Hunters Don't Kill People

My parents gave Ethan a bunch of Halloween costumes for Christmas. They make great dress-up clothes! You never know who you will find in the Halverson house each day! A couple days ago, Ethan was dressed as a hunter. He said, "I'm a hunter, so I'm gonna kill Seth." (Seth is one of my day care kids. He was dressed as a spy at that moment.)
I said, "Hunters don't kill people."
Ethan asked, "Not even bad people?"
"No. Hunters only kill animals."
"Okay. I'll wait until he's holding a puppy, then I'll shoot him."
Whoa. Very disturbing, Ethan.

Goof-Nugget!

The other day, Ethan said to me with a smile, "I like it when Evelyn calls me goof-nugget."

For those of you who don't already know, Ethan seems to have a little crush on Evelyn, a girl in his preschool class. I've watched them play together at school, and they are so sweet! This picture was taken right before their Chistmas program. Just by the look on Ethan's face, you can tell that he likes her!

Coal!

We explained "the Santa concept" a little bit more to Ethan this year. I still really want to avoid turning Christmas into a "greedy present holiday," but Santa used to visit me when I was a kid, and I turned out ok, right? Anyway, we thought we could possibly use Santa as a way to help Ethan behave, so we talked about how Santa only brings toys to good little kids and the naughty ones get coal. After having some trouble listening one day, Ethan asked me, "Is Santa gonna bring me coal?"
I responded, "I don't know. What do you think?"
He said, "Well maybe like toy coal for my grill set."
Ha! I love it! It's like he's saying, "I know I can be naughty at times. I might as well imbrace it and find a good use for the coal!"

Sneaky Ele!

Yesterday morning when Ethan woke up, he slowly poked his head out of his bedroom door, looked around, then quietly walked over to where I was sitting in the living room. He held Ele in his hand as he whispered to me, "Is Dad at work?"

I told him, "Yes."

He hopped into the chair with me, and with relief in his voice, said, "Good cuz I don't want him to see Ele. If Dad sees Ele he'll throw her away. Only you and Livi can see Ele."

It's funny, but true! Josh was getting tired of the 5-10 minute hunts for Ele every night before bed, so he told Ethan that Ele had to stay in his bed. Josh warned Ethan that if he sees Ele anywhere but his room, then he will throw her away. I, on the other hand, would never throw away such an important member of the family!This picture was taken a few weeks ago on our deer drive. It must have been right before Josh made the Ele stays in your bed rule, because somehow she was able to join us for the trip. She probably had no idea that it would be one of her last outings!

Evil Dragons and Monsters!

Ethan was sent to his room yesterday for picking on Olivia. I gave him a few minutes to cool off before going in to talk to him. I told him he had to be nice to his sister, and he responded, "Well, I'm an evil dragon so I have to be evil."
He loves to pretend, and he's been using it to his advantage to get out of trouble lately. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't work on me. I told him that even when he's pretending he still has to be nice to everyone, or at the very least make sure that the other person agrees to go along with your pretending. Of course, being the little argumentative boy that he is, he said, "Well, if there's a real evil monster, then I have to be evil to it."
Trying my best to still make a lesson out of our absurd conversation I explained to him that if he was nice to the monster, then maybe the monster would be nice to him. He seemed satisfied by that answer. We hugged, promised to be nicer, and went to apologize to Livi. As we were walking out of his room, he said, "If the monster likes my clothes, then I'll be nice to him."
What?! I thought we were finished with our be nice to everyone conversation. Apparently, if you are a monster, there are requirements that must take place before Ethan will be nice to you. And by this point, I really didn't feel like defending these make believe evil monsters anymore, so I just said, "ok!"

Welcome Home, Dad

Josh just got back from his hunting trip a few days ago, and Ethan was telling him about all the things we did while he was gone. Ethan was talking about sleeping in bed with me and a few other special little things that we do while Josh is gone. Josh said, "Does Mom let you do lots of things when Dad's not here?"
Ethan said, "Yeah, why do you come here anyway?"
Way to make him feel welcome, Ethan!

Horseyboys!

Ethan was riding his rocking horse the other day and pretending to be a cowboy. While playing he asked me, "If cowboys ride horses do horseyboys ride cows?"

Sweet Heart!

Right before putting the kids to bed on Thursday night, I realized that our movies were due at the video rental place in town. Since Josh was out, I loaded the kids in the car in their pajamas for a quick drive before bed. On our way back, Ethan was telling me all the things he had learned in school that day. He told me that they were learning about Christmas. I was really impressed with all that he actually knew. Then he asked me where Jesus is now. I told him that Jesus is in our hearts if we want him to be. He replied, "I can't see my heart cuz I have my jammies on."