Spencer Said Part 3

10/01/13: We were watching the movie Princess Bride as a family. In the movie a Grandpa is reading a book to his grandson. He was reading the part where a shrieking eel is coming toward a girl about to eat her. The grandpa stops reading and says “She doesn't get eaten by the eels at this time.” The Grandson: “What?” Grandpa: “The eel doesn't get her. I'm explaining to you because you look nervous.” The Grandson: “I wasn't nervous.”

Then Spencer turns to me and says “I  was nervous!”

10/15/13: I love when Spencer exercises with me. Whenever we start doing squats he narrates “I think I’m going to sit down… no I’m going to stand up…no I’ll sit down…no I think I’ll stand up…etc.”

11/21/13: We were driving home from preschool and Spencer suddenly said, “Mom what’s a shimmy?”

Me: “A Shimmy?!”

S: “Yeah.”

Me: “Ummm. It’s a dance move where you shake a lot.”

S: “I thought it was that thing that you go up and down and get really dirty.”

Me: ……… “Oh a chimney?!”

S: “Yes.”

I then explained to him what a chimney was. He had recently watched Mary Poppins for the first time and didn’t understand why those people would go up and down those things and get so dirty.

11/29/13: We were up having Thanksgiving at Steve’s mom’s house. Jessica was going through a box of old pictures. She found one of mom when she was in her early 20’s and asked Spencer who it was.

Spencer: “That’s Brian wearing silly hair!”

12/2/13: I’ve been trying to make Christmas more Christ centered this year. So yesterday I showed Spencer the Nativity movie and we put up our manger scene. Then I explained to him why we celebrate Christmas and give presents, the symbol of the Christmas tree etc. After he went to bed last night I put up an advent calendar with little pictures of presents on the wall, one for each day of the month. They each have a little service project or random act of kindness on the back we are going to do. This morning I showed Spencer the countdown to Christmas and explained that they are presents we are going to give Jesus each day.

Spencer: “Mom, Jesus wants real presents.”

Me: “No, the presents he loves most of all are when we serve and love one another.”

Spencer: “No mom look.” He walks over to our manger scene. “The wise men gave him real presents.”

Sheesh.

12/4/13: This is kind of a 2 part story. First off: Like most children Spencer loves to pretend. For the past several months whenever he is pretending something that he wishes were real but he knows isn't he says that that’s how it is in his “second family” or “other family”.  So for example one day we drove past a blue house that Spencer thought was really cool. He said “I wished I lived there.”

Me: “That would be pretty cool.”

Spencer: “My other mom lives in that blue house.”

This is just one of many examples.

So part 2 of this story:

Spencer watched a cartoon where the main characters celebrated Hanukkah. So he started asking me what Hanukkah was and if we could do it. I explained to him a little bit about the Jewish and Christian religions and why Jews celebrate Hanukkah and Christians celebrate Christmas. When I was finished I asked him if he understood and he said yes. Then he sat and thought about it for a while and said, “My second family has Hanukkah.”

Me: “Oh yeah?”

Spencer: “Yep. My second family is Jewish.”

12/10/13: Spencer has gotten into a really bad whining habit lately. Today he was whining about what I made for lunch. Finally Steve, in the next room, couldn't take it anymore and came in and told him very sternly to stop whining. Spencer got sulky, put his head down on the table and said “How did I get into this mess?” I started laughing a little because I had never heard him say that before. He looked up and realized I could hear him.

Spencer: “Why do you always hear me when I say ‘how did I get into this mess’?”

Me: “Because you said it out loud. You need to just think it if you don’t want anyone to hear it.

S: “Ohhh.” Then he stuck his head under the table and said in a whisper, “How did I get into this mess?”

I started laughing even harder.

 Spencer: “Why did you hear me!?”

M: “Because you said it out loud. You have to just think it in your head like this.” Then I just sat there. “See? I was just thinking it and you couldn't hear it.”

S: “Ohhhh I see. You just have to say it really quiet.” He gave me a thumbs up and then put his hand over his mouth and said something in an inaudible whisper. I think I know what he said though…