Another one bites the dust

There was an age before which Michael pretty much only told the truth. Ask him a question and you got the answer. Did you draw on the wall with the orange marker? Yes. No pause, no trying to figure out whether he was going to get in trouble, no brainstorming for the right answer. Not sure when it ended but now he's six and those days seem long in the past.

Joshua on the other hand has been a bit more sensitive to the idea that the truth can get you in hot water sometimes. He hasn't really been a fibber, but he has had more of an I'm-going-to-plead-the-Fifth-on-that appreciation of life than Michael ever did at this age (3 1/2). But I think he's getting the hang of how to respond to cross-examinations. Yesterday he was in the bath with Matthew and I was helping Michael do homework on the living room floor. I heard Matthew complain about something Joshua was doing, and went in to check it out. Matthew had clearly had a cup of water dumped over his head and wasn't happy about it.

Me: Joshua, did you dump a cup of water over your brother's head?

Joshua: [Long pause] Which brother?

The old question-with-a-question routine. And so it begins...