Somebody's Lying ...

Lately, fibbing at our house has accelerated to an all-time high!  Of course, I'm talking about my 2 young sons.  For whatever reason, the two of them have been bickering constantly (perhaps because for the past week, school has been out and they have suddenly been thrust into one another's company 24/7).  A typical argument goes something like this:

Son #1:  "Mom, he pushed me." 
Son #2:  "Nuh-uh! I did not push him!"

You could insert either boy's name in either the #1 or #2 slot at any given time.  You could also substitute "hit", "tripped", "sat on", "took my [thing] from", or even "looked at" for "pushed" and you'll get the general idea. 

To this, my response is, "Someone is lying."

I mean, obviously, right?  Either the pusher is lying about not pushing - or the pushee is lying about being pushed in the first place. 

Generally, I suspect that the pusher is the liar (I mean - why lie about being pushed, right?), but recently I've given pause to this line of thinking. 

Just FYI - Tobey usually confesses to my statement, "Someone is lying" with, "It's me" to which I wonder whether to punish the wrongful behavior or to praise the honesty (that followed the dishonesty, of course ...) or both (I generally go for the latter ... better to cover all my bases, right?)  Xander never confesses, so in those moments where no confession is offered, I tend to suspect young XL.

Yesterday, the boys were playing with the super obnoxiously fun (and cheap - $5.86 at the local Fleet Farm) pop guns that Santa brought Christmas morning.

Xander showing off his new pop gun.

Following a series of pop-pop-pops and a lot of hysterical laughing and giggling, I hear the all-too-familiar-by-now sound of wailing, followed by the tattle-taling, "Moooooommmmm!  Tobey shot me with his pop gun!"

This is Xander of course. 

Ugh. 

I grit my teeth, as Tobey counters with the completely predictable, "No, I didn't!"

My line is (of course), "Somebody's lying."

I raise my eyebrows at Tobey expectantly, but much to my surprise, Xander stops crying, and looks at me very matter-of-factly, and replies, "Oh, I am.  I shot myself.  I forgot."