Kael's Deep Thoughts

Things that make you go hmmm.....

Lately Kael's been very into space and planets and meteors -- especially after our failed attempt to view the Perseids meteor shower. He's been asking to go again with Ms. Shana... apparently he thinks we can only go meteor shower viewing with Ms. Shana.

Anyway, we purchased a couple of cool books on space and planets from Costco and while they are way too advanced for his age, he's totally immersed in them and actually remembers facts that we ad-lib from the book. He knows 6-7 of the planets in order (Uranus and Neptune throw him for a loop because they are very similar looking), he knows how the rings of Saturn and the Earth's moon were formed, what a galaxy is, what a black hole is -- just really neat stuff that I wouldn't think a 4 year old would know. I'm surprised that he remembers this stuff and it's pretty funny when he corrects Mom and Dad according to what the other said. If Dad says something that's different from what I say, he'll tell Dad: No, that's wrong and proceed to educate Dad. Apparently I have the final say and that's pretty scary.

According to one of the books, the Earth's moon was created a long time ago by a small planet crashing into Earth and breaking into a lot of little pieces. Most of the little pieces either burned up or "got tossed away" (I haven't explained to Kael about gravity yet - I'll leave that to Dad). What was left was a huge piece of the planet that stayed and became the moon. It was too big to burn up and too big to get tossed so it just stayed there. That's why you see it every night.

That's the Sonya version, ad-libbing from the pictures and captions.

Evidently Kael's been thinking this over for some time because in the car today, coming back from swim lesson, he suddenly asks me: "Mom, where would we live if we couldn't live on Earth?"

Me: Huh?
K: Where would we go if we couldn't live on Earth?
Me: Honey, what are you talking about? We wouldn't live anywhere but Earth.
K: But if a big planet came and hit Earth and cracked it in half... where would we go?
Me (thinking to myself): Oh geez. Why me? Why do I get all the hard questions?
Me (to Kael): That wouldn't happen, Kael. Don't worry about it.
K: But if a big meteor hit us and broke the Earth in half, where would we go? Would we live on another planet?
Me (to myself again): Note to self: No more meteor showers. At least he didn't ask if we would all die like his silk worms.
Me (to Kael): Which planet would you want to live on?
K: I would want to live on Saturn. With all the cool rings.
Me: Yeah, me too.

From there it moved onto whether or not Saturn had space aliens and if they were friendly and what they ate. Definitely one of our more interesting conversations.