I’ve been meaning to tell you

A couple of weeks ago we had my neice, Ren, for a sleep over to be sweet to my sister and her husband. Ren is an only child. Although it has been almost six months since she moved out of our home she still hopes to see her cousins every day. Many mornings my sister awakes to the sight of an eager little face and the question, “AmIgoingtomycousins’housetoday?” Seeing them every day is her heart’s desire.

So we had her for a sleep over and she was in heaven. She went down like a dream and woke up delighted to be at our house. That day Torey watched all the kids while Paul and I laid the underground fence. Her husband, David came by in the late afternoon and they proposed taking our big kids for a movie night and sleep over. The idea was to leave Ren with us so that Eden wouldn’t feel out in the cold.

Everybody was happy until ten seconds before I was going to scoot out of Eden’s room, having tucked them in. Ren became homesick. I had spent the entire day climbing up and down the hilly woods surrounding our house, sweating in a way that shouldn’t be legal and only wanted to collapse into bed. I called Torey. She suggested I sing “The Fox Song”, this song that has been in our family for generations. If that wasn’t enough, she recommended I tell her something to dream about. This would, hopefully, get her engaged and focused and keep her mind off her misery.

We, Ren, Eden and I sang the song which seemed to help and then I gave them their dream assignment which was rainbow colored puppies with wings who pooped flowers.

Both girls were delighted, but it was Ren who asked, “What do they pee?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “that is what I need you to find out.”

Both girls settled in and eventually went to sleep.

I just checked in with Ren and asked her if she ever found out what the flying rainbow, flower pooping puppies pee.

“Ooooh,” she said, “I didn’t…wait, I think I did…they pee good tasting food.” She looked up at me and blinked.

I think she just made that up.