Monkeys

For a long time Chloe would say "Monkeys" when she got scared. She would run out of her room and into ours yelling, "monkeys". We couldn't figure it out. Still don't understand it - she's never had a bad experience with a monkey :). We don't know if she "sees" monkeys or if she just uses it for "scared." Tonight her and I had a real conversation about it.

She got a Curious George stuffed animal recently. She calls him, "Monkey". Tonight, after we finished praying Chloe said, "I afraid." I asked, "What are you afraid of?" She said, "Monkeys." I teased her and said, "I better take this monkey if you are afraid of monkeys." She said (holding tightly onto George), "Real monkeys scare me." After I picked myself up of her bedroom floor and regained my composure, I explained we didn't let monkeys into our house and that they live in the zoo.

I didn't know she knew "afraid" and "scared". I didn't know she could differentiate between "real" and "not real". At least, I didn't think she could explain it. As I write, I still cannot believe the conversation we had. We had a conversation and we are doing that all of the time now.

On New Year's Day, we were walking (the one day in a row I stuck to my New Year's resolution to exercise) and Chloe looked over at the mountains (remember, she was born in CO and she is almost 4) and said, "Mommy, there's mountains."

God is answering our prayers all of the time!

www.thelisteningprogram.com