Chris has a plan

Chris has a plan. Chris always has a plan. It's as if he never quits planning for any and every eventuality. His newest plan is that he will alternate market goats and market lambs. This plan came about because I told him that we don't do market goats in Canyon County even though he saw one at the fair in Owyhee County. It doesn't seem to matter to him that we don't have a market goat option at our fair... Dana told him that he could show market goats at the Western Idaho Fair... well... she actually said that there were some kids doing so (showing market goats) and Chris interepreted that to mean that HE could show goats there.

Keep in mind that Chris is at least one year away from showing any sort of market animal. He's only six years old. Cloverbuds (4-Hers between the ages of 5 and 8) can only show small animals that weigh less than half what the cloverbuds weigh (which means that a pygmy goat is pushing it for our kids). I'm not even sure that he completely understands that someone is going to eat his market animal. He may think that going to the packing plant is a fun trip where you will end up helping to wrap presents. I keep trying to talk to him about the issue and determine what he really knows but he tends to weave imaginary stories into whatever you're talking about. Pretty soon I'm not sure if he's chosen a new absurd story line or if he really believes what he's saying. If you can talk to him long enough you'll recognize the made up stories because they always involve a mountain lion... at some point... perhaps several days into the story line.

I blame Grandpa Anderson. He did this to us. He also tends to weave absurd story lines into seemingly normal conversation. Usually his give away is much earlier in the story than Chris's. Possibly I'm a bit to blame too. Maybe all the times he asked silly questions and I got bored answering him may have had an adverse effect on his developing mind. "Mom, why are the clouds different shaps? Mom, why is that pumpkin orange? Mom, why is that cookie cutter leaf shaped? Mom, why is cheese called cheese?" You get the idea... I didn't want to scar his little psyche by being mean or rude, but I couldn't take all the questions all the time. You can only give so many rational answers in any given day (I think they're rationed or something). There are only so many times your answer can be, "to make little boys ask questions," Eventually you too would have begun answering with things like, "Because the moon is round, because trees like to wear different hats, because asphalt stinks, because the little green men live under dandelions," and my personal favorite.... "because the fairies don't like it when the rain gets in their shoes." Keep in mind that the answer never had anything to do with the question asked.

So maybe the difficulty in directing his thoughts down any one straight and narrow path is a genetic thing. His reading teacher last year was concerned that he couldn't seem to stay focused on any one task for as long as she wanted him to be attentive. I could tell that the conversation was headed towards talk of attention deficit disorder until his kindergarden teacher added her two cents. She had noticed that his attention was quite intense when you were doing what he wanted to do. When doing something he wasn't interested in... his mind was all over the place. The reading teacher also thought it was worth mentioning that he seemed to be all over the place (mentally). The child switches topics from one sentence the next. He doesn't prepare the listener by letting them know he's switching topics. She seemed very concerned. I can't imagine where he could have picked up any of these habits....