Talking about death to a child

At dinner tonight, we got on the subject of the new movie "The Dark Knight" (new batman movie), and it was mentioned that the person playing the joker (Heath Ledger) had killed himself. This brought on a series of questions and serious concern from Draven that we attempted to explain. We explained that it was an accident and that he had taken too much medicine...you see where this is going. Anyway, we went on to explain that we are very careful about medicine and that what happened to Mr. Ledger would not happen to him. We also tried to explain that it was the person playing the Joker, which can also be confusing to a child.

Our question is, has this type of topic come up with your child and how did you go about explaining it to them? Draven is 5 now and is very curious about everything and how things work. Any comments or recommendations?

Swim Lessons

Thanks to the generosity of Aunt Carol, Draven and Brody have been participating in swim lessons at the YMCA in Halls for the last four weeks. We started the season with a trip to Target for new Spiderman 3 swim trunks for Draven and a new "Cars" beach towel for Brody. After that they were ready to swim and proceeded to remind me of that fact several times before the first lesson arrived one day later! Every Tuesday & Thursday Aunt Carol or I would drive them there for their 30 minute lesson. By the end of the lessons they knew how to kick, hold their breath, make bubbles in the water, and swim on their backs. They successfully became "Pikes" and are ready to be "Eels!"

One thing that made the experience more "exciting" for me was the fact that the lessons ended at 5:45, and on Thursdays Draven had to be at soccer practice at 6:30-all the way back near our house. So, we'd rush back to the locker room, change clothes, eat a dinner of sandwiches, chips, and carrots in the car, and make it to the field just in time. phew...I guess the madness of 3 active boys has begun!

Easter Sunday

Easter was especially fun this year. For the 3rd year in a row, Jennifer has planned a pot luck salad dinner at our place. Everyone brought a salad type item(s) such as egg salad, asian chicken salad, fruit salad, tuna salad, and of course, tossed salad. For dessert, we had some delicious lemon pineapple pie and lemon poundcake with chocolate icing. Uncle Jason and Auntie Kristin were in town visiting from D.C. and hung out with us as we watched a lot of basketball. Draven was excited about the basketball at first, but I don't think he realized the amount of basketball that is on T.V. during March Madness. Over the weekend, we also spent some time grilling hamburgers and helping the Easter Bunny hide some treat filled eggs around the yard as well as filling up the boy's sandbox with sand. The boys were super excited to find that the Easter Bunny did that for them. We've had an empty sandbox for sometime now and Draven has mentioned several times that we needed to get sand for it.

On a side note, Pop and I spent most of Saturday driving down to Dillard, GA, which is basically located at the point where TN, SC, NC, and GA all meet. He needed a ride down to purchase a new navy blue Chevy truck that he and his brother found...great looking manly truck. The drive down was absolutely amazing...probably the most beautiful drive I have ever taken. The drive took us through the mountains, down the highway 411 stretch that takes you through Cherokee NC, Clingmans Dome, the Chimneys, etc...you get the picture.