A philosopher's retort

Tobin can be a little impatient sometimes. I might attribute it to his age, but honestly, I know a lot of grownups who are less patient than he is. Still, I've tried to teach patience during walks (when he thinks he'll never catch up to Mama, who doesn't dawdle or play "kings on the mountain" like T does) and when building stacks of blocks to play with. He grasps the concept well and knows how to answer the question "How do you eat an elephant?" He'll confidently answer "One bite at a time."

I bridged to this question: "How do we catch up with Mama?" Again, a good answer: "One step at a time."

While we were eating yesterday, Tobin asked me the elephant question. I gave the stock answer. He frowned, then said something to this effect: "Yes, when the elephant is big I eat it one bite at a time. But sometimes the elephants are little and I can eat them all at once. So sometimes I eat little elephants in just one bite."

I can't argue with that.