OLibya

I never had to contemplate before the challenges of explaining war to a young child. And with a husband who will be deploying next season, I guess I can't just change the subject or flip to the Nick Jr. channel to distract.

I still don't know what all the answers are when he points to the war guns on the news and asks if those are the bad guys. Quite honestly, I don't even know who the bad guys actually are anymore in these recent battles (don't get me started!). And this is a dilemma that an Army wife just has to figure out on her own when her 3-year old asks these questions.

But on the way to daycare this morning, NPR was updating the events in Libya and Aidan suddenly got excited, repeating "Alibia, alibia!". Since it was only two days ago that I was trying to get him to properly pronounce Nick Jr.'s pig cartoon "Olivia", I knew he thought the radio story was about Olivia the cartoon pig.

Hmmm...(insert day dream noise effects here)

This is the BBC Radio News Hour. Special forces just completed a successful peace operation over Libyan rebel strongholds. We've been told that Special Agent Olivia pirouetted from a chopper and stunned leaders with her dance of awe. All rebels, pilots, and allies were so impressed that they've promised to restore world peace as long as Olivia and her cat Edwin perform weekly entertainment.

Back to reality. In the meantime, I will just have to work on my toddler-explanations of what is going on in the world -- all while watching a Nick Jr. Olivia marathon.