The meaning of four

Lately, my son has been feeling his age.
Or at least, the limitations of it.

One reason that life with a 4-year-old is easier is that sometimes, you can actually reason with them. So it is, that I logically deal with questions that arise when my son wants to do something that he is not ready to do.

As my husband finished his reading of Harry Potter 7, my son asked for his chance to read. Then we explained that he couldn't read it yet, maybe when he turned 8 or 9.
And the Harry Potter movies? Not til he was much older.

Now he understands this hierarchy is inherent in everything in his life. G-rated movies are OK, but some PG movies are not OK to watch. And PG-13 is out of the question. (I think this distinction came up because the transformers movie is PG 13. Then I had to explain what that meant.)

He's passing along this vital lesson to all his stuffed animals, of course. He's had a chat with some of the animals, who have been designated as "babies."

Lectures run like this:
"Baby Elmo, you're only 2 years old, so you're still a baby and you can't watch Speed Racer. But when you turn 4, you can watch it."

One night, he brought out his big turtle toy to Daddy.
"Daddy, this turtle is 15, so he can watch the Harry Potter movies."
My husband couldn't agree more.