Today was Phoenix's 5th birthday. Glaucia gave a good description of him here. He's a crazy, funny kid. For months, he's been asking to go to a cemetery. Well, we finally decided to surprise him with a family trip to a cemetery today. There are plenty of huge cemeteries here in Queens and Brooklyn. As soon as we drove through the gates, Phoenix shouted, "Yay! It IS a special trip!" Willik didn't seem to think much of it.

We drove around for a bit, looking for a good spot to stop the car.

"You're not reading the names!" Phoenix complained.

"We're looking for a place to park." Then I just gave in, "That one says Schneider."

Without any pause, Phoenix spoke to the air, "Schneider, can you hear me?

...

Schneider, can you hear me?

...

He can hear me!"

I gave a quick glance to Glaucia, "What did he say, Phoenix?"

"He said, 'Yes.'"

I couldn't hold in my laughter. We finally parked under a tree that was close to weed covered stairs. We all got out of the car and walked up the stairs. It was nice to walk around a quiet place in New York City. I almost wanted to set up for a picnic, but you can understand how that might look. At some point, Phoenix said he wanted to go to heaven. That led to a little discussion about Jesus and forgiveness. I don't need to get into the details.

We took plenty of pictures. Glaucia and the kids got a few "rubbings." Phoenix carried the backpack with paper and crayons. They each found gravestones with neat designs to get rubbings of. Phoenix chose one from a Chinese tomb.

After we had enough of the trip, we went back to the car and drove slowly around different parts of the cemetery. When we finally got out, back onto Metropolitan Ave, Phoenix blurted out, "I asked Jesus to kill me."

"WHAT?!" We were understandably shocked.

"I want to go to heaven."

"Phoenix, are you sad here?"

"Of course not, Papai." He made a face as if I had said something completely ridiculous.

"Then why do you want to die?"

"I want to go to heaven and see Jesus. It's nice there."

Glaucia turned to me to say, "He's all you. He's definitely all you."
Today was Phoenix's 5th birthday. Glaucia gave a good description of him here. He's a crazy, funny kid. For months, he's been asking to go to a cemetery. Well, we finally decided to surprise him with a family trip to a cemetery today. There are plenty of huge cemeteries here in Queens and Brooklyn. As soon as we drove through the gates, Phoenix shouted, "Yay! It IS a special trip!"