Cute Tai Story #1

Lately Tai has been watching lots of nature documentaries, as well as some documentary-like CGI shows called Walking with the Dinosaurs and Walking with the Prehistoric Beasts.  He himself has begun acting like a prehistoric beast, and often tries to involve his friends at school in his new interest ("hey, let's play walking with the beasts!")

These new shows have sparked discussions in our house about fiction, documentaries, and everything in between.  Tai now knows that The Sound of Music is based on a true story, but did not "really happen" the same way the footage in a documentary really happened.  And I think he understands that dinosaurs really lived, but that the scenes he sees in these new shows are not real dinosaurs, but computer generated images.

Last night, after dinner, Tai suddenly announced, "Come to the living room for a meeting!  Sit anywhere you want!"  So after Quynh finished eating her enormous dinner (growth spurt?) we all settled in and turned our attention to Tai.  He then proceeded to very thoughtfully debunk his friend's statement that she had seen the documentary Walking with Hello Kitty.  With his friend's name abbreviated for anonymity, his speech went something like this:

"One.  Is Hello Kitty really real in real life?"
"Two.  Documentaries are about real things."
"Three.  S says she has Walking with Hello Kitty....but that does not exist."
"Four.  S says she was not kidding."
"Five.  Dinosaurs were real, but Hello Kitty is not."
"Any questions or comments?"

Minh thoughtfully suggested that perhaps S was taking something she enjoyed playing and something Tai enjoyed and merging them together into one game.  But Tai insisted that was not the case.  Without actually saying it, he seemed to be mounting a case to prove that S was flat-out lying.  He also noted that S liked to play sweet things and he "only likes terrible things".