Alex Is Way Too Smart

I had a learning moment as a mother the other day. We went to McDonald's for lunch. Alex was extremely excited because they had new Batman toys for the happy meals. So we went and ate and he got his awesome toy. Well, a few hours later, after playing with the toy A LOT, it stopped working correctly. Alex was heartbroken. He asked if we could go get a replacement for it. I told him maybe if we were out later that night, we could stop by and ask them. Well, we were out later that night, but forgot to bring the broken one with us. I decided to go ahead and try anyway. We went to the counter and I explained that we had gotten a toy earlier that day. I told them it broke and we had thrown it away. (We had not yet thrown it away, but planned to once we got the replacement.) They had no problem giving us a replacement. But as we were leaving, Alex said, "Mom, why did you lie to them?" Taken aback, I asked him what he meant. He said, "Well, you told them that we threw the toy away, and we didn't. Why would you tell them that?" WOW! I said a lot of "um's" and "well, uh", but told him he was right, that it was an actual lie I had told. I tried explaining to him, but told him I was really happy that he could recognize that it was wrong.

I forget that I really have to watch what I do and say now. Alex is so smart and such a good boy. He is so good to me when I'm having a really bad day or am upset. Just tonight, he made sure we sat down and had a little talk about our feelings. It's so sweet that he is always so concerned about the well-being of every member of our family. Sweet boy!