The clouds are talking to ya...

We live in an area that for the past four or five years, hasn't gotten too much rain. Lake levels are down. Area wide water conservation days. Drought. But lately? Like within the past couple weeks, we've been getting some pretty good thunderstorms. Hooray! I love thunderstorms. Lightening is pretty, the sounds are so relaxing, perfect book weather. However, there is one person who is not a fan of this weather pattern.

Of course, it is Ivy. For 3 or 4 nights in a row, it rained hard. Extremely loud thunder claps rolling one right after another. She'd be asleep -knocked clean-smooth out- and husband and I would be settling in to bed after relaxing with our books. Like clockwork, my head would hit the pillow and the thunder would clap and the kidlette would cry hysterically. The third evening of this an idea struck me like the lightening outside...

I told Ivy, "Listen... I know it's loud and it wakes you up. But you know what? That is thunder. And all thunder is are clouds telling you 'hello.'" She calmed down pretty quick. I stayed in bed with her for a few minutes for some more thunder to roll by, which it did. So then...

Me: What is that?
Ivy: Tunderr
Me: Yup, and what's it doing?
Ivy: Saayinn hi to Iybee
Me: That's right! Not so scary is it?
Ivy: *squeeling with laughter* NOOO!! *more laughs*

The rest of the noisy evening, I was kept awake from the thunder, not a frightened two-year-old. And so have consecutive stormy nights. Ryan even mentioned that he thinks she even likes thunder now. I do make a point to remind her what the clouds are doing and she's playing right along with it.

I told this story to someone else and their question was "what if she asks why it's so loud?" Without skipping a beat, I said "Well Ivy, clouds are pretty big. Big clouds have big voices. And they want to make sure you hear them tell you hello." The response I received was an approving knod.

Well played.

Feel free to try this on your kids. I'm not going to guarantee that it works. But so far, it has worked for me.