Is it real?

On a recent trip to Fernbank, Juniper met the museum's Santa-saurus. She was entranced. She petted it, hugged it, put her head in its mouth, and tried to figure out the nature of its existence.

Juniper: Is it real?

Aaron: What do you think?

Juniper: Well, at first I didn't think it was real. But then it sat down, so I think it's real.


She is very interested in determining whether or not things are real. We have clarified that superheroes are not real, jellyfish are real, and dinosaurs were real but are no longer living. She recently informed Aaron that, "the problem with superheroes is that they aren't real." They talked for a while about characters and fiction and how things don't have to be real to be good. She took it all in and then asked whether or not zombies are real. After Aaron told her that they aren't real, she thought about it for a minute and then told him that they are real, because she saw them at the DragonCon parade. He explained that the zombies at the parade were just people in zombie costumes, like she sometimes wears a costume. She thought about that for a bit, and then asked him which part of the DragonCon parade is the scary part.

"I don't think there is a scary part," he replied.

"But Ms. Paula said there was a scary part."

"Did you think there was a scary part, or was it just fun?"

"It was just fun."


In a separate conversation, she announced that when she grows up, Batman will be real, because she's going to be Batman.