It's, Like... or It's Like...

Nick spent about twenty tongue-wrenching minutes on this before school the other day:

I asked him what it was as he struggled to zip his Osh-Gosh hoodie.  I got the grownups-are-idiots look and all he said was, "It's like math, Dad!"  (Children often wonder how adults have made it as long as we have.)

I can't really figure out how to punctuate the sentence because I am not positive of the intent of the 'like.'  I remember the first time N used the word 'like' incorrectly in a sentence.  "...and it was, like, really green"  is what I remember, they were in their first year of preschool at the time.

I could easily surmise that that was his intent; "It's, like (duh, eyes rolling), math"  It sort of didn't sound that way to me.  What it sounded like was; "It's like math, Dad."  Not actual, regular, ordinary math, but like that.

There is a third option here as well.  What he meant was; "It's Likemath, Dad."  Yes, a previously theoretical math that, once decoded and unleashed, will change the very core of our understanding of everything.

I know, that's, like, ridiculous, Dad.

(After looking at it a while I see what he did here.  It's sort of the Rube Goldberg of multiplication tables, I think.)

From Marci's '...things you don't expect to hear from the backseat...'

Mommy:  "That is the plan, boys.  What do you think?  I think it's a pretty good plan."

Nick:  "That's because it is your plan..."

Well played, ninja-boy, well played...