Facts and Rules

We had the pleasure of the little guy's company for a week and found that he's very interested in facts and rules. He really kept us on our toes--no easy generalizations for him. One day when it hit 94º, we didn't want him to play outside, partly, okay mostly, because neither of us wanted to play outside. I was telling him that it was summer and some days were very hot. He said, "Is it really summer? Does the calendar say it's summer?" I said, "No, that day is 3 days away." He said, "So, actually, it's still spring." Not a question--a definite statement. What could I say? I said, "Yes." One aunt has started making soft pretzels from scratch with him whenever she visits. They had mixed up the dough and she told him to spread some flour on the counter. With a very dubious look, he did it. Then she told him to dump the dough out onto the flour. Clearly concerned about the mess, he said, "Oma and Opa aren't going to like this!" He got another snake at the museum and, since they're pretty generic, he wanted to decide what kind of snake it was. We reviewed the snake pages in the reptile book and when he chose, the most important fact was whether or not it was venomous. Which he pronounces better than I do. When Opa teasingly said he thought the chameleon and salamander were pretty much the same thing, he got a mini-lecture: "The chameleon is a reptile and can camouflage. The salamander is an amphibian and can't." Got it, Opa? We're trying to be more specific, but it's difficult. We don't know as many facts as he does.