Questions II

This week's question to ponder comes from my nephew, Taylor (5).

"Who lived first, the dinosaurs or the pioneers?"

Pterosaurs

Porter (5) loves dinosaurs. Like, he REALLY loves them. His favourite game to play is "Prehistoric Park", where everyone pretends they're different prehistoric animals, and the first thing he says to me when I visit is "Guess what I learned about ______ (insert ridiculously long dinosaur name here)?" He knows more about dinosaurs than anyone other than a professional archaeologist - and he probably even would give some of them a run for their money. It's probably because, for instance, he is told to pick out a bedtime story and says the following:

"Can we read about pterosaurs from the Middle Cretaceous period?"

Of course. Who wouldn't want that bedtime story?

Questions

A couple of deep questions to ponder from my 2-year-old niece, Sarah Ann:

1.) Is today yesterday? When will it ever be yesterday?

2.) Does it take longer to get to Spain or Heaven?

The 100 Club

In Taylor's kindergarten class, kids who write their numbers from 1-100 become part of the "100 Club". His mother, Leslie, heard about it from another mother whose daughter was a proud member. She wondered about it because Taylor had never said anything about it, despite having been able to write at least that high for a while. When she asked him about it, he said simply,
"Well, mom, it just gets too boring once I get to 63."

I can totally understand that - can you imagine a 5-year-old sitting still long enough to write out each number to 100? I myself would get bored out of my mind - and I've had lots of practice sitting still (though I'm still not good at it). He finally did, though, and even wrote all the way to 104.

Gutter Ball

I had a great time bowling today with my nieces and nephews, Scott, my brother-in-law, and father-in-law. But I lost. Horribly. No, really - I bowled for a total score of 44. Part way through the game (around the 4th or 5th round), after I had consistently knocked down less than 5 pins each time, my niece Rachel gave me some advice:
"Well, Tarythe," she said matter-of-factly, "you might as well just throw it in the gutter. That way you wouldn't have to worry about it all the way down the lane."

The...Stripping Warrior?

My 6-year-old cousin, Jacob, is a trip. He likes to tuck his pillowcase into his underwear in front like a loincloth and pretend he's a Stripling Warrior from the Book of Mormon. Last night Audrey, Sarah, and I were over at his house, picking up stuff from my Aunt Melody. He desperately wanted to show us his room (as all children do when people come over), so we obliged. Jacob jumped up and down excitedly. He then picked up a pillow case, held it in front of his waist, and pronounced,
"When I take off all my clothes I tuck the pillowcase in here! Wanna see?"

We declined and hurried back downstairs, but he stripped and ran after us, showing us his loincloth and muscles anyway. It was all I could do not to bust up laughing.

Not Pretty Enough

I was playing what I thought was a pretty song on the piano at my mother's house yesterday, when my 6-year-old cousin, Jacob, came up to me. He tapped me on the shoulder and said,
"Excuse me, do you mind if I play some different notes so it will sound prettier?"

Apparently the song wasn't as pleasant as I'd thought.