Mastering the Art of Misdirection

Nicholas has gotten very good in the last few weeks at learning and memorizing the answers to a pretty broad range of factual questions, including both the practical and the, well, historical. For example, he now knows the answers to the following:

• Where does Mommy work?
• Where does Daddy work?
• In what state do we live?
• Where do Grandma and Grandpa live? (He sometimes mixes up the two states, but he usually has one or the other)
• A whole list of animal sounds, though at this point in a toddler's life that almost goes without saying.
• What does Uncle Brian say?
• Who is the President?
• Where does the President live?
• Who was the first President? (Okay, he occasionally just hears they keyword "President" and says "Obama," but if you call him on it he'll get to the right answer.)

He's also, however, learning how to play an audience. Yesterday we had a chance to see our friends Dave, Jess, and Sara, and Nicholas has a blast. But when we tried to show off his new skills, he at first seemed shy. Once he'd answered a few, though, and seen the reaction he could get, he started to give bad answers intentionally to get a reaction. So you'd get exchanges like this:

Us: "In what state do we live?"

N: "New York. . . . Noooooooo!"

Us: *laughter*

The root of the misdirection comes from a game we've played in the car some to kill time, most frequently with animal sounds (i.e., "Does a chicken say 'moo?'" "Noooo..." "Does a frog say 'moo?'" "Noooo...." etc.). But yesterday he clearly understood that he had an audience and could get a positive reaction from them by, well, messing with them.

You can understand, therefore, why I'm so proud.