Mamma's Shining Star

As maybe a follow-on to the whole Pluto discussion (even though we had this discussion before I'd found out he'd been talking to Mommy about Pluto) , the Boy was asking some questions in the backseat the other day.

Boy: How many people are there in the world?

Me: Hmm. Seven billion? Eight billion? Something like that I think.

Boy: I think there are 10 billion.

Me: You do.

Boy: Yes. Do you know how many stars there are in the universe?

Me: Wow. I don't know. A lot.

Boy: There's 10 billion stars. So there's one for every person in the world.

Eight is Enough?

In my brief research for this post, I found that other parents have linked the demise of Pluto as a planet to the song they learned with their children about our planets in the solar system. The song came from the TV program, Blue's Clues and I confess it was one of the first things I thought about when I read that astronomers had stripped Pluto of its planetary status.

Because that program and the song were familiar to both of us, Mamma and I each and independently thought to trick the Boy with the revised answer to the "How many planets are there?" question. My try didn't work because Mamma had already beaten me to the punch.

Mamma: Do you know how many planets there are?

Boy (counting): Nine.

Mamma: Wrong! Eight! Pluto's not a planet anymore.

Boy: WHAT?!?!?!

Mamma: Yes! Pluto's not a planet anymore.

Boy: WHAT?!?!?!

Mamma: The scientists all got together and decided that Pluto wasn't a planet anymore.

Boy: Well! What do the people on Pluto think about that?

"No man is a failure who has friends."

One of the Boy's new friends lives only a couple of minutes up the road from us. The neighbourhood changes from our series of link homes and town houses to a markedly more upscale set of houses, set back on amongst the trees in some more out-of-the-way places. The friend's mom owns a couple of salons. They have a cottage on the lake that they invited to Boy to on a sleep-over, this was back more at the start of the season, a point important to the story in that the cabin wasn't completely stocked with supplies. We weren't sure about sending the Boy by himself to the lake, but he was excited to go spend some time with his friend - a girl. The girl's mom confided that her daughter liked playing more with Boy than the other girls since he was more fun. They did more stuff. Like combing the backyard for slugs. Stuff like that.

"He cracks me up," she said to us when they came back from their sleepover. "I love him, the things he says!"

Uh-oh, we thought, what happened.

Well, what had happened was that the Boy was hungry and asked for ...

Boy: Can I have a peanut butter and honey sandwich?

Sheila: Oh, we don't have any.

Boy: Can I have just peanut butter then?

Sheila: No, we don't have any peanut butter. There's not much in the cupboards right now. I'm sorry.

Boy: Well, can't you just go to the Superstore?

Sheila: Well, not right now, we can't.

Boy (thinking this over for a moment): Are you poor?

Keep a Secret?

August has the holy trinity of birthdays: Mother, Wife and Son (in order of appearance). The Boy and I are out making preparations for the middle one which involves - among other things - going to Sobeys to pre-order the cake. The Boy and I discussed the options and decide on a white cake with pink and yellow trim with pink frosting flowers and a message that read "Happy Birthday Mamma Bird". A day later I got a call at work.

Mamma: I know you went to Sobey's to get a cake for me.

Me: How do you know that? A Boy must have said something.

Mamma: Well, I asked him how his day was and he said, "I went to Sobeys with Dada but it had nothing to do with your birthday."