Of cars and dogs

I returned to the kitchen after brushing my teeth to find the two children in a vigorous discussion about what to do when the dog dies. Now, for some context. Our dog is young, very healthy, and no where near dying. I've no idea why they suddenly decided to make post-funeral plans. At any rate, as I walked in, Michael loudly announced, "Mom, if Timmy dies I want to keep him but Amy says I can't." Amy quickly clarified. "It's because he will stink." I had to agree with Amy that the dog would stink.

Michael: "But mommy, why would the dog STINK if he DIED?"

Me: "Because his body will start decomposing, turning into dust. Anything that dies turns back into dust. If you dig up a dead animal all you may find left is the skeleton. That takes a long time to decay."

Michael: "Well then let's just keep his skeleton. That would be really cool and we can study it."

Me: "Ahm, so why are we talking about the dog dying?"

Michael (undeterred): "But I think we should keep his skeleton if he does die. We can store it in the house."

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Michael has really gotten into cars. REALLY into cars. He is fixated on make and model of every car we pass on the road and see in a parking lot. Frequently he disappears as we are headed back to our car after shopping and after frantic calling re-emerges from behind some part car which he is "identifying." We have had a talk about how dangerous this is and I'm hopeful that we will see a diminishing in this particular behavior pattern. Last night, he announced that he was going to "drill me on my cars" because "it's very important to know the names of cars, Mommy." He has 92 cars by the way (he has counted every one of them). So, while I was eating supper (I ate after everyone else) he brought about 10 of his matchbox cars. Of course, I had no idea make/model etc. He patiently tried to help me identify them. Finally he gave up and told me most of them, then headed back for more cars. "These are easier, mommy." He announced as he brought about 10 more cars. "I thought I'd start by teaching you the hard cars to get them out of the way." Unfortunately, I didn't do much better identifying these cars, either. Undeterred, he brought me "some even easier cars." Eric wondered into the kitchen about this time and he prevailed upon daddy to join the lesson. He didn't do much better than I did (in fact probably worse). Michael's enthusiasm didn't wane even though our apathy was palpable. I think we'd still be drilling over cars had not the important task of washing dishes and cleaning up supper mercifully intervened!