cake is good

i've started asking li to occupy himself quietly while i nurse fi down for her nap. a couple of weeks ago, i left him to play with trucks and playdough. he comes in the room, asking for leftover chocolate cake. i say yes, he can have it when i get up, thinking we'll split it. we go over this several times and then he leaves the room. then, i hear him opening the plastic container from the restaurant, helping himself to a fork while i continue to lull fi to sleep.

a few minutes later, he reappears with crumbs and frosting smears all around his mouth and he gingerly climbs on the futon next to me, keeping his sticky sweet hands in fists to prevent dirtying the sheets. "mama, i don't know where that cake is, i didn't see it." i suppress a laugh and ask what is all that chocolate on his face? he thinks a second and says, "well, that was there from all day". ha!

above is what i found after fi dozed off. i love the incompleteness of their attempts at deception at age 3.5; he has no thought of hiding the evidence, for example. perhaps this will be less amusing when he is older...