Favoritism

Lately, John has begun exploring the world of different outcomes, particularly since these differing outcomes can come as the result of answers to questions. Like the kind of questions children ask their parents.

Eric and Joyce function as a team, but John has learned that one of these parents is a softie, and one is, well, Officer Hardass. John is beginning to ask one parent a question, and if he doesn't like the answer, he will ask the other. In the beginning, this was a 50/50 proposition, and John would ask whichever parent was handy. Lately, though, he's begun seeking out the softie, and avoiding Officer Hardass.

This weekend, however, presented a new wrinkle for Burrito -- the absense of one parent. John and Eric were on their own last weekend, as Joyce was in New York enjoying a much-deserved break. The boys had fun, getting some work done around the house and playing outside in celebration of weather that is just far too good for Virginia in November. Occasionally, though, John got the sort of ideas that 4-year-olds get, and he would communicate them as in these examples:

Eric: What do you want for breakfast?
John: How about candy?
Eric: No, that's not breakfast. Cereal is breakfast. A cereal bar is breakfast.
John pauses for a second, then asks: When will Mom be home?
Eric: Not in time for breakfast!

Eric: John, do not jump from the chair to the couch. I've asked you before not to do that.
John: Sorry.
John: When will Mom be home?