sleep-overs and god

I have some parenting advice for those of you with children (that's you Kelli). When you have an 8-year-old or-so-old, and they have a sleep-over with a particularly grown-up little friend, be sure to allow them to stay up as late as they can. It's a gem. There was a lot of crying today, but my little Eliza has realized that trying to stay up until 9am is not cool. No matter how many times I could possibly explain that to her it would never break the uncool Mom barrier. But, attempting the all-nighter and making it until 4am did the trick. All day it was this very sad face I wanted to kiss and "Eliza what is it?" with a repeated reply of "Nothing, I'm just tired." This is great. She will never want to stay up like this again! Warning: be prepared for annoying behavior early on in the day, such as animal noises, alien creation squeaky noises, whining, etc. before the big crash and self-realization hits her. (She's happy again by the time I took this, but it did take some coaxing.)


Our family member is getting baptized tomorrow. As I was entering this event into my cute and sleek little palm pilot, Eliza asked me what I was doing. She knows that I was entering something on my palm, so I skipped that explanation and told her about the baptism. It's a little complicated since we don't attend any church and her relatives all do. I wasn't sure she knew what a baptism was, and she didn't. I proceeded to explain to her that a baptism is a very serious step for someone in our family's church because it makes them a member and they make promises to God. She looked a little uncertain, so I asked her if she ever wondered about why her relatives go to church and we don't. She wonders. I explained, pretty simply, that I don't attend or support things that I don't believe in and I don't believe in religion. I explained that I think we have enough to appreciate and inspired with simply by looking at the world around us. I explained to her that as she grows she will choose to believe in what makes the most sense and is logical to her. I also told her that she can go to church if she likes it with her grandparents and cousins because it's her choice. We talked about how most people here believe the same things and are members of our family's religion, but that when we move this will change. We talked about how wonderful it is that someone so special to us is being baptized because of how important it is for him. Tomorrow we will be there for support and to show him our love. He is a wonderful man and we are happy for him.