So we were sitting on the floor this morning, playing with toys when I was trying to convince the boys that it was nap time. Of course, this was met with some resistance by the older one, Adin. Seeing how they love to drink milk, I tried to bribe him with a sippy cup full of his drink of choice. Then, out of the blue, Adin asks me, "Mommy, where get milk at?" I informed him that I bought the milk at the store but that is not where the milk is really from. Obviously I have lost the 3 year old at this point because he looked up at me and said, "huh?" I proceeded to tell him that milk comes from cows, and since I was oh so conveniently holding a stuffed one, I showed him the utters and explained to him that the cow is milked and then pasteurized and bottled, then goes to the store, them mommy and daddy buy it. He was intrigued by this, so he began to ask me where other things come from. He thought that cows were pretty cool since not only do they give us milk, but the give us steak and hamburger too. I decided to leave out the part where I tell him that they have to kill the cow to get his yummy steak for now. At three years old, he has a pretty good idea what death is. He knows that if you kill a bug, it dies and that Gil and Sharkbait died and are gone for good. (Those were our 2 angel fish that Adin and Arin decided were starving, so they fed them coffee and an entire bag of algae while mommy was on the phone with the doctor. Aren't they sweet?)

I don't want to sugar coat death but, "the earlier and more naturally the concept of death is taught the more likely children with develop a healthy and fuller appreciation of life." (Crenshaw, David A.) I can see that Adin is trying to wrap his little mind around the fact of life that is death. While watching the news with us one evening, Adin looks at the TV and asks us who they were talking about and what happened to him. I just told him the facts. That Sean Taylor was a football player who died. Adin then asked me, “Somebody die him?” I told him yes, some bad guys shot him and he died and that’s why we don’t ever play with guns. Adin looked at the TV and Sean’s picture and said, “Oh, I sorry.” That made me even sadder than I already was. The look on Adin’s face was as if he had lost one of his best friends. And it’s not like he knew who he was.

Crenshaw, David A.. "Helping Toddlers and Preschool Children with their Grief." SearchWarp.com. 10 Feb 2006. Rhinebeck Child and Family Center, LLC. 4 Dec 2007 <http://searchwarp.com/swa39856.htm>.