A Ball of Yarn
We asked Oliver what he was going to ask Santa for Christmas.
Oliver had an answer ready. He had clearly thought about this and had made up his mind.
He wants to ask Santa for a ball if yarn for Walter to play with. He explained that he would tell Santa that Walter is our pet and he would really like a ball of yarn to play with.
We pointed out that that was nice, and that was for Walter, and then asked again what he wanted for himself.
Without any pretense of any kind he responds nothing, I will just ask for a ball of yarn for Walter.