drwex | I must speak about my child

Pygment calls Thing 2 her "little physicist" because he's always trying to find the boundaries of his universe, and then see if he can go past them. For example, we have a rule that when they get candy for dessert it's two pieces. EVERY SINGLE TIME, Thing 2 brings us 3 pieces that he wants, with some argument as to why, this time, three is OK. Not once, not occasionally, but Every. Single. Time. One day we're going to give in and let him have just one jellybean with his other two pieces and he is going to explode from sheer triumph.

This Sunday he comes to me and says, "Daddy, can I borrow your boken?"
Me: "What do you want that for?"
Him: "We're playing a game."
Me: "I cannot think of a single indoor game for which giving you a boken would be a good idea."
Him: "I'm not going to hit anyone with it."
Me: "Oh?"
Him: "I just want it for a staff so I can cast spells."
Me: "No."

There ensues the usual back-and-forth, during which he is reminded that he has a magic wand (insufficient), and in which he is offered a piece of foam tube (rejected as too small). No, he simply must have a staff.

Me: "No."

He walks away dejected. About 2 minutes later I see him heading upstairs with a 5' long iron rod...

Me: "Where did you get that?"
Him: "The garage."
Me: "What makes you think that an iron rod is an improvement on a hard wood stick?"
Him (dejected): "So I can't use it?"
Me: "No!"

He goes off to put the iron pole back in the garage. In less than two minutes, he's back... with a bamboo staff I've forgotten we had.

Me: Opens mouth to say something...
Him, very fast: "It's softer, see? Bamboo! And hollow! Can I use it, please?"
Me, laughing: "Yes, but please don't hit anything with it."

Pygment, as I said, is convinced he's going to be a physicist. I'm betting on lawyer, myself.