Look up to the sky.
Search and search into the darkness of the night.
Reach back into the recesses of your foggy mind.
Try your hardest to answer this question ...
"Hey Mom - Is Pluto a planet?"
Oh, great - here we go again ...
"Uh - sort of," the mom with the lack of planet-and-astrological-knowledge answers pathetically. "I think it's like a mini-planet or a sub-planet or something like that," the mom scrambles to sound smart.
"It's a dark, cold planet," the small daughter offers.
"Yes," the mom agrees.
"If you ever go there," the little daughter steps closer to the mom, "You shouldn't take off your helmet or your head will freeze - like a big giant ice cube."
"Yes," the mom agrees.
"You can see all the stars very well from Pluto," the small daughter whispers, as if what she tells is a secret.
"Yes," the mom shakes her head.
"So ..." the small daughter looks into the eyes of her mother, "Is Pluto a planet?"
"I'm going to say - Yes," the mom answers very firmly. "It was a planet. It is a planet. It is also ........... a dog," the mom hears the strange words come out of her mouth.
"A dog?" the tiny girl's ears perk up.
The mom smiles.
She might not know her astrological facts about planets and such ...
But ...
She most certainly ...
Most definitely ...
Ab-so-lut-ley ...
Knows ...
Her Disney characters!
On the upside ... Pluto was a planet. It is a planet. I don't know. I don't know what makes a rock a plant and what makes it not a planet - all I know is that there were 9 planets in the solar system I grew up learning about. I don't know what happened. I don't know about these things and I am not qualified to be teaching any 6 year old child about planets or solar systems or stars and crap!! I really only know about dinosaurs and Disney characters ... I know a bunch about those (*smiles at the thought of Pluto the dog ... smiles at the thought of her head turning into a big giant ice cube - chuckle *).