Karen Barker, Andrew Jackson, and the Pearly Gates

No...that's not the title of my latest novel about a brainiac and her obsession with a certain former president....

Yesterday at church, Karen B. brought two treasures to Blake. They sort of look like placemats - one of them had solar system pictures and facts and the other was about money - what it looks like and two of these add up to this, etc. I'm guessing these are two treasures that surfaced an their recent move into their new mansion. Anyway, she told me, referring to one of my previous posts, that even though it wasn't the Periodic Table of Elements, Blake might be interested in these. Well...THAT is an understatement. I've talked more about planets and money in the past 24 hours than I ever have before. Blake keeps saying "I need to learn more about money" or "Let's talk about the solar system". That boy is wearing me out!

So on one side of the money poster, is an enlarged $20 bill. I was going over all of the details of the bill with Blake and I told him the picture was of Andrew Jackson who used to be one of our presidents. He asked me if he would be president again some day and a whole new world opened up...one I've sort of been avoiding talking about until he is a little bit older.

So telling a 2 year old about death is not necessarily one of my favorite things to do. I've always gotten away without saying much. We have talked about Granddaddy (what my Dad probably would have been called if he had lived to see his granchildren) living in heaven with God many times. My mom and I like to tell Blake about Granddaddy. One time I was telling Blake that if his Granddaddy had ever met him, he would have loved him SOOOOOO much - maybe even more than Gran. Blake's answer to that: Granddaddy is loving me from heaven. Oh man....does that ever get ya!

So back to Andrew Jackson....

Blake is wanting to know if A. J. will ever be president again. Being caught a little off-guard and not having thought thru this, I said "no" with a long hesitation. I didn't want to say "he is dead" but instead, I say "he's in heaven." I cracked myself up when I said this. I just went ahead and judged and promoted this guy right up to heaven. I just figure if he made it on the $20, he can't be all bad, right?!? I hope A. J. does make it to heaven, incidentally, because I want to talk to him about that wild haircut.

After I mention Pres. Jackson being in heaven, Blake says "well where is the door to heaven so he can leave?" Then we go all into the why-you'd-never-want-to-leave-heaven discussion. I put it in 2 year old boy terms. I told Blake that we will all be together in heaven someday, that some of us will get there before the others and will be waiting for the others to join us. We will play with trains all day long and never have to take naps and we can eat snacks all day long. To that, he said "oooooooooooooooooo, I want to go there". Now I'm sure some of you would have gone into the whole Jesus is the Door thing - but Blake wasn't concerned with how to GET there, but how to LEAVE! It was a funny conversation. We talked about Granddaddy being there getting things ready for us....I know...another missed opportunity...and Blake thought it all sounded like a pretty good deal.

So as this conversation ended, I'm thinking of all the things I shouldn't have said or should have said and just laughed at myself...thinking it was all over.

Wrong!

This morning, Blake was lying in bed by me...actually, there wasn't much lying going on. Blake likes to gather up all the pillows (they usually are bubbles - whether they are bathtub bubbles or bubbles on the ocean) and my blanket and usually he becomes a fish diving in the sea to catch "fish and bugs" to eat. As he was flailing around in the pillows and covers, I heard him say "I'm sitting here in this little hole - it is heaven". So now he is pretending to be in heaven. I'm not quire sure what to do with that. He said something about "there are no animals here" and I reassured him that there is a heaven for animals...because the only way I personally can survive the loss of one of my dogs is to convince myself there is a doggy heaven. So he started back into the leaving heaven and I just told him that I would explain heaven more to him when he got a little bit older and he was cool with that.

All I know is this...next time this comes up, I'm putting Blake on the phone with Karen B. because I figure she is somehow responsible for all of this!