Duncan's Use of the Passive Voice

I think Jake would call it the passive voice, but it's whatever one calls it when someone says, "Pee is spilled all over me" instead of "I peed in my pants." Duncan makes excellent use of it when it comes to his recent spate of accidents.

"Oh no, I'm wet."

"Why are you wet? Did you pee in your pants?"

"Um, no, the pee is just all over my pants...."

Perfect little kid technique for avoiding the unpleasant acknowledgment of wrongdoing and still getting someone to help you with those uncomfortable pants "with pee on them." There's also the denial technique, in which he simply denies the reality of the wet pants.

"Duncan, your pants are wet! You should have gone to the bathroom!"

"Um, no Mom, my pants are not...and I will wear my blue Thomas shirt to school tomorrow. And after you get me NEW pants, we will have dinner! Isn't that great?!?!"

Today was an interesting example of the "acknowledgment of accident via uncertainty" method. I poked my head outside and asked, "Duncan, are your pants dry?"

"Huh?" A bad sign. Duncan would usually have a quick and exact reply, so this ambiguous answer was a red flag.

"Are your pants wet?" I enunciated clearly and increased the volume to make sure I was heard.

"Um, no."

"Are you SURE?"

"Yeah." Then he gave a little sideways glance upwards as if thinking intently and dropped his little bombshell. "I'm not so sure about poop, though." Then he acted quite upset and confused about why I wasn't happy with him--he can take denial to an impressive extent!