Should we start browsing patterns now?

After his shower this morning, Izzy comes proudly strutting back in the bathroom to show me his cool outfit. "Very nice," I told him. "You look very handsome."

"I picked out all blue," he told me. He's wearing an adult's size small Earth Day t-shirt in navy blue, navy blue shorts, bright blue sandals, and a black pirate hat. I asked him if he realized his hat was black. "Yes," he said, "But it has pirates on it. And I like black hats." But of course.

Then he says, "Mom, when I get married will I get some Chinese things like you have?" I very confusedly asked, "What Chinese things?"

I have some Asian-inspired artwork that I was unpacking this morning, so I'm thinking that might be what he's meaning.

He says, "You know, those Chinese things in the box?" I said with more inflection, "WHAT Chinese things??"

Most irritably he yells, "You know those Chinese things! In the box that you have!" I tell him he'll have to show me, so I follow him to the kitchen. He goes right up to the counter, peers over, and says, "Where'd they go? They were right here." He starts looking all around the kitchen, as do I, hoping to figure out what he's wanting.

I then tried a different tactic: "Tell me what they look like," I say.

"They have blue stripes and white, and they're round and they have holes in them?," he says.

As I look around, trying to think what I own that's round and blue and white striped, it hit me: I unpacked my china a couple of days ago. It hadn't been out of the boxes since we'd received it seven years ago last weekend as wedding presents. But also last weekend we bought a small display cabinet to finally put it in, so at long last it was unpacked.

In fact, Izzy and Sophie had brought blankets and pillows and laid in the dining room floor while I unpacked all the presents and polished the crystal with vinegar.

So I pointed towards the cabinet and said, "Do you mean my china?"

"Oh yes," he said happily, "There it is! Will I get some when I get married?"

Perhaps that is a strange thing for a four-year old boy to be wondering about. Just maybe our goal to raise a sensitive son has suceeded beyond our wildest dreams. Or maybe this gorgeous china was just too much to resist: