The Hard Questions

I took my girls to a diner for lunch. I was in the mood for a grilled cheese sandwich and we had no bread left in the house. They are at a stage where they are asking a ton of questions and giving out a lot of unsolicited information.
"Mom, do you know what french fries are made of? Say what?" (They tell me how to answer their questions.)

I say, "what?"

Carter says, "Potatoes. They cut the big potatoes into little sticks and they become french fries."

"Mom where does salt come from? I think it comes from sugar."

I do my best to try to explain that salt is a mineral (is it?) and that it is a part of our earth, that the ocean is filled with salt water. They are listening but are thinking in their own minds their own ways of understanding the words I am saying.

"Is there pepper in the ocean?"
"I think the fish eat it and it makes them sneeze."
"I think the jellyfish eat it too, but it's too spicy, they only like kid foods that are not spicy, not grown-up foods that are spicy."

"Mom where does the sun come from?"

I think my brain is pretty slow today because I cannot think how to explain this to a three year old child. I tell her it's in outer space at the center of our solar system. God only knows what this means to her because her next question is,

"Do we push the sun in the center of the solar system?"
I tell her that no, we can't touch the sun because it is too hot. We can't even get too close to the sun.

Our food comes and I watch my daughters eat their entire kids meals. One ate a giant burger, one a giant hot dog. Both ate all their fries and drank all their milk. I could not eat all my sandwich, even though it was EXACTLY what I was looking for. As we walk out of the restaurant, Katie asks me,

"Mom, what are hot dogs made of?"