9.20.2006

Apparently We’re Martians

Ethan has taken quite an interest in planets. Especially Saturn and Mars. Saturn I attribute to a favorite episode of Little Einsteins, where the Einsteins travel to outer space to take one of the rings that fell off of Saturn home.
Note that while I find it incredibly disturbing that a ring could fall off Saturn and come plummeting to the earth, toddlers apparently have no problems with this happening.


Now that Ethan has watched this episode enough times, and it’s clicked with him what Saturn looks like, he is always on the lookout for pictures of “Planet Saturn.” Ever since he was an infant, we had a glow-in-the-dark model of the solar system hanging in his room, so for starters he’s quite pleased he has Planet Saturn hanging from his ceiling. In fact, he very much enjoys tossing stuffed blocks up in the air to try and hit Planet Saturn. I even had to purchase an astronomy magazine at Barnes & Noble for him after he spotted the front cover with a big picture of Saturn. He also asks my husband and I to look on the internet for new pictures of Planet Saturn.
Note, although my kid has no concept of the internet, he knows that Mommy and Daddy are glued to their laptops and that we can “magically” make pictures of things he likes appear on the screen.


Mars, on the other hand, was a mystery to me for a little while. I had no clue where the kid got the concept of Mars or that it was one of the planets. I mean, my two-and-a-half-year-old may be quite smart for his age, but come on – you can’t expect a toddler to grasp the concept of the solar system! Maybe when he’s three.

One day it finally dawned on me where the whole Mars thing came from – on a new episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, another favorite show of his, Goofy goes to Mars for some reason or another and Mickey and the gang end up rescuing Goofy or something to that effect.
Before you “anti-TV” people start going off on me for letting my kid watch shows on Playhouse Disney, let me remind you that my kid has grasped some pretty cool concepts from these shows. I don’t let him sit around all day on his tubby butt shoving Ho-Ho’s and Cheesey Poufs in his mouth. He’s a well-adjusted, perfectly normal little boy who loves to play outside, read, and take in the world around him. So step off.


I digress… so Ethan figured out the whole concept of another planet called “Mars,” and can now identify both Planet Saturn and Planet Mars. Both of which I think is pretty darned cool!

This morning he was pretty chipper and pointing out the planets to me. “Look mama! ‘Dere’s Planet Saturn!” “Look mama! Mars!” “Look! Big, blue Mars!”

Um, “big, blue Mars?”

I followed his little finger and it turns out he was pointing at Earth.

“No, sweetie – this one’s Earth! Can you say ‘Earth’?”

He scowls.
“No, mama. It’s big, blue MARS.”

I guess we’re Martians then. As are the folks living on Venus, seeing as Ethan points to Venus and proclaims “Look! Big, YELLOW, Mars!”

So folks, contrary to popular belief, there’s only TWO planets in the solar system – Saturn, and various iterations of Mars.

Nanu-nanu!

2 comments:

agent713 said...

What a great story! It would make an awesome layout too :) You've got a smart little boy there!
~Heidi

Violet said...

Thanks! He's a pistol, I tell you what! I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff half the time!