Virtute.org

9.24.07 I had pulled the vacuum and other similar items out of the kitchen so that I could mop the floor. When Isaac saw them in the living room he said “This is a vacuum store.” I wasn’t intentionally correcting him when I replied “yeah, it looks like a vacuum store.” He quickly responded wi th “Not looks like a vacuum store, it is a vacuum store!” I didn’t realize how often I respond to his declarations with the phrase “yeah, it looks like_____” until I started getting the correction: “not looks like ____, it is ____!” He’ll tell me that his block creation is a rocket and I’ll say “yeah, it looks like a rocket” to which he responds “not looks like a rocket, it is a rocket.” The latest correction came as we were reading our new batc h of library books. I had this book about exotic cats and on the cover was a mostly white cat. Isaac declared that Jill Pole (our kitten) was on the cover of the book to which I replied that the kitten looked a little like Jill Pole and you can probably guess his response, it was “not looks like Jill Pole, it is Jill Pole!” Then he opened the book and said “more Jill Poles.”

Charlotte has embraced negation, particularly at bedtime. I’ll say “it’s bedtime Charlotte” to which she’ll replay “no bedtime” then I’ll say that it’s time to change her diaper and she’ll say “no diaper change.” “Time to read scriptures” = “no scriptures.” When I tell her that it’s time to say a prayer and she’ll say “no prayer” and as I say the prayer she sometimes says no to the things in the prayer. “thank thee for Isaac” = “no  Isaac” and so on. Just before I lay her down in her bed I always tell her that I love her, to which she replies “no love you.”

When she’s not negating everything I say, she’ll often pray with me. It started out just at night when I’d say prayers with her before laying her in her crib. She’d start saying “Thank you, Isaac. Thank you, mommy. Thank you, daddy. . . .” with a big “Amen” at the end. It wasn’t long after she started saying night time prayers that she started also joining in on other prayers. Now she’s to a point where we say the prayer over dinner and we can hear her sweet little voice saying “Thank you, Isaac. Thank you, mommy. Thank you, daddy. . . .” Our prayers at night often have a little girly echo and even in sacrament when someone gets up to pray we often see Charlotte bow her head, fold her arms and say “Thank you, Isaac. Thank you, mommy. Thank you, daddy. . . .”

I need to write in my log more often because each story I finish reminds me of another to write. Last night we had some family over for dinner and Isaac was so anxious to eat that he pointed to his grandfather and said “Grandpa, close your eyes and put your arms like this” after which he demonstrated his best praying posture.