Linguistics with a five and a half year old

Being a parent is really very cool.
Conversations with a five year old can lead you down new thought paths.

@loch told me that High Speed and Fast said the lego creation he'd made was funny and then hit him.
He explained it was cool, not funny. I checked in with him, acknowledged his feelings, and then he asked me to talk to High Speed and Fast.
High Speed and Fast did what he does, which is pretend to bite and cackle and kind of push away any kind of connection, but I sat with him and told him I understood he was having big feelings, and I was here and could give him a hug.
He said he was a train, and I said that was ok, trains can get hugs, too.
He said "Never!" And then @loch said, "I was just pretending" and I said I understood, but that I would still offer a hug to anyone, whether they're pretending to be a train or not, and he said "offer? oh, like for a book." and I said "for a book?" and he said, "a book offer."
And that was the first time I realized how similar the words Offer and Author sound.
And then I said I meant Offer (and I emphasized the fffff) but that I supposed I was also the author of the hug, and then he hugged me, and then I said we were co-authors of the hug, and then he said "I'm an author!" and then he said "oller", and I said "odder", and he said "ocker", and I said "onner", and then realized that's Honor.

And anyways, isn't it funny that Honor, Offer, and Author are all spelled so differently, but just have a single consonant sound different?

Now he's using two calculators at the same time to see if they come up with the same answer.