Mr. Resourceful

Most toys in the house are Cael's and he's well aware of this. He doesn't like Finn playing with his stuff and if he catches Finn in the act, things get nasty. In an effort to try and keep him from forcefully ripping toys out of Finn's mouth, I've explained to him that it's nice to share, but if he really wants Finn to give up whatever he's chewing on, it has to be replaced with another toy. Sharing is touch and go, but the exchange program seems to be working.

Finn was chewing on one of Cael's trains this afternoon and Cael got pretty upset. He started chanting something that I could not make out. He was very frustrated with me that I didn't know what he was saying and he kept repeating himself.

Finally, he gave me a disgusted look and left the room. He came back a few moments later with his Winnie the Pooh book. He held it up to me and pointed to Tigger on the cover, repeating the unintelligible word. He looked up at me like I was a few playing cards short of a deck when I said, "OH! Tigger!" If he knew the word "duh" I'm sure he would have used it. "You want Finn to chew on his stuffed Tigger instead of your train."

He sighed with relief that I had finally caught on and answered in the affirmative. I told him where Tigger was, he went to retrieve it and then made the exchange.

Once he had his precious train out of the grips of the slobber monster, he dropped it on the floor and went back to playing with his soccer ball.

The lengths we'll go to over a little indignation.