Living with a four-year-old

Caleb's been on a roll lately with his comments, zingers, and brutal honesty.


Grandpa stopped by with Slurpees one afternoon while Caleb was supposed to be napping.  Grandpa caved when he heard him calling pitifully from his room and sprung him early.  As he was sucking down the sugary goodness, Caleb thoughtfully said, "Grandpa, you were on the tippy bottom and I didn't like you, but now you're on the top of the list."


[Unfortunately for Grandpa, Caleb's "list" changes more frequently than the NASDAQ composite, so no one keeps their tippy top rating for long.]


Lizzy had her first T-ball game--an entertaining sports spectacle if ever there was one.

Lizzy herself did great:  she left her bat somewhere near home plate, ran the bases in order and touched at least most of them, and stayed on the field while the other team was at bat.

She even fielded a grounder and threw it to first base.

And she got a couple of hits off real pitches--no tee required.

Caleb, forever uninterested in any game involving following rules, brought along his digger trucks to blissfully play in the dirt during the game.  At one point, he came running over to my chair to tell me, "I found some dirt to dig in on the other side of the dugout, and there's a girl there digging in the dirt too......I love her."

I understood his passion when I saw the girl and she was as dirty as he was.  She looked like a great match.


Last week we celebrated Passover, with some other non-Jewish friends.  She grew up celebrating Passover every year with a program that incorporates New Testament passages about Christ's fulfillment of the Law with the traditional Jewish elements.  It was really neat to engage all our senses  (Bitter herbs!  Stinky horseradish!  Singing!  Dancing!)  in meditating on God's redemption of His people from Egypt, and the far greater redemption accomplished by the true Lamb.


Plus we got to meet some new friends there.  It was our first visit to their home, which was on a farm, complete with all the good stuff:  trampoline, wheelbarrow, cows, shovels.  Caleb was thrilled to discover a little playground with digging equipment and came running in to announce the good news to our host (whose house it was, and who was probably already aware of the playground in his yard).

Caleb:  "There's a playground here and it has diggers!"

Host:  "Far out!"

Caleb:  "No, it's not far out.  It's near the house."


Two days after celebrating Passover, we went to Good Friday service at church.  Lacking the usual children's church, Caleb sat on my lap and bent all his powers of will to behave himself for an hour.  He was full of impressively thoughtful questions, some of them posed to me a little louder than ideal.


"What are those black things?"  (Speakers.)


"Why did Jesus have to die?"  (For our sins; to take the punishment for us.)


"Who is Jesus' savior?"  (Hmmm...never thought to ask that one.)


"Why is he yelling?"  (That's not yelling; it's preaching.)


The most candid of all came the evening of Easter, on the way home from Grandma's house with four kids in the car.  It was late, the kids were hyped up on Easter candy, it had been a long day, and the car was very noisy.


Then came the voice of Caleb from the backseat.


"Mommy?  Can you get rid of all these kids except me?"