Not for Children...apparently.

I may, occasionally, over-estimate the capacity of my child.


As you know, we don't watch TV in this house.  Chris watches his few shows on hulu.com, the only things I'm currently watching is V and it's on break until January.  We're toying with the idea of getting cable just long enough for the winter olympics, but that's neither here nor there.

See, I am sick.  I have a cold.  I'm just grateful it's not the flu or a sinus invection, but I feel miserable just the same.  And as I'm sick, the rules are sort of slack around here.  As in, the Boy and I spent a good part of the day watching Christmas movies and making Christmas cookies and reading books and cuddling in general and not much else.

We watched a Charlie Brown Christmas, which he loved even last year and this year he positively dances to Schroder's little piano music.  Then I put on the 1986 version of a Christmas Carol.  He likes it well enough, but mostly he throws balls around and chases them down.  And since he didn't balk at the 1986 version, I put on the 1999 version with Patrick Stewart while I baked some cookies.

The Boy was all bathed and ready for bed, we were hanging out until Chris got home so that he could have some loves before going back out for work stuff. 

I was pulling cherry blossoms out of the oven and capping them with chocolate kisses and a Christmas Carol was just background music for me.  I have parts of it memorized, much like Pride and Prejudice, so I was vaguely aware that Jacob Marley had entered upon the scene, when suddenly...


I heard this WAIL.


I turn.  I look at the TV, and sure enough Jacob Marley is SCREAMING and trying to convince Scrooge of his reality.  My own Boy was SCREAMING in TERROR.

I quickly snatched him up and muted the movie.  We sat and rocked and I explained to him about the unrealities of the movies and how some times people need to see scary things to change their lives.


Shortly, we went to bed, he and I.  We rocked and cuddled and said prayers and Chris came home.  He loved and cuddled the Boy and tucked him in to bed.

I spend so much time with him, I look into his eyes and he seems so wise to me and he IS so clever, that I forget.  I forget that he's still new here.  There is much that he hasn't seen and doesn't understand.  And that is just as it should be.  He has plenty of time to learn the rest.