Carter Answers Your Questions about the Solar System

As many of you know, Carter has shown a strong interest in the planets for quite some time. We visited a fantastic hands-on children's museum near Kansas City many months ago, and he spent much of the time in the space-themed room. He has a jigsaw puzzle of the planets and often draws them. For reasons only a two-year-old can fathom, he decided that Lea's parents live on another planet, prompting the following discussion about where he would like to live.

Erik: "Would you like to live on Mercury?"
Carter: "'cause it's too small 'cause it's high in the sky."
Erik: "What about Venus?"
Carter: "'cause it's medium, 'cause its high high in the sky."
Erik: "What about Mars?"
Carter: "'cause it's... no."
Erik: "Why wouldn't you want to live on Mars?"
Carter: "'cause it's... I'm not sneezing." [A note: Carter enjoyed the book Dogs in Space that we checked out of the Lawrence Public Library for many weeks. In the book, the dogs do not stay on Mars because the sandstorms cause them to sneeze.]
Erik: "Oh. What about Jupiter? Why not?"
Carter: "'cause I don't have a spot. "
Erik: "What about Saturn?"
Carter: "Mommy has a spot!" [A note: Carter thinks that freckles and other sorts of changes to skin coloration are "spots."]
Erik: "Mommy has a spot like Jupiter. What... what about Saturn? Would you like to live on Saturn?"
Carter: "No 'cause I don't have a ring on."
Erik: "What about Uranus?"
Carter: "I don't have a ring like this and like this." [A note: Carter distinguishes the rings of Saturn and Uranus by their position.]
Erik: "That's true, you don't. What about Neptune?"
Carter: "No."
Erik: "What about Pluto?"
Carter: "No."
Erik: "Why not?"
Carter: "'cause it's very small like this."