So my eldest daughter is, and has always been a chatter bug. Even at the age of five, she was smart and extremely talkative. Science and nature are her thing, and she has continuously stumped me with questions like
"do you know what the largest cat in the world is?"
Of course I replied "lion", to which she proudly said "nope".
What is it then you might ask, well she told me it was a Liger.
I explained to her that making up animals doesn't count and she should look it up and see what really is the largest cat. She told me that she had, and it is in fact a Liger and the largest on record was named 'Hercules'.
I looked it up and sure enough she was right.
This conversation happened when she was about 9, but even at 5 she was doing this to me and although I never thought of myself as 'smart', I surely did not think that my own child would be stumping like this at such a young age.
Now I tell you this as an example of one instance, but as the title reads, I crushed her world when she was 5.
We were in the car, and she was rambling on about the sun. Spitting out all the facts she had just learned about in a book her mom was reading her. I was tired, driving, yessing her as the facts came at me, and did I mention I was driving.
I finally couldn't take it any more, she just kept going on and on, so I asked her if she knew the secret of the sun.
She did not, and I proceeded to explain to her how one day the sun would get really hot, so hot it will burn everything on the planet and then after this blazing event, it would lose its warmth and the planet would then freeze, ending all life.
She was finally quiet.
I looked in the rearview to see her staring at the back of my head in bewilderment and then piping up with a meek and soft, "really?".
"yes", I answered.
Ahhh, finally she was quiet, and after a minute or so passed I looked in the mirror and saw her staring at me with tears in her eyes. I felt bad of course, but before I could think of anything to say to try and ease the shock of her new knowledge, she excitedly asks "can we get ice cream?"
So before we headed home, we stopped for ice cream and all was once again well in her little 5 yo universe.
