Back to "normal"

Things are finally getting back to "normal" around our house. Here are a few highlights:

At dinner Thursday night, Hannah said, "Daddy -- I gotta talk you over something. You know my friend Gabby? She said not tonight but the next night when it gets dark outside, they're having a football at my school and I wanna go." Why? "Because they got big lights there and the bugs come because that's where all their friends are and I wanna go see 'em." Who can argue with that? And we did go, because she asked so sweetly. And she had a ball catching hard bugs and talking to the big tiger and getting a ring pop and glow necklace from the concession stand. And we won...which made it even better for us!

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Hannah also hit us with this conversation last week: "Mama -- you know how they're building the fire station? Well that's how me and my daddy are gonna build a horse pen for when I get a horse."

"We can't get a horse, baby," I said. "Horses eat a lot of food and we can't feed one." (Yeah -- that'll get her)

"That's why we're gonna get a little horse."

Oh.

"And we can put it in the yard and it will eat all the grass and Daddy won't have to cut grass. Ain't that a good idea?"

Ummm...

"So I'm gonna ask Santa Claus to bring me one."

"He can't fit a horse in his sleigh."

"He fit my Jeep and the horse is little, too."

So I took the easy way out..."You're gonna have to talk to your daddy about that one."

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Carter loves putting his dollar in the collection plate every Sunday. We've learned not to give it to him too early, though, because he tries to give it to everybody that walks by. And if they keep going, he starts yelling "HEY!"

This morning as I was taking communion, he helped himself to one of those little cups of grape juice. We grabbed it just in time to avert a total disaster, and the gentleman holding the tray snickered more than a little. Afterward, we gave Carter his dollar and he started looking around for a silver tray. It took them just a few minutes to get to us (we sit in the very back), and when it finally was his turn, Carter slammed it down into the plate and then smiled this huge, toothy, slobbery grin. That same man is still smiling about that one.