More on the obsession with guns, and maybe pyromania too?

Tonight we were reading the new book that the Bee got for completing the public library's summer reading program. He got to pick it out himself. It's a book about firemen -- his favorite literary subject ever since he decided that he's going to be a fireman on the ladder team when he grows up. Well, really, his plan is that he and I are going to be firemen together when he grows up. I've agreed enthusiastically to go along with this plan so far, without mentioning the age limits most fire departments have that will prevent a nearly 60 year-old woman from becoming a firefighter recruit. I figure there's plenty of time for us to get into all that later on. Anyway, back to the book tonight.

Reading this 10-page book of mostly pictures takes 20 minutes because he has at least one question on every page. On the page where the firemen (actually, firemouse, firebird, and firecat) get to the fire, he asked me how the fire started. Before I could answer, he offered a couple of possibilities: "Maybe some kids were playing with matches. Or maybe a guy had a gun and it squirted lightling (aka lightning) and that started the fire."

Oh, where to start? The lightning obsession has really taken off in the last few days, ever since he overheard us talking about a jogger who was killed by lightning on a trail just a couple miles from our house last week. He doesn't really know what "killed" means, so he's not so much traumatized by this story as fascinated. And the guns "squirting" thing comes from playing with squirt guns at our friends' house on the fourth of July. M & I have both explained several times that real guns don't "squirt water," they "shoot bullets," and bullets give "very, very bad owie boo-boos -- blood owies!" Somehow this doesn't seem to be sinking in.

So what did I say to his "maybe a guy had a gun and it squirted lightling" theory? "Yeah, maybe." That's probably not going to earn me any parenting awards, but there's only so much explaining a mom can do, and only so much a 3.5 year-old boy can take.