Who is the fairest of them all

I was teaching Charlie "tall, tall-er, tall-est" today, and we were using our family as an example.  "Who's the tallest?" 

"Daddy!"

"Who's the shortest?" 

"Robbie!"

etc etc.  It backfired on me though, when we I got to "Robbie is short-er than you, and you are short-er than Jamie.   Silence.   So I repeated it.

"WHAAAAAA"

Apparently Charlie did not know he was shorter than Jamie.  I was flabbergasted, but should have known better... after all, this is the child who thinks he literally is The Hulk.   I measured both of them and then showed Charlie the difference, but he was more stubbornly convinced he was taller,  than a 15th century sailor was of a flat earth.    Jamie reacted with a roundhouse punch that knocked Charlie flat on his back.  "Could I have done that if you were bigger than me?"  Jamie asked.   Charlie paused for a second as Jamie helped him back up, and then philosophically agreed.   I mean how could he argue with that?   Crisis averted, friendship restored (although just FYI, he's still The Incredible Hulk). 

I'm not sure I'll ever understand how boys communicate.