latest obsession

Andrew's latest obsession is the solar system.
My latest obsession is Andrew's obsession with the solar system.

I seriously cannot believe how thrilled I am when he talks about outer space. It all started Friday before last when he walked out of school and the first thing he said to me was "Mommy, I want to tell you about the sun." It was the first time he had anything to report about his school day. He was thrilled with his knowledge about the sun and I was thrilled with him sharing it. Win win win.



That first day he told me that sun is full of fire and if you get close to it, it will burn you and then you will get red. He advised me to stay away from the sun, and I thanked him for his helpful tip.



Then he got things a little mixed up, which honestly is my favorite part. I love hearing him make sense of things like that. He told me that the planet closest to the sun is Mexico, followed by Vermont and then Planet Earth. He told me there are 3 Planet Earths. One for us, one for Charlie Brown and one for the Little Einsteins. He had been asking me about visiting Charlie Brown and the Little Einsteins and I think he was trying to make sense of why we couldn't. They must live on different earths.



And now he has everything sorted out pretty well. He can tell me most of the planets in order from the sun. He tells me that Mercury is hot and Pluto is cold. He told me that Jupiter as a 'red eye' (which he painted on his Jupiter in the first photo) and that that red eye is a big storm. He told me that the rings of Saturn are made from rocks and ice and that a shooting star is burning up and falling towards the sun.

When Kirsten came over on Tuesday, they played 'Outer Space'. They became astronauts flying around our apartment visiting various planets. Then they became firefighter astronauts to put out the fires on Mercury. Which I personally found quite helpful.



I am really enjoying this new found interest and the many, many art projects that could come out of this. And maybe, when all is said and done and the obsession on the planets has cooled, I will have gotten over the embarrassment I feel each time I say Uranus.