Today, I had the sincere pleasure of watching our friends' son, Graham.  Please imagine the sweetest little boy in blonde ringlets this side of the ocean.

We started out the day looking through cupcake books over sippy cups of cranberry cocktail juice (special thank you to Heather Cromack &amp; Beth Castellano for the cupcake books!).  After picking out our absolute favourite cupcake recipes, we moved on to playing with his oversized tractor toy &amp; my collection of beat-up Hot Wheels.  Then we went outside to (first) play football (aka soccer), (second) play American football, (third) to look for lizards.  We found about thirty lively lizards as they are everywhere in Italy and scurry out of your walking path with each step; we also found one that looked it had been attacked (by a feral cat, maybe?).  It was actually very beautiful with skin of various shades of blue (half-peacock, half-lizard, 100% dead).  It was at this point in the morning, three hours into our time together, that I found myself answering the tough questions: "What happened to him?  Why isn't he moving?"  It wasn't even lunch and I was already asked to explain life &amp; death.  I pried Graham away from the lizard remains and we took a tour of the grounds, including the herb garden, and came inside for lunch.  One-and-a-half sandwiches, one carrot, a box of raisins, one cup of goldfish crackers, two glasses of juice, and a 1/4 of a cantaloupe later and we were back in the playing business.

We did the dishes.  We chased the cats.  Out came the crayons and paper.  I brought out some colouring books too, only to find that the last of our books were a touch on the feminine side.  Okay, okay...so they were completely princess scenarios, which Graham was not keen on.  We did just fine with plain white paper and him asking questions at every change in colour.

"What are you drawing?"
"A mountain scene."
"Why are you drawing THAT?"
"I was thinking about that place we camped at last month."
"Why are you drawing a volcano??"  (I thought I was drawing a second mountain...but okay, volcano.)
"I don't know."
"I went to a volcano...!"
"Really?  Vesuvius or Pompeii?"
"Uh..."  (It came to me a bit late that he is three &amp; probably wouldn't know which he'd seen.)
"Did you like it?"  (nice recovery)
"No, no, no, no, no, no."
"Oh."
(He seemed worried what I thought of him not liking the volcano &amp; changed his mind.)
"Oh no!  I DID like it!!"

Three year olds definitely have a way of keeping you on your toes, testing out your adult game.  Graham asked if I had kids (not yet); why we had princess colouring books, crayons, &amp; Hot Wheels (some were from having my niece stay for the weekend, the crayons I use for fun, &amp; I told him the princess stuff was Stephen's.  Muah-ha-ha...); why I had such a big belly; and my personal favourite: where babies come from.  Yikes, kid.  How about a video...?

In went "The Incredibles" until Graham stated his disinterest and we moved on to 1940s Superman cartoons.  These seemed a little too mature for Graham, so I quickly swapped them out for "Charlie &amp; Lola."  British cartoons = winner!  He was mesmorised.  When his Dad came to pick him up, I was so bummed to lose my play buddy.  Sent him home with snacks, our toy cars, and three discs of "Charlie &amp; Lola."  Come back soon, Graham!