He Tried... to... trick... me (Vignette)

I'm taking Kenshin to his morning class. He's hanging up his coat and school backpack. Suddenly, he pauses and looks up at me. He says, almost under his breath, "Mrm." (He frequently does this when he's conflicted or thinking about something.) He pauses a bit more, unzips his bag a fraction, then pauses again. "Mrm," he repeats to himself, rocking slightly on the balls of his feet. He starts to reach into his backpack, then stops. My son looks up at me again with his cute, cherubic face and says, "You go over that way." Kenshin points behind me, out of the cubbyhole and coat hook area. He doesn't want me to see what's in his backpack. I narrow my eyes and glance at the slightly opened bag. There's a DVD case inside: "Little Einsteins" (one of his favourite shows). The little so-and-so has smuggled a DVD to school. I gently take the DVD out of the backpack and hold it up while I look at Kenshin. "Are you allowed to take DVDs to school?" "No," he says, quietly. I put on my serious face, "No DVDs at school. I'm going to bring this back home." He looks cheerful, "OK." It's both a little sad and a little heartening that he's learned to try to "fool" his Daddy. He knows he's doing something wrong and he knows he will be punished or at least rebuked for it. At the same time, he still wants the pleasure of carrying around the object (I don't think he has any conception of actually watching the DVD at school, I think he just wants to hold it, as he does sometimes at home) and he knows that if I don't catch him, he might get away with it. He's done things like this before, but usually not so boldly.

Well, that at least exhibits a sense of self and awareness of other... I guess.