Conversations with Abigail

Taken as verbatim as I can recall from a conversation during our early morning drive to ballet class today:

Abigail: Mommy? Someday I would like to go visit Noah and the Ark.
Tricia: Oh really? Hmmmmm.
Abigail: Yes, Mom, someday when I am bigger I want to go see Noah.
Tricia: Well, honey, we can’t actually go see Noah.
Abigail: Why not? Does he live very far away?
Tricia: No dear, because Noah lived a very long time ago and now he is in heaven with God.
Abigail: Oh.
Tricia: Yes, he lived a good long life and after he was very old God took him home to live with him in heaven.
Abigail: Ok Mommy, but when I get really really really really really big and much older and bigger and very taller then I will try to go see Noah because he listened to God and he built the ark like God told him to.
Tricia: Oh.

And to wrap up the day, as she was getting her jammies on tonight, she looked way back in her closet and discovered an old dress of mine that I wore for my ninth grade graduation in Saudi Arabia which I have set aside for her to do with as she pleases when she is older. This is what we talked about then:

Abigail: Mommy, is this my dress?
Tricia: Well, sort of. That is a dress I wore when I was younger, when I was a big girl.
Abigail: And will I wear it when Jonathan and I get married?
Tricia: What?
Abigail: Is it my dress to wear when Jonathan and I get married?
Tricia: Sweetheart, you and Jonathan aren’t going to get married.
Abigail: No Mom, I mean when we are really big and really older then I will wear this dress and we will get married.

10 Replies to “Conversations with Abigail”

  1. Steph made the comment later to me that actually, Abigail will get to meet Noah one day in heaven. Hopefully I will be able to communicate this to her in the future!

    Mommy Ruth, I asked Abigail whom Nicolas would marry and she didn’t have an answer for me. Perhaps this’ll be another reason for her to continue to ask if we could get her a baby sister!!

  2. I seem to remember a story about a certain sister who wanted to marry her brother as well (nine years her junior)…runs in the family I guess…

  3. This concept has gone around in our family. Calvin and Nevin both used to think they would marry Evangeline. The boys also used to talk about marrying me when they grow up. They have all now moved on to suggestions of marrying classmates at school. The other funny thing to me is how the first conversation with Abigail shows the typical lack of understanding of time for pre-schoolers. It is just this year that Calvin really has a grip on days and months versus years. Nevin still says, “last year” for something that happened yesterday or last week.

  4. Thats great – I love how children have such different ways of seeing things to us. We might call them ‘simplistic’ or ‘uneducated’ if it were an adult saying them – but really they are the way we are supposed to be in my books….like a child…..

    hmm….you’ve put a smile on my dial today.

  5. Wow, this entry has spawned some interesting comments.

    Andrew’s claim is true…I was totally in love with him the moment I met him. Still am…and I’m going to resist the urge to disclaim for once!!

    Jennifer, I agree with you about kids’ concepts of time. Abigail’s favorite phrases when referring to something in the past are, (for instance) “When I was two I got a baby brother” or “When I was three I went to see Thomas” but every now and again she reverts to “last night something happened” when it really might have occurred several nights or even a couple weeks ago.

    Angie, I hope not!! Guess we’d better have some more discussion with her on this point!

    Darren, nice to blog-meet you. Thank you for your kind words.

  6. This is very cute.
    You and Jay need to consider keeping all of your blogs for your kids to read when they are grown if you haven’t already. (Just imagine Abigail reading this when she is age 23!)

  7. I agree with you Kimberly. I’ve had the same thought before. I currently keep a “Baby Journal” for each child which I write in periodically. My hope is to give them to the kids when they are older to have thoughts and musings from Mom that they can read and enjoy (hopefully!). Perhaps there is a way to incorporate what we’ve written in the Blog into those. Or just copy the blog somehow as you say.

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