When I called home last week, my wife was taking our 3-year-old to task for having written all over the wall using his pencil. From her monologues however, I could understand that her corrective efforts were clearly falling on deaf ears. To ease tension in the atmosphere, I decided to do my bit to help my wife and asked to be put on speaker. Without realizing what the little fellow had been up to I tried to sound serious and said that if he continued his exercises on the wall like this, then we may soon have to paint it. Without batting an eyelid he quipped back "OK Dad! Let's paint the wall". I was not sure if this reply was an acknowledgement of parental authority or if it had been one of his many spontaneous ways of retaliation. It was at this moment that my wife came to my rescue and made me aware of my folly. It all became clear then.
While the admonishing was going on, our son had been playing with his box of water colours. The little rascal it seems, was now roguishly looking at the wall, holding a colour dipped brush in his hand and a mischievous wide smile on his face.
