What time is it?

As the Bean gets older, I'm starting to explain to him what the numbers on the clock in his room mean.  It's an analog clock that makes an actual tick-tock noise.  We've identified the big hand, little hand, and he recognizes most of the numbers, most of the time.

Lately, he hasn't been wanting to actually sleep during his nap time.  Even when he doesn't sleep, though, he has a "rest," which means that he can do quiet activities (reading, puzzles) in his bed.  No toys, though, and he has to stay in bed.

Two days ago, I put him and the Little One down for their naps.  Ten minutes later, the Bean comes out of his room and asks if his rest is over.  I send him back to bed with a kiss and a "are you kidding me?" Ten minutes after that, he calls me to help him after he's gone to the bathroom.

Once again, I get him settled in his bed and I show him the clock on his wall.  "You can go to sleep or not, but if you don't, you can't get up until 3:00."  I point out the 3 on the clock and describe that 3:00 looks like a letter "L" - big hand pointing straight up, little hand pointing straight to the side, on the number 3.

"Okay, Mommy!  I know."  I leave him with his stack of books and Highlights High Five magazines.

Thirty minutes later, at 2:01pm, the Bean comes strolling into my sewing room, smiling.

"Hi, Mommy!  It's 3:00!  The hands on my clock are pointing like a letter "L" just like you said."
He's clearly excited and I'm thinking that maybe he's confused the 2 and the 3.  I follow him to his room where he points at the clock and says, "See, look!"

...  ...  ... this is what I found:

I have no words.  I just stare at my son, open-mouthed.  Part of me wants to cheer his ingenuity and critical thinking.  I mean, how great is it that my four year old, who is only just starting to understand clocks, figured this out?!  He climbed on train table to reach this.  Changed the time, and then tried to hang it back up so I wouldn't notice what he'd done.  

I pointed out that changing the time in his room doesn't change the time in the rest of the house.  I asked him to go back to bed and walked out of the room, down the hall to my bedroom, closed to the door, and laughed hysterically.  I'm so proud, so very very proud of this little boy. 

Also, I could hear my dad's voice in my head during this episode, laughing.  He used to joke that every room in our house must be in a different time zone because none of the clocks ever showed the same thing...