Life, death and woodchucks.

Lately, Alex has been VERY into questions and learning all about everything. It sounds super weird and morbid, but his latest fascination is death. Not particularly HOW people die (i.e. I'm not talking to my 5 year old about murder and guns and blood and gore), but what happens after you die "because you're old" ..and what it means to go to Heaven and to have your body die and be buried here on earth, but your spirit and soul in Heaven with Jesus. We covered a lot of that last week, talking specifically about his GG (which he can relate to and where most of the questions stem from because he knew his GG before he died--of old age--and understands his death and that GG is in Heaven but his body is buried on Earth in a cemetery).

Last night on the way home from daycare, he was very quiet. This is unusual, so I asked him, "Whatcha thinking about, bud?"

Right away, he responds with, "If GG's body is in the ground, but his Spirit is in Heaven with Jesus, how did it get there? How did they separate?"

Oh boy.

I know. He's five. FIVE. Being his Mom is hard sometimes because he thinks everything through. Thoroughly. Most kids would have been totally satisfied with the standard "body goes in the ground and spirit goes to Heaven" answer, but he has to know HOW that happens.

We spent the next few miles talking about that--him asking more questions and me giving the most honest, sensible answers that I could for his mind to grasp. I'm into reality as a parenting style. Judge away. He seemed completely satisfied with my answers, so I asked him one last time, "Bud, do you have any more questions for Mommy? I'll answer anything you want."

Giggling from the backseat, he asks...

"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

And that, my friends, is how we do in the VeeDub household. Deep, meaningful conversations about the afterlife straight into silly, unanswerable tongue twisters.

But if you were curious, the answer is: about 700 pounds on a good day, with the wind at his back.