Life goes on: Nerd Synchronicity

I believe I have just condemned my son to a life of nerdiness. (Granted he was already genetically predisposed to nerdiness, but I had hoped for better.)

It started innocently enough; last month Kyle's pre-K buddy Nik invited Kyle to a birthday party. I called Nik's Mom about what sort of present to bring and she said Nik loved Legos.

So a few days later, Kyle and I headed off to Toys "R" Us. We picked out three small Lego sets: a medieval looking troll crushing thing, a Mars Explorer set, and a Star Wars Rebel Cruiser. I told Kyle he could keep one and we would give the other two to Nik. Kyle decided to keep the Star Wars thing. (No big deal.)

As we built the cruiser, Kyle asked me all kinds of questions about Star Wars: "who were the good guys?", "what's a rebel?", "what's a clone trooper?", etc. Again, no big deal. I answered his questions as best I could, finished building the cruiser, and then watched Kyle disassemble it and make his own creations (which I was very happy about - your own Lego creations are way better).

A week or so later, Kyle got a Star Wars Clone Wars card with Yoda on it in his Lunchables box. Again with the questions: "who's Yoda?", "what's a Jedi?", "is that a clone trooper?", etc. Again, I answered them and it was no big deal.

This morning, Kyle folded-up a piece of paper so that it looked like a capital "I" and asked what Clone Wars spaceship it looked like. This is where I really screwed-up; I told him it looked like a TIE fighter and TIE fighters came after the Clone Wars. "What's a TIE fighter?", "what happened after the Clone Wars?", "why were there clones?", etc. Again, I answered and Marjorie even pitched-in and found an image of a TIE fighter on the web.

Then I made huge mistake #2: I said, "we could watch the first Star Wars movie if you want" (and by that I meant "Star Wars IV: A New Hope"). Kyle quickly agreed and started watching: "who's that?", "is that the real Obi-Wan Kenobi?", "what's a storm trooper?", "what happened to the clone troopers?", and on and on and on.

Then, about the time Luke et al get to the Death Star, a strange thing happened: the questions stopped. He watched the rest of the movie with the laser-like focus that only a five-year-old boy can muster and when it was all over asked, "can we watch the next one?"

Yes, I have now hooked my son on Star Wars and condemned him to a like of nerdiness. Very Sad, but life goes on.