Mountain out of a...

Okay...one more thing.

The above image is from a book Kiernan was reading tonight called Cobweb Christmas. He was reading it silently to himself while I perused my own book. Suddenly he looked up and asked me a question.

"Daddy, do you think spiders think we're mountains?"

Just like that. Out of the blue. No prep. No front-loading. Nothing. Just that question and I'm expected to have an answer for it. Now.

"Um." I think that was my response as I tried to think. I didn't just want to say, as I so often do, "What do you think?" He's getting wise to me on that. So I thought about the question. Meanwhile I stalled.

"Why do you ask that?"

"Because we're humongous to them."

Okay. Fine. Good point. I asked the question in my head...Do spiders think we are mountains? Spiders vs. Mountains. Hmm. No! I thought. Not Spiders vs. Mountains. US vs. Mountains.

I felt pretty good about this. All I had to do was lead him down the path to figuring out what was different between us and mountains. From there he could reason out the answer to his own question. I thought about the difference between human beings and mountains and the answer occurred to me. I was prepared to lead him to it, point-by-point. I asked him what I thought would be the first of a few questions...

"What's the difference between us and mountains?"

He didn't even think for five seconds before saying, "We move and they don't."

SERIOUSLY? I had been so proud of thinking of that! And he came up with it on the fly! In less time! Damn it!

It's okay. I know I'm destined to play this out many more times in the years to come. I know that. Really...it's okay.

[Note to self: read everything in the world in the next five years.]