Death & Dinner

I've had a couple of interesting conversations with Abbie lately. We've had two major changes in the last week, the first being that my Grandpa Jarvis peacefully passed away after being bedridden for many years (a respectful woo hoo!), and the second being that my Aunt Joan has officially moved from San Diego and now calls Simi her home (an ecstatic woo hoo!). I've been talking to Abbie about both events so that she'd understand what the funeral was all about and she'd know why we'd be seeing a lot more of Aunt Joan.

So here's the conversation I had with her on Monday, right as my Mom was leaving after she had spent the afternoon with us:

Abbie: Where's Grandma?
Me: She's outside in the car getting ready to go home.
Abbie: Why?
Me: She's going home so Grandpa can have his dinner.
Abbie: (baffled) But he's dead!

I laughingly had to explain that Grandpa Larry was still alive and doing fine and that it was GREAT Grandpa that died. She was quite happy to see Grandpa Larry on Tuesday at the funeral.

Here's the conversation I had with her today while we were driving to Aunt Joan's house. We were naming the people that live in Simi:

Abbie: Mommy, where do the coyotes live?
Me: Up in the hills by Grandma's house.
Abbie: Why?
Me: Because they like catching the bunnies that live there and eating them.
Abbie: That's gross!
Me: No it's not! I hear they taste just like chicken! You like eating chicken, don't you?
Abbie: Not any more!
Me: Well I KNOW you like eating cow because we just had beef in our tacos last night.
Abbie: That's disgusting, I don't like them anymore.

I about died laughing. The sheer revulsion as she realized what we've been eating... she sounded so shocked by the thought. I'll be fascinated to see if she makes the connection the next time we have meat with our meal.