It's not just my kid that seems really smart; it's your kid, too, right? In fact, most wee ones are remarkably sharp these days. They seem to learn faster and have a deeper understanding of concepts at a much younger age. Maybe it's because many of our households are child-centered, or the modern commitment to breastfeeding or that it's every generation's "job" to surpass the last. In fact, many times, I hear moms and dads say that 3 is the new 7, or 6 is the new 10.

That said, this weekend my 5-year-old debunked clown magic.

We attended my grandma's 90th birthday party in Freeport, Ill., and she hired a clown to provide magic tricks and balloon art for the grandkids.

Most of the adults agreed the clown was on the creepy side -- she didn't smile at all despite her heavily made-up face and had kind of a low voice. She also wore a button that said, "God loves clowns."

Overall, my kids enjoyed the clown action. However, when she tried to wow them by pulling a flag out of a seemingly empty box, Kai said, "Can you pull a Guatemalan flag out of that box?"

The clown said, "You bet I can," and proceeded to pull another flag -- definitely not the Guatemalan flag -- from the box.

"That's not the Guatemalan flag," said Kai.

"Yes," said the clown firmly. "It is."

"No, it's not," said Kai, who was born in Guatemala. "The Guatemalan flag has two blue stripes and is white in the middle."

Then he told the clown it was OK that she made a mistake and she should try again. The clown looked flustered and glanced at me with a "help me" look. So, I distracted Kai by asking to see his poodle balloon hat.

Later, I thought about the fact that if Kai could read more than three-letter words, he probably would have asked the clown how she knew God loved clowns. Luckily for Clarabelle, he can't.