of a pea with her index finger and thumb. I thought about telling her I was that little when I was inside Grandma's tummy, but held back, not wanting to answer all of the questions that would undoubtedly ensue from
that bit of info.
Instead, I laughed, "Noooo!"
"How about this big?" her fingers indicated a golf ball now.
"Nooo! Babies are usually this big when they are first born, not any smaller than that." I used my hands to outline a preemie.
Mercy disagreed, "
Team Umizoomi is this big, Mommy," she pointed out.
"You're right, Sissy, but
Team Umizoomi is pretend. Real people are usually this big when they are babies."
"Mommy!" Liberty shouted with sudden inspiration, "I want to watch
Diego when I'm done with my lunch!"
I thought about it. Since every Wednesday we have English Class (letter recognition and writing), Cooking Class (we made smoothies and smoothie pops today) and Cleaning/Health Class (they took a bath - systematically cleaning themselves, and then cleaned their bathroom - systematically following a list of items to be cleaned and learning why cleaning themselves and the things around them is important)... Anyway, since every Wednesday we have English Class, I told them they could watch an episode of
Super Why which teaches them to recognize the alphabet.
"I want to watch
Dora!" Mercy exclaimed.
"Sorry, Sissy, not today."
"That's because
Dora is pretend," Liberty explained to her little sister.
"Yeah, and
Diego is pretend, too," Mercy shot back.
"
Super Why is pretend, too," I inserted, and they both looked at me in amazement.
Then Liberty's face lit up, "
That's why they're this little, Mommy!" She showed me with her fingers how tall they were, and I couldn't hold it in. I laughed, and we all started laughing together.
"Mommy," Liberty told me in a thoughtful voice, "I'm glad you're not Bewhissa Jane anymore. I'm really glad your name is Mommy."