Fact or Fiction

After months of talk about Harry Potter, I dusted off our copy of The Sorcerer's Stone and showed it to Osten. He couldn't believe his eyes and wanted to start reading it immediately. Wahoo!! So far, so good but I'm not sure how much further we'll continue after the first book (or maybe two) as I remember them getting pretty dark.

Anyway, both Osten and Marci are enjoying the story so far and we are about one-third of the way through the book . . . which is when Harry goes off to Hogwarts and things start getting really good. We've had lots of talks about real vs. make-believe, and so far, it appears they are both firmly grounded in reality.

On the way to school this morning, we were having another one of these talks, but this time it wasn't about wizards or magic or spells, but rather Harry Potter himself. Osten was asking me if he was real, and I was trying to explain that he is a person in a story and therefore, not real. "But, Mommy," he said. "He is real because he's at Disney World just like Mickey Mouse, and Mickey Mouse is real." Hmph! As I was frantically searching my mind for an appropriate response that wouldn't dim the magic of Disney, Marci piped up. And you will never believe what that four-year-old child said. "Osten, they might just be grown-ups in costumes, you know!"

What??!! Where in the world did that come from? I usually try to merely listen, enjoy and remember their conversations, but I had to jump in on this one to try to keep the magic of Disney alive . . . at least for a few more years. And then I quickly tried to change the subject!