Sven has the Flu

This might be Sven's first flu. Last week he had a cold, but yesterday he woke up coughing like crazy. I thought it was bronchitis from the cold, but during the day, he developed a fever, lost his appetite (a good indication that something is wrong), and kept wanting to pretend he was a sleeping cat.

Last night he was scared by the symptoms. He started crying because his limbs were aching. His eyes were so watery that he couldn't see me very well. This also alarmed him.

Today, we've been watching movies and reading books. We started reading the Visual Companion to the "Fellowship of the Rings" movie. Afterwards, Sven said "I'm an elf and you're a girl elf. But only boy elves have bows and arrows." When I asked why, Sven said "Girl elves don't like weapons. They only like peace." But since he is a boy elf, he is running around playing Legolas, when his runny nose doesn't get him down.

Boys / Girls - how does that get determined?

Sven is creating all sorts of theories about how the world works. Recently he has been interested in what causes a baby to be a boy or girl.

First, he tried the theory that a baby becomes a boy if the parents give it a boy name. But when we told him that the opposite was true, i.e. a boy is given a boy name because it is already born a boy.

A day later he said "I know how a baby becomes a boy or girl. If the Mommy eats lots of food when the baby is growing inside, it is a boy because boys are bigger." Not a bad theory.