So Dangerboy has been experiencing some nighttime fears. P. told him that when he gets scared he can pray to help feel better. I don't know whether he's actually done this, but I do know he's trying to apply the principle to other situations. For example, in the car:
DB: Mom, why those birds poop on our car?
Me: (Say something like, because they live in trees, and when our car is under the trees...well, you know)
DB: Maybe Jesus Christ make that bird poop go away.
Me: What do you mean?
DB: Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, that bird poop go away.
Me: Oh, you're praying?
DB: (whispering) Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, that bird poop go away.
We've been reading the illustrated Book of Mormon (the old, comic-booky one) to DB at night. This is trickier than it sounds: at first, we went straight through, but we had to gloss over the gorier stories. Then I noticed he was starting to equate all the shirtless darker-skinned characters as being "bad guys" even when they weren't, which I didn't really like. Now he flatly refuses to look at any story starring Jesus, presumably because they're boring. (I once tried to tell him a bedtime story with a moral, and he dismissed it as "silly" and demanded a different one.) He only wants to look at stories that include "bad guys."
Luckily, I've finally learned that it's less effective to plow through the BOM with a three-year-old. For one whole week (at his request) we read the story of Samuel the Lamanite, which is perfect because it has bad guys who shoot arrows, but nobody gets hurt, there are good guys of all skin colors in the illustrations, AND Samuel gets to climb a wall. DB also learned the word "prophet" from the story, giving rise to this conversation:
DB: (pointing at the fire alarm in his ceiling, which scares him a little) Daddy fix that.
Me: Yeah, he did. Daddy's pretty cool, huh?
DB: Yeah, he's a good guy. Maybe he's the prophet.
DB: Mom, why those birds poop on our car?
Me: (Say something like, because they live in trees, and when our car is under the trees...well, you know)
DB: Maybe Jesus Christ make that bird poop go away.
Me: What do you mean?
DB: Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, that bird poop go away.
Me: Oh, you're praying?
DB: (whispering) Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, that bird poop go away.
We've been reading the illustrated Book of Mormon (the old, comic-booky one) to DB at night. This is trickier than it sounds: at first, we went straight through, but we had to gloss over the gorier stories. Then I noticed he was starting to equate all the shirtless darker-skinned characters as being "bad guys" even when they weren't, which I didn't really like. Now he flatly refuses to look at any story starring Jesus, presumably because they're boring. (I once tried to tell him a bedtime story with a moral, and he dismissed it as "silly" and demanded a different one.) He only wants to look at stories that include "bad guys."
Luckily, I've finally learned that it's less effective to plow through the BOM with a three-year-old. For one whole week (at his request) we read the story of Samuel the Lamanite, which is perfect because it has bad guys who shoot arrows, but nobody gets hurt, there are good guys of all skin colors in the illustrations, AND Samuel gets to climb a wall. DB also learned the word "prophet" from the story, giving rise to this conversation:
DB: (pointing at the fire alarm in his ceiling, which scares him a little) Daddy fix that.
Me: Yeah, he did. Daddy's pretty cool, huh?
DB: Yeah, he's a good guy. Maybe he's the prophet.
(action figure image from http://www.lehi.com/)
1 comment:
It has been way too long since I have read your blog. DB has definitely said some pretty cute things lately!
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