Daddy’s note: One day on a drive home, Patrick began spewing forth his views of the universe. This is an account of his version of the Earth, the stars and the planets. I don’t know where he learned it, but I swear that this is what came from his mouth, at age 4, verbatim (or close to it.) I had to pull the car over and transcribe it as he dictated from the back seat.

The earth is in space. And it looks like spinning circle. And it goes round and round like this [waiving his hand in the air.] The sky is blue and the water is blue sometimes. Oh and grass is green. The sun is yellow and pink, and that’s what’s hot on my skin.

Stars live behind the circle spinning planet. It has a circle spinning thing that pinches you and then you climb on it and you slide on it when you are a robot.

In the daytime there are clouds. But not today because they are all over there at our cabin [pointing.] When you have snowflakes in the clouds in the sky and you have mountains, you get snow!