Discussions with a three and a half year old

After swimming lessons this week we let Keegan pick where we would go to dinner.  He picked Zantigo's and while he and I picked out a table Lyle stood at the counter and waiter for our order.  Keegan sat in his seat and then looked at me quizically.
Keegan: "Mom what is groovicy?"
Me: "What?"
What followed was a few seconds of me guessing words and him getting frustrated with me.  Finally my brain started working better and I said.
Me: Gravity?
Keegan: Yes gravity?  Daddy told me it holds things down.  Does it hold me down?
Me:  Yes, it is also what makes things fall. Without gravity we would float away.
Keegan: Would we float to the moon?
Me: Not exactly, did you know the moon has different gravity?  If you were on the moon you could jump farther because there is less gravity to hold you down."
Keegan: "So if I were on the moon I might be able to jump all of the way back to earth?"
Me: Laughing, "Well probably not quite that far.  But you could probably jump to the top of Zantigo's if there were Zantigo's on the moon."

Keegan and I have had discussions about a number of things that surprise me.  Death was the first one, others have been what makes the seasons what they are (why is summer hot and winter cold), and if we can travel to space.  I don't usually think about three year old kids and think "Hmmm...I wonder if we will be discussing physics today?"  Mostly I think about teaching him to read and to do math and in general trying to explain the world around us in terms that he will understand.  We've talked about why the colors of the rainbow show up like they do and what makes it rain, etc.

To me it is just odd some of the things he comes up with.  Sometimes I am in awe of how his little brain works to figure everything out.  I am also in awe of how much he has to learn and at how much I have learned that I take for granted.  I am also greatful that I am as smart as I am, because I think this kid would think circles around me (and probably will do that in a few years) if he could.  I think I will be hard-pressed to keep up with him.

Another example of his strange deduction skills.  We were thinking about going out to Kelly's Farm. 
Keegan: "So we can see volcanos."
Us: "No to see a farm."
Keegam: "There are volcanos on farms."
Us: Look at him puzzled.
Me: Going Ahhh, "Keegan are you talking about the volcano book where the farmer had a volcano gradually appear in his farmland in Guatemala?"  Geez I had to search my brain for this.  We had read the book once, a month ago.
Keegan: "Yes, mommy.  All farms have volcanos."
Me: "Keegan do you remember when we went camping and drove by the fields of corn and soy?  Did those farms have volcanoes?"
Keegan: "No they didn't." looking a bit sad "So farms don't have volcanoes?"

You just never know what will come out of his mouth.  You also never know what it will be in reference to and how hard you will have to search your brain to figure out what he is talking about. 

Another conversation we had was about money.  Keegan wanted to know when he could start working to make money to buy toys.  Lyle and I stopped and stared at each other.  We told him we'd think about it.  I never thought about Keegan getting an allowance until he was older.  But Keegan brought up a good point.  How is he supposed to learn the value of things and to manage his money if he doesn't have any or earn any beside holidays and birthdays.  So Lyle and I discussed it and decided to give him a list of chores to do each week.  If he does them without complaining he gets $5.  The chores have to be pretty simple; but Keegan sets the table, feeds the cats, and picks up his toys every night.  He's been great about it.  Lyle stuck the $5 on the fridge as a reminder to Keegan what he is doing the work for. 

The last point isn't about discussion but just an amazement in my part about how kids grow in general.  Keegan is getting to be a big boy.  He has his own friends, his own personality, and is getting really good at picking up nuances in conversation.  He knows when people are happy or sad.  He works at making people feel better.  He is also starting to read some.

He advanced to Littles 2 for swimming and started while I was gone last week at the plant for work.  So I hadn't seen what they do in that swimming class.  I was amazed to see this week that not only can Keegan swim a good 10-15 feet without any assisstance; the teacher was letting Keegan and the other girl in his class have races.  Boy can those kids swim!  Boy is Keegan competitive :-)   Then the teacher was having the kids swim, flip onto their back and float, and then swim back to the other side of the pool.  No problem at all for Keegan or his classmate.  I just can't believe how much he has learned in such a short time.

Well that's more than enough blabbing from me for today...  I just can't wait to see what Keegan does as he grows and to hear the things he comes up with!  I should mention that last night Keegan also wanted to have a contest to see who could eat their applesauce fastest.  His exact phrasing was "Mommy, I'll beat you with my applesauce!"  I know he wanted to have an eating race.  But Lyle was in stitches; he was all like "Wow, it must be really messy to be beaten with applesauce..."