Lux et umbra vicissum…

The 3 AM results of having a wakeful, imaginative, dramatic five year old –

Branwen: daddy…. Daddy…. DADDY!!!

Me: (hobbling groggily into her room) Daddy is sick.  What do you need?

Branwen: (with no fear in her voice but plenty of drama) I saw a CIRCLE OF DARKNESS!!!!  And I’m SCARED!!!

Me: (still groggily) There’s nothing to be scared of.  Go back to sleep.

(I leave the room, get back to bed, and after a bit of a struggle begin to fall back asleep…)

Branwen: mommy… Mommy… MOMMY!!!!

Me: (still groggy) What is it, Branwen?

Branwen: (once again, with drama) Something TICKLED my SIDE!!!  And I know it wasn’t my blanket!  And I was LAYING ON THAT SIDE!!!!

Me: (rather at a loss, I go over and rub her side a bit, briefly) There, now go back to sleep.

Branwen: (calmly) Good night, Mommy.

– It’s a good thing that was the last time.  If it had continued, I don’t think even my half-asleep state would have kept me from getting mad.

The other night we had a pretty typical toddler boy quote, but it was still terribly cute.

Joel had gotten Eli ready for his bath, and Eli entered the bathroom where Branwen was brushing her teeth.

Eli: Bwanwen!!!  I NAKEY!!!!

(He was apparently very proud of this fact, though, oddly enough, if you suddenly need to take care of something while helping him dress, he gets very upset at his lack of pants.)

Desta’s trying to understand the whole Christmas thing –

Desta: Christmas is Jesus’ birthday?

Me: Yes.  That’s when we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, anyway.

Desta: Do we sing happy birthday?

Me: We can.

Desta: But Jesus is in heaven.  Do we sing it to heaven?

Me: That would be fine.

Desta: But our tookis will be dead in heaven. (note: tookis is our word for bottom)

Me: (silence)

Desta: How can we go to heaven to sing to Jesus?  Our tookis will be dead.

Me: Um… we don’t have to go there to sing to him, honey.  We can sing right here and he can hear us.

– I decided not to bother trying to address the dead tookis issue right then.  Where did she get that?  Well… that’s another story.