Death and Burial

On Monday, Rob discovered a dead squirrel outside on the sidewalk by our back door. He went out to take care of it while the boys watched from the bay window. They were rather fascinated by the process of Daddy disposing of the squirrel in the trash can (and possibly disturbed.) Yesterday, we heard a funny noise on the front porch and discovered a baby squirrel clinging for dear life to the post by our mail box. I put two and two together and figured that the mommy must have falled off the roof or eaten poison from our neighbor's freshly sprayed lawn and now the half-grown baby had climbed out of the nest, probably hungry. Here's the conversation that followed.



Mommy: Matthew! There's a baby squirrel on our porch.

Matthew: Aww, how cute.

(We watch him for awhile, and then he made some pitiful noises. That's when the above story developed in my head.)

Mommy: Oh, I think he's crying for his mommy. I think his mommy might have been the squirrel that died. She's in the trash can now.

Matthew: Awww....that's too bad. Sorry, baby squirrel, but your mommy is in our trash can. You know, if my mommy and daddy die, we'll have to put them in the trash can too.

Mommy: Um, Matthew, we don't put dead people into the trash can.

Matthew: We don't? Then what do we do with them?
Mommy: Well, we put them in a box and then put the box into a hole in the ground. Or sometimes we burn them up into ashes and scatter the ashes on the ground.

Matthew: Why do we do that?

Mommy: You know, I really don't know. (It was at this point that I realized how silly burial rituals are when explained to a three-year-old.)



As an end note on that incident, we have not seen the baby squirrel today. Rob thinks a cat got him. Matthew thinks that another mommy and daddy squirrel picked him up. I believe Rob, but I hope Matthew's right :)



Today, Matthew and Ben were fighting over an old, torn laundry basket (go figure) and Matthew took a book and clobbered Ben on the head. Rob said, "Matthew! Don't hit your brother on the head with a library book! Use one of our books instead." Much laughter came from behind my grocery store ad.....



And I'm posting in the afternoon b/c Anna decided that Mommy had a long enough nap. She woke up to eat and went back to sleep. I, unfortunately, cannot do the same. Sigh......someday I will sleep again.....