Everett is starting to explore more abstract concepts in language. One day recently Melissa was driving when she thanked another woman for not letting her merge into traffic. “Mommy why did you thank her?” This led to a conversation about sarcasm, and since then Everett pauses from time to time when we are talking and asks questions like:
“Are you using sarcasm?” or
“Are you teasing me?” or
“Are you mocking me?”

The last question is something he learned from his Bible book in the story about Jesus. The books are written for children, but don’t sidestep any of the major events. This has made him intensely curious. “What’s crucifixion? Why were they mocking Jesus?” On a related subject, he has become very interested in church recently is quite impressed with Pastor Chris.

In an effort to get him to read more, Chris started putting signs over the weather station in the kitchen with words like pounce, springy, roughhousy, etc. Everett asked who put the signs up, and Chris told him that the weatherman had come by in the night. 6 months ago this probably would have been an explanation he accepted, but no longer. “Daddy did you put those signs up?” Chris prevaricated for a couple minutes until Everett insisted “Tell me the truth, did you do it?” So Chris confessed. There’s no point in allowing a sense of distrust about something as small as this while we are trying to preserve one of the biggest ongoing conspiracies on earth.