A three-year-old's logic

I hate to admit it, but I suspect one of the reasons that Jack loves his baby sister so much is that she has been bringing him toy trains constantly since before she was even born. When we first decided that we were going to give him trains as his present from the baby, we scoured Craigslist and eBay for good deals. As any Costco shopper knows, deals are usually found through buying in bulk. The end result was that we had a surfeit of trains to give him. Because we had so many, we ended up giving him a bunch too quickly.

We have created a monster. In a span of just over a couple of months, he has gone from having zero trains to having over 20. While he expresses gratitude to his baby for every new train she brings him, it's not very long at all before he asks when she is going to bring him a new one. We recently switched to having him earn his trains rather than just having the baby give them to him "because she loves you," but even so, he is always asking when he can have another one.

At this point, he has more trains than almost any other child I know. The big exception, however, are his friends, O & B. They definitely have more trains than Jack has, and Jack knows it. Today, we had a play date at their house.

On the ride home, Jack told me, "I will give Duck back to Baby."

"Why, Jack?" I asked.

"Because O & B don't have Duck, and then I will caught up to O & B."

I could see where he was going with this.

"But, Jack," I told him, "O & B don't have Donald and Douglas. Are you going to give Donald and Douglas back to Baby too?"

(Donald and Douglas are particular favorites of his.)

"No," he said, "I like Donald and Douglas. I will give O & B a Donald and Douglas, and then they will caught up to me.

"I will also give Baby back wooden Gordon," he continued, "because O & B don't have wooden Gordon. Then I will caught up to O & B."

I told Tom about this conversation, and he wasn't really sure what Jack's ultimate goal was. I explained that once Jack "caught up" to O & B by either giving them or returning the trains that he has that they don't have, he will feel justified in asking for all the trains that they do have that he doesn't have. In the interest of being all caught up.

It makes a certain sort of sense when you think about it. But I also think it's a little scary that I understood it perfectly right from the start.