The Law Offices of Costello & Costello

Jamie, we think, has the makings of a fine litigator. He has an astonishingly long memory and, in cases where it serves his interests, his 4-year-old mind can be almost preternaturally logical. When, for instance, we are asking him to do certain tasks and offering a reward for doing them or a punishment for not doing them, he listens very carefully to the terms of the offer, often looking for loopholes. He is also very much inclined towards making deals. Dinner often becomes a site for negotiation: "If I eat 2 broccolis, 1 piece of chicken and all my avocado can I be done?" It can get very complex, but whatever deal has been struck he remembers it to the letter.

But one of his main skills is the search for precedents. He forces us to be very consistent in the application of rules, because id we have ever bent in the past he will remember it. This can sometimes be a little embarrassing. One thing Jamie likes to do is eat anywhere other than a table. A particular favorite is the couch. Seemingly food tastes better if it can be dropped behind the cushions or onto the rug. When Sarah told him recently to that we must always eat at the table because that is good manners, he quickly responded, "But Daddy ate breakfast on the couch yesterday!" Ouch.