Morning comes before afternoon.

Is it still morning?

My son asks this question several times on a weekend.  I think he asks it because he wants to ensure that there is still plenty of time off left.  Yesterday, when I told him that no, now it was actually afternoon, he burst into tears. His timekeeping is confined to morning, afternoon and night time(to be put off and denied as long as possible).

He also asks each morning.  Where am I going today?  If the answer is, "you are staying home with us", he's delighted.  He surprised me today when I said, "no, today is Sunday, you'll stay here today".

He replied, "Oh, okay, and yesterday was Saturday, right?"  I have grown accustomed to his 4 year old elastic rules of time logic. For example, when he says "I did that last week." He means, I did that "sometime before now".  However. the elastic band is slowly being pulled taut around the face of the clock and a lot of knowledge about time is being crammed into that rubber band enclosure. He's resisting it, but by this time next year, after months of chiming the date with his little classmates, the transition to standard time will almost be complete.  The band will snap into place.

Saturday is the day before Sunday.  Morning comes before afternoon.What was once utterly fluid is hardening in the morning air.