Genevieve is deep into astronomy – "space" – right now. She’s devouring book after book on topics astronomical, and will walk up to me at random times to disgorge some new fact, like how Saturn’s moon Titan is the likeliest spot in the solar system to host life), or how one asteroid has its own moon. The fact that the universe that she’s learning about right now is so radically different from the one I learned about at her age is startling. I mean, the demotion of Pluto to "dwarf planet" status isn’t even the half of it!
Despite those changes, the seventh planet from the sun still has a funny name, and I’v been waiting for Vivi to realize this. Naughty funny, especially in our G-rated house, but funny anyhow. The other day, I was sure the cat had escaped from the outer-planet bag, because she whispered to me that she had realized why Uranus’s name was funny. "Uh, oh," I thought. "Yes! The name is funny because if you say it slowly, it sounds like ‘urine is.’ Funny, right?"
Yes, very.