Matrimony

"Matrimony was ordained, thirdly, for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other." Thus Jane Studdock begins C. S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength. But A and J have a rather different take on things.
There was a wedding at our church on Tuesday night. As preparation, we went wedding gift shopping and the girls were introduced to the concept of shopping from a registry. They were very impressed with the idea of a wedding present. It was practically all they could talk about. Finally, I decided I should try to explain a little bit about weddings and that they entail more than receiving gifts. I started by describing what the wedding would be like that evening. (This was while they were in the bathtub; I had a captive audience.) After I attempted an explanation of vows and unity candles (received with mostly blank stares) and mentioned that someone would probably sing a song and that Mommy and Papi had already done all of this some time ago, A said pathetically "I don't want you and Papi to be married." She could have told us sooner. She was almost in tears, and she kept saying it over and over again. She ultimately showed her disdain of the whole affair by spending the wedding in the nursery playing with her friends who just returned from vacation.
J on the other hand was incredibly interested in every detail. She drank it in, both my description and also the real thing. She was deeply impressed by two things.
1.) Candles are involved in weddings. My little pyromaniac's first question upon spotting the floating candle arrangement on the guest book table was "Can I blow it out?"
2.) Presents are involved in weddings. J has decided she is getting married very soon. She LOVES presents.
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Why do I have to open by big mouth and say absolutely the dumbest, most ridiculous things?
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Mark Twain and Stephen Lawhead have very different ideas about King Arthur.
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I bought a "cold beverage dispenser" for our refrigerator so we can have cold water in the summertime without all the space taken up in the freezer by ice. It is shaped like our regular water dispensers, only it is much thinner. A spotted it sitting on the counter right after I brought it home. With a horrified look on her face, she pointed at it and sputtered, "Mommy! It's - it's - it's squished!"
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A2 waves bye-bye. He waved at the girls one afternoon when they were going down for a nap. And then he waved at Papi as he left for work the next morning. He also has horrible separation anxiety. If you're not on his list of approved holders, he won't be held by you. Or at least, he tries very hard not to be, as C will attest. She tried to hold him tonight, and he refused to touch her with his hands, even though she was holding him. When his hand touched her shoulder, he jerked it away immediately. Anything to prove his point. He's going to be a handful, I think.
Joe had the devotional in church tonight. A2 had a very strong negative opinion of his Papi standing way up at the front of the church talking when he should have been holding A2. I was trying to entertain him to get his mind off Joe, so I bounced him on my knees kind of hard. He laughed right out loud in the middle of church; his big bubbly laugh. It was louder than his crying had been. I gave up and took him to the nursery.
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I know there were other things I was going to blog when I had the chance. Unfortunately, I don't remember what they were and this post is already too long anyway. Maybe I'll remember them for later. In the meantime, I think I've made up for not blogging for 3 days.