The Marrying Game

This post topic has got me a little worried/concerned, maybe by the end you will see why! Brooks is very interested in marriage..... for some unknown reason. He has noticed our wedding pictures sitting around the house and has asked why we got married? Why I wore a big white dress? And most importantly to him, did we get cake on our face???!!! A few weeks ago he asked me if Mrs. Susan and Mrs. Linda were married (they are his Wednesday night teachers). I explained to him that NO! Boys only marry girls and girls only marry boys!!! Then just last weekend when we were in Lebanon he asked Papa why he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. (I think the reason is that Papa's fingers outgrew his ring!) So as you can see he really has been thinking a lot about this thing called marriage. Well, lately Brooks and our next door neighbor, Alyssa, have been playing together a lot. She is 5 and her mommy is expecting a baby too. Anyway, Brooks came in from playing outside the other day and said that he and Alyssa had been playing the marrying game. I just smiled as I cooked supper..... that is until he told me that they pretend kissed. I said, "You what???" I think he knew right away that that was not OK because he quickly said that it was time for him to go back outside. Before he went I asked him to show me a pretend kiss. He got VERY embarrassed which worried me even more.... How does he even know to be embarrassed by this??? Jeff and I both talked to him about kissing and how you only kiss mommy, daddy, and family members. I told him you really don't kiss anyone else until you are a lot older and are married (Hey, I can dream can't I?). He seemed to understand until the next day when he and Alyssa were playing again. I went into the backyard to see them and Brooks told me that I could go on back in the house. I said, "Uhhh, No!" Evidently, the marrying game was being played again!!! I stayed out in the yard with them and then it was time to come in and get ready for Wednesday night church. When Brooks and I came in, I told Jeff that our talk did not work! So we talked to Brooks again during dinner about him being too young to "pretend kiss"(and we still don't know what this means to them!) We told him that if he and Alyssa kept playing this game then they wouldn't be allowed to play together anymore.
The hilarious part of all of this is that a little while later while Jeff and I were getting ready for church, Brooks came into our bedroom. He said, "You know daddy, every time that Alyssa and I pretend kiss, she gets a HEADACHE!" I about lost it! I looked at Jeff and said, "Wow, I didn't know that excuse started so early!!" Jeff said, "Yep, I've heard that line a few times myself, son!"

I have thought about this "marrying game" a lot this week. I know I am probably blowing it out of proportion, but I don't want Brooks to grow up to be a player/casinova/ladies man. I can honestly say I want him to be naive about girls for as long as possible and stay pure until marriage. As I worried all week, I had to remind myself of my first marriage....... I was 4! I married Mark Mitchell every Thursday at Mother's Day Out. My grandmother made me a veil and bouquet and Heather Sewell (who actually married Mark Mitchell years later) and I would take turns marrying him and being the preacher.......but, the pretend kiss thing is a little fuzzy! (I think that I still turned out OK, though.)