Past weekend Niklas asked me, if I would allow him to watch cartoons on YouTube. I said yes. As soon as one of the episodes I put for him ended, he requested to start the next one. I was just finished with my shower and asked him to give me five minutes before fulfilling his request.
“But five minutes is very much! This is this much!” Niklas spread the fingers on one of his hands.
In that moment I recalled that he shows a spread palm, when he wants to express a large amount, and that “A LOT” is demonstrated by stretching all fingers on both hands and exposed palms.
I love being challenged by my wonderful boy. Well, at least most of the time. He definitely keeps my brain in regular exercise.
After a short contemplation, I said, “You are right, if you show like this (I repeated his gesture with an open palm and five-fingers spread), this means five. But five minutes are not as long as five hours. If I would say ‘five hours’, then you would have to wait way until after lunch. And if I would tell you to wait five days, you would need to sleep five times until watching.”
Niklas narrowed his eyes, looked at me thoughtfully, then straightened his shoulders and declared, “Then I want to watch YouTube (pronounced “NuTube”) in five minutes and in five hours!”
You probably can guess my answer to this. Yes. Laughter, amazement at his resourcefulness and agreement.
Picture: My resourceful, sweet, quirky boy.
