NO SUCH THING AS TOO LITERAL

"So then the elephant was chasing the leopard and trying to eat him!" he retells of his dream last night.

"But why was the elephant going to eat him?" I ask -- expecting an obvious answer, of course [when will I ever learn?].

"Well, he wasn't really, Mom. He was just telling stories," he explains. "Silly leopard," he laughs.

"Oh, so he was crying wolf?" I ask -- forever trying to squeeze in those lessons.

"No, Mom," he answers a little disappointedly, "he was crying LEOPARD." [as in...didn't we already cover this?]