Just the Facts

It appears we can no longer get away with telling the little white lies that we occasionally use to dissuade Grafton from activities that are, well, inconvenient for his parents.

For example, take the other day when Grafton asked his Dad for another cup of milk. Now we were practically out of milk. I mean there were a few gulps left in the gallon jug. But I knew it wasn't much, and hardly enough to warrant me getting up from my comfortable perch on my recliner. So I told Grafton plainly, "sorry, there's no more milk, we finished it."  In the past he would have taken this at face value, and maybe complained a bit, but then would let it go. But on this particular day, Grafton was not ready to accept what his father had told him. He explained that he was going to check if we had more milk and headed up to the kitchen. He proceeded to open the fridge, found the nearly empty jug of milk, took it out and placed it on the counter, and then started yelling down to me, "Daddy, we have milk! Look Daddy, we have more milk! I want the rest of the milk!" (well, something close to that). So Dad was forced to concede that indeed there was remaining milk, and got up to pour the precocious little boy another half cup of milk.

Later that same day, we were at the Commons eating burritos for dinner outside on a patio area, near the Odyssey bookstore. After finishing up, Grafton asked if we could go into the bookstore. As the evening was moving on quickly, we knew we had to get home soon to get Grafton bathed and ready for bed. So we told Grafton that we thought the store was closed. We actually believed this to be the case, but did not know for sure, and figured it was likely enough to be closed that it wasn't worth proving this to Grafton. But there was no need for us to provide this proof. Upon getting up from his seat, Grafton announces that he was going to go see if the store was still open, and runs over to the door. Finding that the door was still open, we hear him calling back at us, "It's open! The bookstore is still open! Come inside!" So, once again, our little Fact Checker showed us the importance of verifying one's assertions, and in this case was awarded to a reading of "Curious George".

Tonight, driving home from the Arguins, Grafton was singing a single verse of a song from Mary Poppins. He was getting most of the words wrong, but that's the way he liked to sing it. We tried to correct him, slowly repeating the words as we understood them to be. But he refused to accept our version, telling us "That's not how it goes." Having placed some doubt in our minds, Mom and Dad began debating what the words might actually be. Grafton, hearing our discussion, interjected, "We can look it up on the computer."