Church talk

Yesterday afternoon, as I snuggled Madeleine before her nap, we talked a bit about the fun she had at church, especially once she was down in the Sunday school classroom decorating Valentines and receiving a goody bag of Valentine gifts. Not that she doesn't enjoy being up in the quiet with me, but clearly she has outgrown her need to be sitting by my side during the service. Another thing she has clearly proven is that she TOTALLY gets what church is all about, as shown by our pre-nap conversation:

ME: Did you have fun at church today?
MADELEINE: Yes.
ME: Do you know what we learn about at church?
MADELEINE: Um, singing.
ME: Yes, we do sing, that's true. But we also learn about God, and we learn about Jesus.
MADELEINE: Yeah, we learn about God!
ME: And do you remember what you did at church today?
MADELEINE: The MUSIC!
ME: Yes, you're right, we sang music.
MADELEINE: And I ate my GOLDFISH! My BROWN goldfish!
ME: And did you get to have a cookie at Sunday school?
MADELEINE: Yeah!
ME: Did you get to color in Sunday school?
MADELEINE: Yes.
ME: And what did you make?
MADELEINE: A Jesus!
ME: You made a Valentine, remember?
MADELEINE: Yeah!
ME: Do you remember where God lives?
MADELEINE: At church!
ME: Well, kind of. Remember how God lives in Heaven? And Jesus is in Heaven with God.
MADELEINE: But, we just say "hello" to Jesus.
ME: Yeah, we can say hello to Jesus. We can say "Hi, Jesus, we love you!"
MADELEINE: Yeah, we can just say "Hello, Jesus!"

The conversation then veered away from church talk to various other topics, bringing us to a discussion of where various people we know live.

ME: Madeleine, do you remember where Auntie Shannon lives?
MADELEINE: She lives at the MOVING.
ME: She lives at the moving? No, she lives in Atlanta.
MADELEINE: Yeah, she lives at the Santa! She lives at the SANTA CLAUS!

I wonder if next time we visit Auntie Shannon at the Santa Claus we can buy a new car at the North Pole.

Following Madeleine's clear understanding of where Shannon lives, the conversation took a turn for the very weird.

MADELEINE: (putting Cowie between her toes; strangely, this is one of her soothing techniques that helps her fall asleep, even though it involved flapping her foot up and down and flailing Cowie around with it) Where's COWIE?
ME: Cowie? Where did you go?
MADELEINE: I think DORA got him. Because... Dora's all SILVERY. I think Dora's eating Cowie.
ME: No, no, Dora! Don't eat Cowie! Cowie's SPECIAL!
MADELEINE: Yeah, and TAMARA'S coming! Mommy, Tamara is DRINKING Cowie!
ME: No, no (or perhaps I should have said "Snow no;" if you get that reference then you have proven yourself a long-time, loyal blog reader) drink Cowie! Cowie's SPECIAL!
MADELEINE: Yeah, I think my foot is EATING Cowie!
ME: Okay, honey, time for nap.
MADELEINE: Mommy? Can you say "No no eat Cowie?"
ME: Yeah, okay, we're done with that game. Time for nap.

I have come to the conclusion that Madeleine lives in her own, weird little world; but, then again, what 2-year-old doesn't??