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Virtual Reality
Kira and Carver spent half of the week battling a cold. Fortunately, the rest of us have been spared so far, apart from being awoken several times during the night. They are both on the mend, and hopefully we can avoid any further sleep disturbance.
A couple of weeks ago, when my sister was here with us, Carver was going through his usual ritual of questioning everyone who would listen. That particular morning, he was most interested in ages. He knows that he is two years old, and that Avey is six and a half. He does not quite understand the concept of age, though. He asks, “What’s your name?” which sometimes means he wants to know our ages. He went around the table and asked everyone their name [age]. When my sister answered him about her age, he smiled widely and said, “Good choice!”
I was driving Avey to school on Monday, as I always do, and I was attempting to have a chat with her. I asked about how she slept, how school is going, and so on. After a few attempts to strike up conversation, it became clear to me that Avey was not really listening. I glanced over at her in the passenger seat, and saw that she had the look of worry on her face. I gently probed into what was her concern. She let out a sigh, apparently deciding to disclose the source of her troubles. I expected to hear about some trouble at school, or some incident during the morning that was bothering her. She told me, with all sincerity, that “Well, the [furious] five [from Kung Fu Panda] and I are just a little worried. There’s an elephant who’s coming to train with us, and we’re not sure he’s very good at Kung Fu.”
Refraining myself from chuckling at her fictional predicament, I offered as much support as I could muster, suggesting that maybe the elephant will turn out to be better at Kung Fu than she expects, or that she, being one of the best at her martial art, may turn out to be a big help to this mysterious elephant.
She talked herself through it calmly too, and seemed to cheer up by the time we got to school. It was a strange situation. She seemed aware that she was fantasizing, but usually she keeps them to herself. When we were all home later that night, I told Kira about it and we all, including Avey, had a good chuckle about it.
It’s probably been long enough that I should follow up with how the elephant’s training went.