James Talk

James has been saying a few things lately that I really don't want to forget and honestly, one of them I don't think I will forget and I am actually looking forward to telling him he did this when he gets older.

The first thing is that James is remembering his dreams. In the morning, he'll come out and tell me "Mom, we were on a boat in the lake and then we all went swimming." or "I was a fire chief and I put out the big fire." It's really cute when he's confused and actually *thinks* we did something. Ah my little vivid dreamer :) It makes me so happy to hear these dreams. In so many of them he is totally the hero and the star of the dream. I love it.

Here's one I wrote down when he walked out and I was jotting down my to-do list one morning:

I was on a boat Mom! Then I was in the water swimming. Look at how soaked I am right now! Look how much water is dripping all over the place. Look Cillian! Look at all the water! (I said WOW James that's a lot of water) and then James said, No Mom, I'm showing Cillian because he can see it.

Another time, we were driving home from school and out of nowhere James says, "Mom, I think I'll give Ariel some of Brooklyn and Remy's food so she doesn't get hungry. I'll just sprinkle it on the tv." (Brooklyn and Remy are our clown fish).

And yet again in the car home from school ... Cillian had been crying THE WHOLE WAY home so far (we had been in the car for about 20 minutes). Then all the sudden he stops and I hear James whisper, "Thank God." It totally caught me off guard and I ask, "Did you just say Thank God?" I can see him in the rear view mirror and he looks guilty and isn't saying anything. I say laughing, "I'm not upset, don't worry (we encourage thank goodness) ... Did you say Thank God because Cillian stopped crying?" I'm laughing and then James laughs and says, "Yeah Mom I did. Thank God he stopped crying!" I laugh and tell him he's just made my day and then I say, "But, you know we should probably just say Thank Goodness" and James says, "No Mom we can't ... it's so much and so loud that you have to say Thank God."

AND finally the pièce de résistance - I received an email from my grandfather's (who has passed) cousin (on my Mom's side) who is a priest - Father Paul - saying he was coming to Chicago for a conference. He is my only remaining "grandparent-type person" left and Doug and I invited him over for a quick dinner in between speakers at his conference. I was really nervous, the house was spotless, the meal was nice enough but not too nice, I tried to make sure that the children looked respectable etc. We were eating dinner and James said, "I want to watch Lucifer! I want Lucifer!" So ... Yeah. Right in front of a PRIEST. I about died.

Doug was putting Cillian to sleep so I had to navigate through this all on my own.  After choking on my food. I cleared my throat and said nervously, "Oh Father Paul ... Lucifer is a cat in the movie Cinderella! Hahahahaha (the most nervous laughter ever) You see, James was just uh saying Lucifer instead of Cinderella. James is no help and just continues to say "I want to watch Lucifer!" Father Paul is just staring at me and then says, "I've never seen it."

Holy God.