What Do You Want to Be When You Get Even Bigger?

Jack built this tower all by himself. I was somewhere else in the house while he worked and was surprised by this edifice. I asked him how he got the top blocks positioned and he said he stood on tippy-toes. We build towers every day. Thursday Jack told me that there was an earthquake the previous night that shook down our tower. Then he confessed that it was a "Jack earthquake." This tower got more turrets and some little people sitting in the various levels.

Thursday Jack asked me "what are you going to be, Nana, when you get even bigger"? I said I didn't know, and asked him what he thought I should do. "Fly airplanes, Nana. You should fly airplanes. I'm going to be a fireman when I get bigger."

When Greg came home, Jack asked him what he is going to do when he gets even bigger. Then Jack asked what Ripley is going to do when he gets bigger. When Greg asked Jack what he thought, Jack said, "He's going to be a dog teacher." "Is he going to teach dogs or people"? "He's going to teach dogs. He will teach them how to eat and how to rip up a sippy cup."

We have a library book about Frank the Firefighter. In it, Frank rescues a child and the dog Sparky rescues a kitten. On the next page, Sparky and the kitten are on a bed in the firehouse. Jack wants to know what happened to the child. We look through the book until I find a earlier page showing a family standing in their pajamas on the sidewalk. Ignoring the question why they are wearing pajamas in the daytime, I suggest that Frank gave the child back to his mother. Then Jack wants to know why they didn't give the kitten back too. The author of this book needed Jack to help with continuity and logic. Nearly every book that we read has issues like this. Machines are depicted without steps to climb up into the cabs. Is Jack just too observant or do authors underestimate kids?