OK; I'm beginning to get a bit freaked out by my son.

 I wrote an entry a few days ago about his telling me that he used to live in Africa. I do believe in past lives, and I do believe that children tend to remember their past lives and then their memories tend to dissolve as they get older; however, I didn't really think much of the whole thing because it's never been presented to me within my own family! I'm truly beginning to wonder about Ian though, because his stories of Africa and his time there is getting very specific.

Saturday morning when we were leaving the house, he asked me about the rip in our screen door. I told him that I didn't know because, quite honestly, we were running behind schedule and I didn't want to have a long discussion about how Sean ripped the screen door when we moved in. Ian was quiet a moment after I responded to his question, and then he said, "I was living in Africa when Daddy ripped the screen door. It was, I think, 2 years after that I came here to live with you." Let me tell you, I about his the ground when he said that! He is exactly right: We moved in here December of 2001 and Ian arrived in early November of 2003 (but he was due December of 2003).

So, I decided to ask some very basic, general questions. What came out was this: He and Roo were living together but they were "bigger" (i.e. older). They didn't have parents or anyone to take of them so they decided they wanted to come here so that we would take care of them. They had no TV and no computer where they were living, and they weren't very happy. Interesting.

Today I went shopping with my mother, and when I came home I was putting a DVD in for Ian to watch. He says to me, "Mom, do you like people with brown skin?" I said, "Of course I do. I like people of all colors." He looked at me and said, "I didn't like it when I had brown skin. It felt weird and my hair felt funny. My hair was a different color too. Now I have white skin, and is this blond hair?"

After catching my breath I came out to the couch and retold the story to Sean. He then tells me that the whole ride home from the party yesterday he was talking about Africa. He told Sean that he and Reilly were 18 years old when they lived there, they lived together in a house, and that they had no bubblegum there, that some days he didn't eat anything at all, and that their water was "icky."

Um, really?