sweet conversations

Caleb: "You know what Jesus is working on right now?" Big sigh, eyes sparkling. This is coming out of nowhere.

Me: "What's he working on, Caleb?"

Caleb: "He's making houses made of..." dramatic pause "... PURE GOLD! And all the streets are made of the best gold! And we get to be there!" His voice is trembling with excitement and anticipation, as if it were Christmas Eve all over again. "And then, there's this book with everyone's name in it! Except for people who don't love God," said with a downcast face, which soon brightens. "And maybe we'll get to see our own names written in it!"

I don't have any pictures of this moment to show you, and it doesn't matter, because there's no way any earthly camera could have captured that look of love and anticipation from this child of the King. He was literally glowing, more radiantly than the purest of gold. His mind is so often fixed heavenward.

***

Lily, as we're driving past a lake on the way to her speech class: "Mom, that lake is all icey!"

Me: "Yes, Lily, it's so cold outside, the lake froze up!"

Lily: "We need to get a humpback whale to break up all the ice with his tail!" (I'm guessing she's watched an episode too many of "Go, Diego, Go," whose animal friends often come to the rescue.)

Me: "That's a great idea, Lily, except we don't have any humpback whales in Michigan."

Lily: "We can go to China and get one!" (That would be quite the interesting plane ride home...)

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Seth, trying to coax me to sit on the couch with him and turn on the cartoons: "Mom, you come with me, please? Mom, you come to the couch? See, I kiss your hand." Then he kisses my hand. Big pause, as he considers his next offer. "See, I zerbert your other hand." And he lays on a bumpy one. He squeezes my hands and smiles at me, looking deep into my eyes. Yes, of course I sat on the couch with him and watched cartoons. He was a very content little boy, snuggled in the crook of his mommy's arm, and I felt drunk with love as his warm, sweet body pressed up next to me. It doesn't take much to buy off this fool-in-love mommy.

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I hate to not have a Gabriel-conversation to share with you, but I honestly can't think of anything he and I have talked about the past couple of days! (Cue pangs of guilt.) It's just been the normal day to day stuff, like, "Mom, what's for dinner?"..."What else?"..."How many bites do I have to eat to get a snack?"..."Can I just have a sandwich instead?" This morning, I did make him some scrambled eggs for breakfast, and I scored a "Your the best mom in the world!" complete with a tilt of the head, sweet up-turn of the lips, and dreamy eyes. Ladies, the way to this boy's heart goes straight through his stomach...IF what you're serving meets his strict set of rules for his delicate, picky-as-all-get-out palate: no sauce, no green seasonings, nothing not completely identifiable, no more than one food group per dish, no two items touching or occupying similar space, no vegetable except for raw carrots and celery or cooked corn, no calling meat of any category anything other than "meat, hamburger or chicken", no crusts, and unless it's a fruit, use lots of pepper. Simple!