And Thou Shalt Teach Children to Hear

Tim and I spent this weekend down in Virginia and had a blast! We found out Chloe likes to sing with me (well, barks with me while I sing), and got to watch Tim’s new martial arts favorite, Ip Man 2, on Dad’s ginormous bachelor-pad TV. Tim defended his honor against Leah in a crucial sibling battle (still don’t know who really won it, though…) after having a lovely family dinner where Dad and Mom said “we’re never going out to eat again!”

For church on Sunday, Tim and I visited our old stomping grounds in my home ward. We used to be the Sunbeam teachers there, and one of my favorite stories from teaching those little tykes was from our lesson on reverence. Tim and I took the tykes around the chapel with their arms folded, and he would stop every so often and ask, “what do you hear now that we are quiet?” The kids answered with excited whispered voices. “People talking!” “Doors!” “I hear a baby crying!” It was a fun way to show them that when we are quiet and reverent, we can hear things we couldn’t hear before (like the whisperings of the Holy Spirit—oh yes, tie-in!). When we got back into class, one of our little Sunbeams was coloring a picture on top of her chair. Suddenly, she turns to Tim and says “I can hear my crayon!!” Later, in closing exercises when everyone was singing, she stands up, throws her arms into the air and yells, “I can HEAR!!!” It was pretty much the revelation of her life and still makes me laugh.

I told you that story to tell you this one. When we visited our old ward Sunday, my little 3-year-old niece Lizzie sat with me. At one point, AJ gave her raisins for a snack. I told her that if she plugs her ears while she eats, she can hear herself chewing really loud. Her fingers shot up to her ears and she grinned. “It’s working, Mary!!” she yelled. I shushed her as best I could. We were in Sacrement Meeting. She then proceeded to show Tim, her dad, her mom, and Papa Mickey that she could hear herself chewing on her raisins.

It’s just incredible how simple things can make children appreciate life a little more. That is why it is so fun to hang around them. They are so positive!
Other funny things Lizzie said:

“Mary, guess what? I’m gonna have a baby girl. Yeah, but she’s still in heaven. She doesn’t have a body yet.”

“Why do you have short hair? I have long pretty hair.”

“Tim, can I touch your hair? Heehee, it’s sooooft.”

“Mary, my mom’s gonna have a baby soon.”
“Oh really? When?”
(Holds up four fingers, then changes to all ten).

“You’re mommy says she’s not having a baby, Lizzie.”
“Why not?”
“Uhhh…because. It’s…just not time yet.”
“Oh, okay. Want some raisins?”

(Me and Lizzie looking through the hymnbook finding our favorite songs and singing them, pointing to a note and singing staccato) “This is my favorite song, Mary. Why are there so many songs about rainbows…” Later, she made up her own song. “O pen the Book of Mormon and read read read read read read read read read read….” On the word “read,” she sang a higher note in her sweet little high voice and put her hands into the shape of a book, looking right at me. It was probably the funniest thing I’d ever witnessed and I wish I had got it on tape. After Tim and I laughed a bit, red in the face, she turned to me and said, “That was funny, huh Mary?”

I took a program and folded it into a puppet face. After Lizzie had played with it for a minute, she crumpled the paper and said, “Look! A ball!” I made two other things out of that paper, and every time she would take it apart and crumple the paper back into a ball. “Look, Mary. I made a ball!” Claaassic.