Mom: Hey Ethan, what are your brothers doing  outside with your daddy?

Ethan, annoyed: They’re playing the most primitive game ever: … CATCH.

(Games that don’t have strategy are primitive.)

Addendum:

This reminds me of a birthday party we went to when Ethan was almost 3. All of the approximately 3 year olds were running around this rec room. Just running all over the place randomly and yelling and excited and having a ball. Ethan was running too. But he didn’t want to run randomly. He had some rules in his head he kept trying to communicate with those other excited preschoolers and to impose upon this mad rush of chaos. Not the last time he was unsuccessful in an attempt to organize his peers in an exercise beyond their interests.

Addendum 2:

The other night I checked in on Ethan while he was sleeping. He sleeps like the dead so I can mess with him while he sleeps, whispering words of encouragement or starting conversation with a sleeping person, without fear of him waking. So fun! I asked him what he was dreaming about and he mutters, “offense … defense…” Oh brother! Strategizing in his sleep!