JACOB AND THE BUS EXCHANGE

 This isn't so much funny as it is clever.  You'll get a kick out of it.

Jacob is short.  Jacob is 3 years old.  Jacob is intelligent.  

There's floor to ceiling book shelves in the family room that hold not only books but DVDs, containers of techno-entertainment accessories like cords & chargers, and yellow Minion banks. There's you-should-dust me pretties, totes of toys, and just lately, Christmas vignettes with red signs, Rudolph, and a yellow school bus.  The vignettes are sitting over 5 feet high, so how Jacob saw that little school bus, I'll never know.

But he did.

He said, "Ipad.  I want."  Ipad is me, he hasn't yet mastered saying GrammyPam.  "I want" was him pointing upwards to the school bus.  

"John, do you care if he plays with your bus ornament?"  It was, after all, a gift from the the administration of the school where he drives bus #24.  He doesn't care.

I hand it to Jacob.

I sit down at the table to finish my hand of Euchre.

Jacob comes to me, and again, points to an ornament.  This time it's Lilly's and he knows it's Lilly's.  Lilly is his older sister and he knows he can't have it.  But it's just too irresistible.  It's a lantern with a handle and a sweet Christmas tree in the center.  Push the top button, it lights up, it sings 3 Christmas songs.   Push the bottom button, a train lights up, and it whistles, "Whoo-hoo-hooooo!"

He hands me the school bus.  Intrigued, I take it.  He points to the hook holding the lantern.  Thinking he wants his school bus to hang there with the rest of them, the train, the car, a hammock, and a snowman, I loop the gold thread over the hook.

He does a little impatient 2-step with his legs, continues to point to the hook, making unhappy noises.

"I want.  I want."

"You want this?"  and I offer him the bus back.

"NO!" he shakes his head vehemently, looking downward.

Out of curiosity, I slide the lantern handle over the hook leaving behind the bus.  I'm thinking maybe he didn't want two ornaments to share the same hook.

BUT, he reaches for the lantern now in my hand.  He double nods his head "yes", takes it, and runs away.

The little minx!  I've been duped.  

He didn't want the bus!  He wanted to exchange a worthy replacement.  It was a clever plan of action!  Thought out and executed!

By George, by golly, I've been had by a 3 year old!