Oh Douglas. Sometimes I want to strangle him and sometimes I think he is the sweetest kid in the universe. Douglas just turned 4 last Saturday. We hung streamers from his door and when he woke up and came out from his room he said to Travis, "Why is my door decorated? Is it for my birthday?" Later in the day when I was hugging him and saying something about my birthday boy he said in a somber voice, "But I don't feel different. I don't feel 4." :-) It was a low key family day of donuts for breakfast, dollar store to pick out a quick toy, hanging out with just us 4 and then dinner at GattiTown with mom and Dean, and cake at their house and opening presents. He got all dinosaur stuff. He asked for a clown cake so my mom made it. He saw clowns at the fair a month ago and must have thought they were pretty cool if he wanted that for his cake.
Douglas has a very sensitive, kind streak in him, mixed with the crazy 4 year old streak. I also think he is pretty spiritually minded. I suppose it's the innocence of a child. Today we were listening to O Holy Night and I was going through the lyrics with him, explaining further if need be and we wound up talking about why Jesus died for us and "falling to our knees" and repenting so we can live again with Heavenly Father. We were in the car and he said, "I can't get on my knees." b/c we were in the car and I explained that we can pray to him sitting too. Well a good 45 minutes went by at 1 store, we got in and drove to another store and when we parked he said, "I can get to my knees now." When he got out of the car he "fell" to his knees in the Kroger parking lot and mumbled a prayer about repenting." My first reaction was for him to get up that we looked like religious extremist. I didn't say anything and it was a short prayer. Also, we made a Thanksgiving tree and everyday put leaves on with something we are grateful for and one day he said, "I'm going to say thank you for Heavenly Father making us. No, I'm going to put thank you for Heavenly Father dying for us." Tears welled up in my eyes.
