Good Apple.

As I sat busily working, Kyler pulled a chair up next to me and sat down in it, barely visible under the pile of books on his lap.  I gave him a curious look and he said, "You don't have to do anything.  Just listen."  He then started skimming through the books and telling me interesting-to-him facts about a very large variety of animals, ranging from dinosaurs to sloths to something called a 'kinkajou.' 

This is a kinkajou.  I want one.

Kyler tries to keep me up to date on everything he knows and likes.  I believe that his ultimate goal is to one day have a full and educated conversation with me.  He has done this before with sports.  He would rattle off random statistics seemingly day and night and he never failed to give me a breakdown of the rules before each game, even using words and terms that I could understand.  His sports-talk dream was obliterated at my nephew's football game when I yelled at the "umpire" for making a bad call.  What really is the difference between an umpire and a referee?  And how am I supposed to keep track of such petty information while also trying to juggle the difference between defense and offense?

So, no more sports for me.  Now it's pandas and starfish.  Except on this particular day, Kyler decided to take it a step further.  He pulled out his yellow plastic box of National Geographic life-sized maps and began pointing out to me where these different animals lived.  He had them strewn out all over the floor and I, still trying to work, mind you, was becoming slightly panicky over all of this new information.  Sensing this, Kyler told me to calm down and he ran into his room.  I could hear him making a mess while looking for something.  He finally came back with his globe.  Bless my son for knowing that the maps were too much for my brain to handle.  This was much simpler and by keeping one finger on the USA at all times, I was able to calmly listen and learn. 

As always, I am shockingly impressed at Kyler's knowledge.  It doesn't take a genius (or a snail) to figure out that this apple fell very close to the Kenny-tree.  As Kyler would go through his never-ending stacks of reading material and choose a certain creature to teach me about, he would read its description, then set the book down and tell me everything he knew that wasn't in the book.  And there was a lot.  And I know it was all true because he doesn't have the capacity to make things up