I Love You Up To...

A favorite children's book of mine, "Guess How Much I Love You", by Sam McBratney, has triggered a fun little ongoing 'game' in our house: Emulating the young character, Little Nut Brown Hare, in this book, M and L have loved to try and 'one up' Mama and Papa by declaring their immense love for us in exponential terms. For example, "Mama, I love you to the farthest star in the sky!" or "Papa, I love you to the sun and the moon!" Of course, we quickly came back with the wit of Big Nut Brown Hare and declared "I love you to the farthest star in the sky... and back!" "I love you to the sun and the moon....and back!" After a few rounds of this, M and L caught on and began to beat us to the punch- "I love you to the clouds... and back!" "I love you to forever... and back!" Well, somehow Papa still managed to get the last word in each time- "I love you to infinity- and beyond!" (L especially liked that one!), "I love you to forever and back and then forever and back again!" Well, I wondered how long this game would go on and when the kids would tire of the sagely wise comebacks from Mama and Papa. Then yesterday, out of the blue, L came into the bathroom where I was brushing my teeth and said, "Mama, I wuv you to Jesus. And Jesus is the highest of everything and the most powerful, right?" Wow. He had me there. No comeback from Mama this time, other than to say, "Wow, buddy- you're so right. That's a lot of love!!" Then he got the most thoughtful, scrunched up look on his face and, with the most intent seriousness said, "Well, actwawee, the T-Rex is the highest. And he's very powerful." "Okay buddy. I liked the first one better, but yep, the T-Rex was pretty high and powerful. Just not as powerful as Jesus, who made him!" At this point however, L was already in his own little world, imagining a T-Rex around the corner, hunting him down, and the little "Guess How Much I Love You" game had ended for the night.
So much for the profound moment, eh?! But hey- I can live with being loved for even a moment 'to Jesus' and then to 'as high as a T-Rex', especially if my son thinks these are most absolute ways one could love someone!!!