Bedtime Stories

Julian has really taken off with the reading. This summer we checked out a gazillion books and i think that's what did it.  It's so great because I have been holding onto basically all of the books from the ages in his bookshelf knowing that, though he may be a bit old for some of the younger ones, they might get some use by him, this time as the reader.

Except not really.  He loves being read to and it's not like he doesn't like funny stories or fiction but he never seems to want to read the "childish" storybooks I always want to read.  He wants to LEARN things, pshh.  I realized this more when I figured out that when Sean puts Julian to bed they sit in the dark for forever and talk about stuff. Life. Science. History. How things work. Julian asks his questions and Sean gives his answers.  Something came up the other day and I mentioned it to Sean who said the following funny thing. While I'm over there like, "C'mon, Julian. Let's look at these Little Golden Books,"  this is happening. (Sean:)

"I told him about Sputnik tonight. The only way to do that properly was to set up the Cold War."

I laughed and made a comment and Sean continued:

"I tried to tell him about the decimation of the American Bison the other day..."

 Ha ha! Meanwhile, as a Christmas side note, I'm gathering my thoughts on the presents this year which is proving to be a bit tricky. I realized that Julian doesn't have a ton of toys. I don't really know why. Maybe I'm a scrooge and don't give him any. But I kind of feel like giving him more this year, especially if that might help with having other kids over to play. Sadly, they too do not have a direct cranial hook-up to Julian's brain so I feel like we might need some external physical devices to keep them entertained. Anyway but Julian is... different. I do not know what kinds of toys he likes because he doesn't really play with any. I feel like I have to force him. He likes Legos and will tinker around with the tinker toys here and there. But I'm kind of at a loss as to what he might really like. Here's an example of what he wishes for for Christmas when I asked him a question in the car the other day:

"Julian, what would you write in a letter to Santa?"

Julian replied, "Oh, I'd probably ask for an extra set of arms."  To which I of course replied,

(mixing it up a little. p.s. for a good time, google image "stunned face cat")

And then he continued to describe how these arms would be mechanical and sort of have a mind of their own so they could do his math homework while he could do other things.  We had many follow-up questions.

Also in his list to Santa-- super strength and the ability to walk through walls. So you see my conundrum, right?  I mean, I guess I could get him his own set of Encyclopedias...  but that might ruin my Christmas. Plus we have Sean. So i dunno.