November 6, 1998: Sarah went on a field trip to see
Hansel and Gretel yesterday. She said the characters put on their jewelry.
Murray asked if the characters were real people (as opposed to puppets), but
Rebecca had different interests: "Was their jewelry real?"
We talked to the kids some about Mark McGuire (of the St.
Louis Cardinals) and his record home-running while it was going on. One day
Rebecca asked, "Does he get money for doing that?"
Murray picks Caleb up from school on Thursdays, so they
won't be late for piano lessons. One Thursday afternoon I came downstairs, not
expecting them home yet. I heard a child's voice, and asked, "Who is
that?" "Caleb," he replied. For some reason, I assumed he'd come
home on the bus. "I thought Daddy was going to pick you up at
school," I said. Thoughtfully, Caleb answered, "I think he did."
One night we went to dinner at Denny's. As the lady came
up to show us to our table, Sarah said, "I want to go to Shoney's."
One day Sarah told me about a bad dream she'd had. She
said a wolf was trying to get in and attack us, so we all moved into the
bathroom for safety. We had food and blankets in there, and, she said,
"When we needed to go to the bathroom, it was easy."
One day when Rebecca didn't feel well, Murray told her
that if she needed medicine in the middle of the night, he'd get it for her.
She replied, "If you needed clown make-up at five in the afternoon, I'd
get it for you."
Murray bought me a new rocking chair for Labor Day. When Rebecca
was helping to take some of the parts out of the box, she accidentally poked a
hole in the plastic bag. She showed Murray the hole she'd made, but assured
him, "I did no harm."
We were eating animal crackers one day, and Rebecca named
some of the animals she was eating. Then she said, "This one is somebody's
bad idea of art."
November 7, 1998: The other day Murray was out with the
kids and they told him, "You're older than Mommy, but she's smarter than
you.”
Murray was having a slight gas problem, and Sarah ran out
of the room and told Kathy, "It smells like those disgusting pizza
rolls."
Tonight Caleb got a haircut, and Sarah told him,
"Caleb, you look like a different boy with that big ol' haircut."
November 15, 1998: Yesterday all the kids were helping Murray
put together a new bookcase. Caleb said, "Aren't we good helpers for
Daddy? He needs lots of help."
November 15, 1998: We have all been sick over the last 4
or5 days, except Caleb. We asked Rebecca, Do you want doughnuts for breakfast? "No,
I don't like doughnuts." Later: Do you want pizza? "No, I don't like
pizza. I never want to eat again."
November 18, 1998: School days, Kathy sits with the kids
by the door and reads to them while they wait for the buses. This morning,
though, there was no new book to read. Rebecca asked, "Can we have free
time this morning?"
At supper Caleb was talking about his friend who had
muscular dystrophy and who died recently, and we said that now that he has gone
to heaven, his new body works perfectly. Rebecca said, "And he can get
both ears pierced." Murray said that is his idea of heaven, also.
November 20, 1998: A woman at our dentist's office said
she had a daughter who rode the bus with both our girls, so we had asked
Rebecca to try to find out who that was. Murray was talking to her while she
was reading, and she said, "I asked Claudia where her mother worked, and
Claudia said, ‘Rent A Cyclops' or something."
Recently Rebecca was looking at Kathy's mother's-ring,
and said, "I want us to adopt more kids. I want you to have stones all
around the ring."
