Nail Clippers Guessing Game

I always marvel at how different my oldest two boys are. For example, we took JayJay and Max to see the movie Brave while it was in theater. When the part with the scary bear came on, JayJay cuddled up against my man and whimpered with fear. He was four at the time. On the other hand, two-year-old Max jumped out of his seat and shouted, "Bear! Yeah! ROAR! ROOOAAARRRR!!!!!"

Well, their differences were recently demonstrated for me again.

JayJay had something in his hand. He hid his hands behind his back and asked me to guess which hand he was holding the object in. Luckily, I guessed right the first time. So he hid his hands again and instructed me to guess again. I guessed the other hand and was correct. We went through this process over and over. Each time I guessed right since JayJay kept switching hands back and forth. Not once did he keep the object in the same hand twice. He finally gave up.

"Wow, Mom!" he said. "You're really good!"

He was very impressed with my guessing skills and I was feeling pretty smug about myself. I love having my boys think I am Superwoman.

A few days later I sent Max upstairs to fetch some nail clippers so I could trim his toenails. After a while he returned.

"I have the nail clippers, Mom," he said. He hid his hands behind his back and said, "Guess which hand."

I guessed a hand. Wrong. He hid his hand again. I guessed the other hand. Wrong. He hid his hand. I guessed the same hand twice. Wrong. Over and over again I guessed wrong, no matter what tricks I tried to catch him with the clippers in the hand I guessed.

Finally, when I guessed wrong again, he kept his empty hand held out in front of him. "Guess the other one," he said.

So I guessed the one hand still hiding behind his back. He brought it out and opened it to show me his palm. "Nope! See? Nuffing!"

Yep, he didn't even have the nail clippers. He had me guessing just so he could give me the run-around. That's pretty sophisticated humor for a three-year-old. I certainly don't feel quite so smug anymore.