Skepticals

Pablo is measuring his minuscule, almost Stuart Little height with a tape measure. He started at 1 inch and is growing at an exponential rate (now up to 15 inches, maybe 10 minutes later). But as we were measuring, he told me he was 3 "skepticals." I was confused.

So I asked, "Do you know what skeptical means?" He said, "What?" And I said, "Skeptical is how you feel when you hear or see or read something that you think isn't really true."

There was a pause.

"Mama, that is when you are using it as an adjective. I am using it as a noun. A skeptical is a measurement like you are inside a tape measure. An inch is how old you are in months, and a foot means you can walk or something divisible by 12. Foot is an adjective and a noun. If it's an adjective, it means divisible by 12. As a noun it means I can walk."

Oh. Thanks for clarifying.