SANTA BABY

It's been three weeks now, but Dodger hasn't forgotten. We went to the local library and got to see Santa! We took a list from home. Dodger sat on his lap and wondered why Santa didn't want to look at the list, so he read it to Santa. (But all in all that Santa was a great one!) Then he ate snacks, had his picture in the Brentwood Journal, which I STILL haven't seen! And saw a magic show! We had such a great time. And Jennifer Bell and the Weavers were there with us. The very next Monday Dodger and I were at the Green Hills Mall for a few things and GUESS WHO WAS THERE....Santa! I told Dodger that we wouldn't be able to go see Santa that day and he replied "Oh, I don't want to. I already sat on his lap at the library, remember?" :) He (Dodger) has new questions about Santa all the time. Like: Why is he always wearing different clothes? Why don't we see reindeer? Where are the elves? Can we go see them? Can we go to the North Pole? Then why can the kids on Polar Express go there? Is it always dark at the NP? When Santa goes to China, can he speak Chinese? Will Santa get cold taking presents all over???

BATMAN GETS FIRED

Actually, Batman lives at our house. He's a lot shorter than I imagined him...and his alterego isn't Bruce Wayne. It's Dodger Vest. Someday he's going to make it all much simpler and just change his name legally to BATMAN. He told me that last week. He reassured us he would still live at the house. Dodger, I mean, Batman doesn't like the idea of someday moving from our house. He also thinks that "getting fired" means falling into hot lava. But we haven't let him see Star Wars III, so he must have made it up. We also talked a lot about heaven. It's been a frequent early-morning-in-the-car discussion and I like it...because I remember doing the same thing with my dad. I wanted to make sure I was going to heaven...Dodger is making sure that Batman, Spider-Man and Superman will be there too. It's fun having Batman live at the house. He fights off the bad guys and gives Dodger a chance to visit his grandparents. One night Batman told us that Dodger was on his way to Nana's on a plane. The next day he went to Honi's. He wore his mask even to bed so we wouldn't discover his alias. We were so concerned that Dodger was gone for too long that Batman lifted his mask and whispered to me "It's me, mom. But don't tell dad".

Our Casa

Questions

Dodger is at that fun four-year-old age where everything is literal and if not, he's asking me what it means. "What does 'keep on truckin' mean?" He's got the questions...and we don't have all the answers. I like the Berenstain Bears book about God "The Big Question" which is all about explaining that God made everything. Sister bear asks at the end: "Did God make questions too?" Anyway, I wish I could remember half of the questions Dodger's asked this week. I do know that he could finally go to bed tonight because he had the answer to what time we are waking up in the morning. He needed to think about those numbers since he's got a digital clock by his bed (and I wonder if he'll wake up in the middle of the night just waiting for 7:00.) We are heading to Chick-Fil-A, then the library to see Santa. Dodger has a small list of wants, mainly Legos and Bionicles, which are really just fancy Legos. But his big concern is why we always see Santa ("Momma, why does he always wear a different looking suit?") but never his reindeer. Who cares how santa fits down the chimney, how does he get around? We had a Paddington Bear adventure for two days this week (Paddington's now on the Christmas list, thanks Genevieve!) and it was the most precious thing to see Dodger talk to Paddington and take care of him. He told me that "Paddington can't wear his boots in the house because they are muddy and no shoes in the house". And "Paddington might want to run away in the middle of the night to his mommy". Paddington had a question for Dodger this week. Dodger had a little "gleek" come from his mouth when he was talking and Paddington asked "What's that?". Dodger said: "It's water...actually slime. We have slime and blood in our bodies". All in all, Paddington liked our house. I hope he comes back for a visit again soon.