However

A conversation in the car today:

Son:  Do Liopleurodons have gills?

Me:  No, honey.  Liopleurodons aren't fish.

Son:  I know that.  They do, however, have gills.

Me (trying hard not to laugh):  Well, no, you know they're reptiles.  They have to breathe.

Son:  Yes.  But they have gills.  Well, only the males have gills.  The females don't have gills.  Males are always more fancy.  They have gills on their hips.

...Sorry, I just had to write this down somewhere.  I love when he uses "however."  What the heck kind of 4-year-old talks this way?  Why are gills considered "fancy"?  Why on their hips?  By the end of this, I was really struggling not to laugh.  He doesn't appreciate being laughed at when he's being scientific, though.  It didn't help that shortly after this conversation, he wanted to sing that Sammy Davis, Jr., song "Candyman," and he suggested we sing it together by saying to me, "You be the men part, and I'll be the ladies part."  He then sang the part of the backup singers in an *extremely* high-pitched voice, at times coming dangerously close to what one might call a shriek.  God, I love the way he talks.  I've been videotaping him a lot lately, trying to just capture his normal speaking, because it's incredibly awesome.  Four years old is such a great age.  I keep telling my husband that I wish we could keep a copy of him at this age that would never grow up; the real him could go on growing, but we'd just have this one copy around who could go on wild tangents about gills forever.  *sigh*

On a related note, I've always wondered why males of the human species aren't the fancier sex.  Unless by "fancy" we simply mean, "not soaked in leaking breast milk."  In which case, I guess they are pretty fancy.