The 7th Sense, Groot, and Ice Cream Sales

You may be wondering how these three extremely random title subjects are at all related. As I began typing, I pondered how the heck was I going to make this make sense. Well, first of all, my children possess more than 5 senses.

ONE TO FIVE

They smell - JMan has this gift. Anything that is cooking, baking, burning, grilling, a household cleaner or air spray, and of course when someone "toots." His sniffer instantly traces the aromas or stench, and we hear, "What's that smell?" Sometimes, depending on the source, he includes an adjective like yummy or awful before smell, much to our amusement.

They hear - Squish (at right) has this mastered. He hears Mickey Mouse Clubhouse come on TV, "Meh Mouse?" or he hears his brothers, "Budders? Budder?" He also hears every time the video game powers on. He loves superheros on #DisneyInfinity like: I-Man (pschoo), badabada Man (pschooo), Hugggk (bangs hands as he tries to say SMASH!). Then we play "Where's Groot?" where we look around on the screen to find a baby Groot character, much to the amusement of his brothers. If you haven't seen #GuardiansoftheGalaxy I had to post that baby Groot clip. Squish says, "Gwooooot? Where uuuu?" We say, "Is he over there?" "Noooooo..." Oh my, it's so adorable and hysterical.

Our JMan hears so well at the age of 3, he's selectively hearing already. Boo's in his own world, and we often must stand in front of him, guiding his precious face to fixate his eyes on our lips, then asking, "Do you understand?" or urging, "Focus..."

They see - Boo gold medals here. If there is anything to observe, he's your Sherlock. We often don't know certain things exist in the world, until he points them out. Like, "There's a bug!" or "What does such and such sign spell?" What? Where? "Right there! THERE!"

They taste - well sort of. If it's cookies or treats, no problem. I'll defer to another future post on what incredibly naive parents we were to set such lofty goals like balanced and nutritious meals. Hahaha... yeah, you try to cook and both work full time plus: activities, events, meetings, errands, board meetings, etc. Or even when we did when we set out 5+ years ago, how quickly we realized putting food in them was more important than forcing spinach and broccoli upon them. Although, I am proud to say we've won two of them over on that last one. JMan is the finicky holdout.

They touch - and touch, and touch some more. Few days go by without boys being boys. "He's touching meeeeeeee..."

SIX

The sixth sense, and I don't mean it in that paranormal kind of way. You shouldn't believe in that stuff, see Catechism 2115 and 2116: the future is reserved to God to reveal to the prophets and the saints. However, I believe God's blessed little children with an innate sense of His presence, angels, and the goodness that arrives on their little doorsteps because of their innocence. I've often thought, "Funny, how swiftly my boys learned to say Jesus and recognized where He is when we pointed out the crucifix, or a nativity scene..." It's funny how quickly Boo learned the Our Father, Hail Mary, guardian angel prayer, St. Michael prayer, or JMan learned the St. Raphael prayer. There are a few out there, but we chose this one to teach him: "Oh holy St. Raphael come to our aid with your legion of angels! May your strength and love grow within us. Intercede for us that the love of God and the Immaculata may reign in our hearts and triumph over the hatred and uncleanness spread in the world by the evil spirits. Amen." Squish, once he's a bit older, will hopefully learn the St. Gabriel prayer.

They somehow know, maybe more than us, how present God is. Maybe it's because we told them it's God's house, or that Jesus is there, and they accept that truth and believe. Awesome how their faith works. Of course, I was as shocked as Steph was when JMan picked church as the one location he'd like to go every day if he had that daily choice. Our toughest to manage at church, picks church. Our: jump in the baptismal font, knock over the pascal candle, light all the votive candles spreading their flame to the wooden nativity nearby, kneelers = mini jungle gym, little boy chose church as where he'd like to be. OK. We'll take it God!

This, also, coming from the same JMan who cracked us all up yesterday while eating an ice cream bar. He proudly announced, "When I grow up, I'm going to sell ice cream." What do you say to that? Well, the lady serving him ice cream, must have a little pessimism in her life, because she told him he didn't want that. Um, excuse me. He's three. He wants to sell ice cream? He can sell ice cream. Don't tell my children what they can or cannot, should or shouldn't do. Societal problem numero uno when it comes to families; everyone thinks they know how to parent better than you. I immediately counteracted that mantra with our home culture of "dream big" and retorted, "Buddy, you could open up your own ice cream shop and sell ice cream to everyone! You could even open a whole ice cream factory and make ice cream for all the grocery stores to sell. Everyone would love your ice cream." Ice cream lady didn't really follow my enthusiasm. JMan sure did, grinning as wide as his face.

SEVEN

A child's seventh sense, and let's completely reverse course in a humorous direction, is their ability to know when you're on the potty. About 2.3 seconds after you turn the light on in the bathroom, whoosh, zip, beep beep, think:

You can sneak away, lock the door, thinking you may escape for just a few minutes. Nope. You know that knock on the door is coming, if they somehow didn't already manage to get in before you locked them out. "Dada?" You can try not to respond, to fool them, to pretend you're not there. This will make them go away, you think. Oh ho ho, new parents especially, beware. They do not leave. It no longer is a throne. They will linger. It is even highly possible that your child will leave, only to return with a book or toy, snacks even, for the campout. "Are you done?" "Are you going potty?" Really? How do I remind them just two minutes ago they had been quietly playing with blocks, eating a snack or playing outside at least 100 feet away?

This seventh sense phenomenon only seems to apply when we're at our own house. Why oh why? The cruelty of it all. You just can't disappear at someone else's house for a long time because... well, they'll know... and well, that's kind of embarrassing. No matter what, when you're on

#5senses #food #icecream #Groot #Catechism #StMichael #StRaphael #StGabriel #guardiansofthegalaxy #Disney