Cute and scary

Since I wrote about Connor's predilection for playing the role of baby animals, we have been a family of peacocks, stegasaurauses, lions and T-Rexes. These latter two are interesting. Connor has that child's fascination with meat-eating animals, perhaps in part because he is one (he would eat bacon morning, noon and night if we let him!). But there is of course terror. On a trip to school last month he started asking about whether lions eat people. Not usually, I said, trying to downplay it. But he insisted and I had to agree that sometimes, under certain unusual circumstances, lions might eat people. There was a pause while he thought about this. Then his knowledge of the continents served him well, because he asked if there were any lions in North America. No, I said happily. We agreed they were only in Africa. Wanting to nip any concerns in the bud I did mention that there were mountain lions in North America, but we agreed they didn't eat people. He then got a little concerned and wondered whether the lions eat giraffes (he likes giraffes a lot, even if he sometimes calls them zebras). I dodged this a bit by saying that giraffes were too big (no mention of baby giraffes!). He pondered all of this a bit and was quiet on the last few minutes of the trip. But then, as I got him out of the car, he said with great seriousness, "Dad, I don't EVER want to go to Africa!" I nodded, but he wanted a very direct and clear assurance that I understood.

So it's funny then to see him playing the role of the baby carnivore. He doesn't sugar-coat it either. One of the things we're supposed to do when he's being a baby animal is feed him the appropriate food. So when he's a carnivore he shows up in the kitchen, bowl in hand, with a very sweet baby animal expression on his cherubic little face, and says, in his sweet baby animal voice..."BLOOD!!! BLOOD!!" It's a bit disconcerting to be honest.