Being Piagetian* Again

The boys requested that I cover them with a blanket. I obliged, using this afghan lovingly hand-crafted by my MIL, and which, despite not being anything like a pink girl, I love – it’s a throwback to my childhood and all the stuff my gran and my mum crocheted. My gran, who taught me to knit, and practically stood on her head trying to understand what little lefty me was doing with those needles! But never once did she suggest I do it the “right” way.

Anyway.

So there they all are, covered with the blanket, giggling and squirming and generally being adorable. I recognize a blog-worthy photo op. when I see one, and race for the camera.

I stand before the giggling blanket with the camera. Suddenly, the wriggling stops and from the blanket comes a unified chorus:

“CHEESE!!”

Heeheeheeheehee….

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*Children at this age are solidly in the middle of the time when it is very difficult for them to understand the world from any perspective but their own. Piaget noted this first – not that parents throughout the milennia hadn’t twigged to it already – but Piaget was the one who gave it a scientific name (the egocentrism of the Pre-Operational phase) and stuck it in a neat developmental framework. They say “cheese” because they can see me with the camera, and not a one of them realizes that I can’t see them. Not a one.