Sunday, October 12, 2008

The benefits of a religious education: an occasional series

Last night, A. and I listened from the living room as Z.'s voice drifted down to us in the energetic tones of a storyteller. She was telling Puppy Pie stories. For three hours.

Z. still shares our bedroom so, even if we're tired, we usually wait for her to fall asleep before we go up so that our going-to-bed business won't keep her going, but last night we gave up. We were never going to wait her out, not if we stayed up a million years.

I finished my toothbrushing at midnight and when I turned out the bathroom light and crossed the darkened hall to the darker bedroom, Z. cheerfully informed me that Mommy had fallen asleep. Z. was still zooping along, chattering the way she does at 1pm when it's clear there's not one shred of nap in her that day.

I sat down on her bed and rubbed her back. The tone in her muscles was like a gymnast's about to start a routine.

"Little boo, sometimes when we have a lot of thoughts we're thinking, it's hard to fall asleep, and the thing to do is to fold those thoughts up and put them away."

"I don't want to put dem away!"

"Well, you maybe you could think them one last time, and then say 'Thoughts, I will think you again in the morning,' and then just fold them up and put them away."

"I want to keep thzinking dem! I don't want to fold dem up!"

"Hmmm. Are you having a good time thinking your thoughts?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, you could dream about your thoughts when you go to sleep, and that would be like your thoughts coming to life while you're sleeping."

"Yeah, yeah! Dat's wright, Mama! Dat's a good idea! I could have a dwream about some pirwates who build a sukkah! I could have a dwream about some BEES who build a sukkah!"



It's like the night before Christmas, when my brother and sister and I couldn't sleep for the excitement of thinking about Santa. Only, it's Sukkot, and wiss bees.

Our sukkah is up now, and lovely. If I can find our camera, I'll take pictures.

9 comments:

Magpie said...

Be still my heart! A pirate sukkah.

susan said...

That is just too funny. I hope you all--real and imaginary--enjoy your sukkah. And perhaps you can create a new pirate ritual for kids in the sukkah!

Liz Miller said...

That's it. I've melted into a puddle of goo.

elswhere said...

If you think about it, bees kind of *do* build a sukkah. Only, you know, without the greenery and such.

Z is starting to win me over to this bee thing.

Julia said...

This year it was still a somewhat polite suggestion, which we ignored. Next year, I think she might be less polite. We'd better get cracking on those sukkah plans. We have the wood now-- remnants of the old deck, now that the new shiny wraparound is in its place...
Pirate sukkah is the best idea. I might be excited about building one of those myself.

S. said...

Els, yeah, you're totally right!

I think that pirates would probably be pretty good at building sukkahs, too: lots of practice lashing things to the deck.

Julia, I can't recommend the Sukkah Project enough. We had their wooden one for about 6 years, and traded up this year to the metal one. It went together in just a couple of hours with no tools. Amazing!!!

Tall Kate said...

A great story! And I love elsewhere's observation about the bees . . .

susan said...

I thought of this post today when we were playing "name that tune" in the car and I hummed Shalom Aleichem, which got Curious Girl laughing and saying, "I know that song, Mama! Oh baby Shalom Aleichem, oh baby Shalom Aleichem....." It just reminded me of Z and made me smile. Chag Sameach!

S. said...

Susan, I'm giggling away! Chag sameach to you and yours, too!