saturday morning cale says 

"hey mom, we did auditions at school yesterday!"

what???

"what kind of auditions?"

"you know, mom, auditions... like audition and subtraction!"

ahhhhh... addition. got it. i didn't have the heart to correct him.

 it was too cute. 

then he says, "and i used my ruler. i find one number 

and then count to the other to get the right answer." 

clever. 

"did mrs. blackburn teach you how to do that little trick with your ruler?"

"no, mom, i did that myself!" 

later in the day he asked for us to write down some

 "auditions" for him to work on. so we did. 

and he worked. 

 i asked if he used his ruler trick this time, but he said he didn't.

"i didn't need my ruler, but i did use my brain just a little."

glad to hear it, you brilliant little man.