In Which Thing 2 Unknowingly Re-Enacts a Calvin & Hobbes Cartoon

I know there's at least one person out there who wants more Thing 1 and Thing 2 stories, so this is for you...

Last night I was reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Thing 2 (Thing 1 now reads to himself; he'd just stalk the room when I was reading, which did not make for peace in the household). Thing 2 is not as attentive as I might like -- he's five and finds it hard to sit still for two nanoseconds at a time -- but I think he's mostly listening. Well, at least some of the time. And I do try to keep him quiet, so that he's potentially listening.

Anyway, he's also playing with various toys around his room, though I can usually see that he's got his head cocked towards me, so I'm getting at least a fraction of his attention. (Have you guessed yet that I'm paranoid about the are-you-listening-to-me thing?) But then he picks up a red sports car, and starts talking about jumping the Grand Canyon. The car jumps once safely (all the way across the room), but falls on the return trip. Thing 2 says something about the driver trying to jump out, but it's too late -- and I'm getting a gigantic feeling of deja vu.

So, when I get him into bed, I head down here to the basement and start poking through The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, Vol. 1 (which I've been reading at the computer, off and on, over the past week or two). I finally found the above cartoon: February 15, 1987 (a good thirteen-and-a-half years before Thing 2 was born, mind you). The details aren't completely identical, but it's very close. (I couldn't find this strip online, but I made this very bad scan myself so you can get the idea.)

There is only one possible explanation. My younger son -- the normal one -- is actually Calvin. (Which means his invisible friend May, about whom I haven't heard much lately, is Hobbes.)