I see Moon people (HOL 61)

House of Laughter 61

I had a discussion with a co-worker this week about kids watching TV. I told her that Isaac would never have a TV in his bedroom. Her response was “Oh you just wait. I used to say the same thing. You’ll see when he gets older.”

My response was “ Oh it won’t be a fight, it’s a simple fact he won’t have a TV in his bedroom. We don’t have one in our room, he won’t have one in his room. I’m not trying to be Isaac’s ‘Best friend”.

She just shook her head and smirked. I relayed this story to my friend Rydell at lunch today, and he said, “I hate it when other parents say, ‘Oh you just wait, you’ll see’. It’s like they had some problem with their kid so you will definitely have the same problem.”

We took Isaac to the zoo yesterday with his friend Hannah and her daddy. The day before the trip, I would ask Isaac, “Do you want to go to the zoo with Hannah?” and he would respond enthusiastically “Nannah!” HE was excited about it right up until the moment they arrived, and then he clammed up for most of the day. We saw about half of the zoo before the urge to nap overtook the kids. (No gorillas though, Hannah was adamant about that.)

Isaac has become fixated on the moon lately. If we are out in the early evening, Isaac will point up and say “Moon”. He also will point to the moon in any of his books so “Snowmen at Night”, “The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night”, “Goodnight Gorilla”, “One Lighthouse One Moon”, and, of course, “Goodnight Moon” have become regulars in the bedtime story rotation for the frequent use of lunar imagery.

Something happened last week, that I’ve found to be a pretty common story with other parents, that childless people may find interesting. I was rocking Isaac to sleep in his dark quiet room a couple of nights ago, and he was just about asleep when he quickly sat upright, and stared at and started talking to an area of empty space. When I asked him what he was looking at, he pointed to the empty space, and gave me this look like “Duh, you don’t see it?”, and went back to talking to the empty space. Nancy told me that he’s done the same thing with her. Only he sits up and waves to the empty space. Now I don’t believe in ghosts or anything like that, but I couldn’t help but look and try to see what he is looking at. Meanwhile, he just keeps talking to and pointing at a fixed empty space in his room.

I’ve told several other parents, and they’ve had similar things happen. One friend told me that his friend’s daughter told him about the “Scary Man” who lives in her room. I know kids, especially sleepy ones, have overactive imaginations, but it is a little creepy.

On a final note, my three year old niece Lily went to Disneyworld for the first time two weeks ago. She is a huge Cinderella fan, and was awestruck by the castle. She was a little nervous about the stepsisters and stepmother, though. My sister assured her that Just Cinderella lived there. Well, damned if they didn’t walk around a corner, and the stepsisters and mother were out greeting guests. Lily was not pleased, to say the least. When they finally calmed her down, my sister told her that the step-sisters and step-mother had visited Cinderella for the weekend, left the castle a mess, and Cinderella was inside cleaning it up. Lily later added that the stepsisters had brought their pet possum that pooped all over the castle.

Strength and Honor

Big Matt