This is a real life “creature adventurer,” and host with his brother, Martin, of several children’s television shows including Wild Kratts, Kratt’s Creatures, and Zoboomafoo . . . this is Chris.

This is a little boy who for the past 3 or so months, THINKS he is Chris.  TELLS you he is Chris.  BAWLS like a baby when you tell him he ISN’T Chris.

In all of his shows, Chris Kratt wears a green shirt.  So green is always always the color of choice for little “Chris.”  Heaven forbid his mom choose an outfit for a school day that doesn’t involve green; but after a major battle of wills, Mom usually wins as long as “Chris” can wear his “Wild Kratt boots” and have “Kratt hair.”  Never can anything be colored without a green crayon or marker.  It would be a terrible thing if “Chris” didn’t get his meal served on green dishes, and it’s quite disastrous if Owen has a green straw when “Chris” is forced to drink from a yellow one.  Because that would mean “Chris has to have green power, Owen can’t have green power, he isn’t Chris!!!!” and thusly the world would surely end.  (At least you’d think so sitting at our kitchen table.)

This little kiddo of ours loves to meet new kids at the park and other places so he can tell them his name is Chris.  He came home with a special book about his family he had made at school.  There was Mom, Dad, “me Chris” drawn in green, Owen, and “my other brother, Martin” which the teacher asked about, and I had to clarify.  He had a substitute teacher one day at school.  He came home with “Chris” written across the top of each of his papers.  He’s even gotten Owen to call him Chris several times.  On the off chance we convince him he isn’t REALLY Chris, Sam tells us he is going to be Chris when he grows up or he is “Samuel the Chris.”

Sometimes it’s funny.  Sometimes it’s cute and clever.  Sometimes it gets annoying.  Sometimes we wonder if we’re letting him take it too far and setting him up for future psychological damage and identity crises.  And by “him” I mean Samuel.  Not Chris.