"Mommy, when will I be 44?"

So, the other day we were driving home from a dentist appointment and Kolby and I had an interesting conversation.

Kolby: Mommy, when will I be 13?
Me: Not for a long time.
Kolby: When will I be 44?
Me: Not for a really long time.
Kolby: Mommy, will I die when I’m 44?
Me: No, Kolby, probably not.
Kolby: Mommy, when will I be 99?
Me: Not for a long, long time when you are a grandpa.
Kolby: When I am 99, is that when I am going to die Mommy?
[At this point, I was curious what brought this up. I wondered if he remembered us telling him that Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of our church, had died and maybe that was why he was asking about death].
Me: I don’t know. Kolby, why do you ask?
Kolby: I don’t know.
Me: Kolby, do you know someone who died?
Kolby: No. Well, Jesus died, right Mommy?
Me: Yes Kolby, but then he was resurrected.
Kolby: Mommy, kids don’t die, do they?
Me: Usually kids don’t die, usually people don’t die until they are really, really old.
Kolby: That wouldn't be good if a kid died, huh Mommy? . . .

So, I happened to mention this conversation to Jana Wells, Kolby’s primary class teacher from church, and she said that last week their class talked about the plan of salvation. They talked about people getting bodies and coming to earth, living their lives, and going to Heaven after they died. So maybe this sparked Kolby’s questions.

It’s just kind of funny, because Kolby’s favorite ‘game’ to play with me is “Emergency or Not an Emergency.” We take turns talking about different things and then saying if they are emergencies or not. Like I ask him if a car running into another car is an emergency and he says yes, I ask him if a fire on trees is an emergency and he says yes, and I ask him if he falls off his bike and scrapes his knee if that is an emergency and he says no. This all started a while ago when Kolby came home from his preschool class one day and told me that he learned to call 911 for an emergency, and I asked him if he knew what an emergency was and he said ‘no.’ So I decided he needed to learn what it was so we wouldn’t have problems with him dialing 911 for any little problem. I never knew it would turn into his favorite game. But it is interesting, because for Kolby everything is very matter of fact. He doesn’t seem concerned about the emergencies at all, he just wants to know which things are emergencies and which ones aren’t. That is how the conversation was the other day. He didn’t seem phased at all by the idea of dieing, he just wanted to know when it was going to happen. It’s so interesting to see how the boys think as they start to get older and learn more about how things work.