So our neighbors have a daughter that plays with our daughter quite a bit.  And they have a son who follows her here.  He's 4, loves dinosaurs, is more distractable than a flea, and more than anything would like some attention.  He does not want to play house.  Or dress-up.  Or babies.  He does not want to 'be the kitty'. He *does* want to play... his game, his way, on his timetable... in other words, now.  No now this.  Now this over here.  Now that. 

At first he focused on my son.  But... my son is nine, and can focus better than most adults I know.  And does.  This makes him *incredibly* boring to a 4 year old.  So I was next.  Only I kept doing things like cleaning, or cooking, or other mommy things while oohing and aahing over his dinosaur stories, and really, that only works for so long.  Especially when you're 4.  So it was back to the girls. Unfortunately, this is where we began to run into the troubles many 4 year olds have when things aren't going their way... hitting, and not listening.  So, we've had to establish some ground rules, and sometimes, we've had to send him home.  He tried walking out the door, turning around, and knocking again.  That didn't work.  So he tried wallking all the way to the sidewalk and coming back.  No dice.  Eventually, he made it the whole way up the street. 

Now, whenever he comes over, we remind him of the rules.  He cannot hit and he has to listen the first time, or he'll have to go home.  We're not sure how much of this he gets, but he's been doing better lately.

So yesterday, the kids were outside with my husband, and down he came, following his sister.  So my husband said, "Okay, you need to remember the rules.  No hitting, and you have to listen the first time, or you're out of the game." 

To which the little guy replied...

"I like football." 



Yeah.  I like football too, kiddo.