Tag: day-to-day

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Conversations in the Kitchen

Emmy follows me around the kitchen. “Mommy, where is my Santa Claus?”

“Your what?” It’s March. Why is she looking for Santa Claus?

“Mommy, I want my Santa Claus!” Emmy insisted. I racked my brain to figure out what she was talking about. It finally dawned on me that over the weekend, Ed had bought Emmy her own dental floss.

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As you can imagine, two and a half year old Emmy is struggling to wrap her head around Grandma being gone. “Grandma is sick,” she’ll often say. “When will Grandma get better?”

Lily, in her wise old age of five, will answer Emmy with an answer she’s heard me give: “Grandma’s all better now because she’s in heaven.”

“Mommy, don’t die.” Emmy says as I look at her.

“Mommy, how old will you be when you die?” follows up Lily in this unsettling conversation I am having with my children.

“One hundred!” I exclaim.

“Why, Mom?”

“Because I would miss you too much to die.”

Lily reprimands me, saying, “Heaven is magical, Mommy. People don’t miss each other when they are in heaven.”

Heaven has no time, my mother once told me. She believed that once you got to Heaven, you wouldn’t feel like you were waiting for your loved ones to join you.

How did Lily know?

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Oh, the Trauma!

Remember when my sweet, adorable little Emmy chipped her tooth on the kitchen floor a year ago? I was so upset, and wept over that little, chipped tooth.

Just a few days ago, not two minutes after I left Lily, she came running up to me with a bloody mouth. I panicked; I did not keep my cool; and I felt like the worst mother in the world. In those two minutes, she found a metal whistle, put it in her mouth, promptly fell down and sliced her gum above her front teeth wide open. She was hysterical, I was hysterical, and Emmy stood on the sidelines, not knowing what to think!

I called her pediatrician, who said there was nothing to be done. So I coddled Lily, cuddled Lily, and gave her some ice to suck on. She asked, “Will my smile be all right?” She cried a lot; I cried a little, and now, a week later, I can’t even see a scar. It’s amazing how fast kids heal!

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