With kids, sometimes, the problem isn’t getting straight answers, it’s getting relevant answers.

For example, I’ve been trying to get our oldest son to be a little more observant. At dinner each evening, we discuss what we did during the day. Usually, these are fairly awkward discussions, as C still occasionally gets “past” and “present” confused. If I ask if he went swimming, he’s just as likely to say “hooray! Let’s go swimming!” as he is to answer.

The other night, however, we had a pretty good discussion. That day, they had all gone to McDonald’s for lunch and to play in the playground. He was telling me all about it, when he mentioned that he met another boy there and that they had played together.

“Oh yeah?” I said, “What did he look like?”

“Ummmm….”

“Did he have brown hair or yellow hair?” We haven’t gotten to the word “blonde” yet.

“Um… yellow hair.”

“Was he tall or short?”

“He was, he was… He had two eyes.”

“Huh?”

“Yup, and two arms and two legs and a nose and a mouth,” he was picking up steam now, “and two hands and two feet and…”

“So he looked just like you?” I interrupted.

He thought about that for a second and then nodded. “Yep. Just like me. And just like you, too!”

True.