Conversations with Andy

Conversations with Andy.  I need to carry a tape recorder with me at all times to capture some of this stuff.  The way his brains works and the connections he makes to things - only he knows. 

Today we had some errands to run.  Andy's running commentary in the car included:

"Can just me and you go to the store, Mom?  Just me and you.  The store has beds, children and boxes.  We could go there."
"What kind of store is it, Buddy?"
"An umbrella store.  It also has buses" (this last part he added because a bus pulled out in front of us).  But I promise, we've never been to a store that sells children!  Andy's very specific about the types of stores we go when we run errands.  He's finally convinced that Publix is a grocery store.  Winn Dixie is not a grocery store - its Winn Dixie's.  He needs to be able to describe all other stores - what types of things do they sell?  My brain hurts trying to classify all types of stores.

This brought him to another subject, Wal Mart.  We passed Wal Mart, and although he's only been once and it was months ago, he still remembers.  "There's the store where we bought Dada's birthday presents!  We bought him clothes, and shoes, and shirts and shorts.  (not true.  That's what we bought him for Father's Day). And when I get big, I can go there."

Which was a perfect segue way (spell check, please!) to a topic Andy's trying to get his brain around, babies in bellies.  Still believing that age goes both ways ("when you get little Mama, then you'll ..."), Andy today told me about when he gets big and has a baby in his belly ... Mama spent the next 15 minutes talking about only women have babies in their bellies because that's how God made them.  Why, he wants to know?  "Why was I a little baby in your belly?"  Seriously, is today the day I'm going to have my first birds and the bees conversation with my son?  I'm pretty sure I agreed with his Dada that all matters relating to this subject and its subsidiaries are his domain.  
 
After also discussing that it was a rainy day, that we needed an umbrella to keep us warm (warm, not dry, he corrected me) we had a rather long conversation about death.  I have no idea how to explain this to my three year old. 

He was asking about after he dies on the cross, will he get to see me.  No, Buddy, only Jesus died on the cross.  OK, then he wanted to know about Mama dying on the cross.  OK, clearly he doesn't get it.  How would he - death is kind of abstract and it doesn't mean anything to him right now.  So lots of back and forth about only Jesus dying on the cross and everybody else just dies.  I found myself stumbling around, not wanting to tell him things like "one day, you'll just go to sleep and you won't wake up" and make him afraid of sleeping.  Breaking death/dying down into concrete terms is not as easy as it sounds.  Morbid, yes.  Easy, no.

But evidently, when Andy dies and he goes to heaven, there will be a parade.  His friends will be there, and he wanted to know if I would be there, too.  Yes, Buddy, Mama will be there at your parade.

My chatty little boy.  What linguistic adventures await us tomorrow.