Sister, can you spare a sign of peace?

During the Sign of Peace part of Mass, people greet each other and reach out to shake hands. 

At this past Sunday's sign of peace, as everyone was turning around and greeting and shaking hands with everyone around them, Dominic, for the first time, tried to shake hands with those around him.  But it wasn't as easy as he thought. 

No one had noticed him, and he was turning around trying to catch people's eyes and hands, but no one even saw him.

Finally, jokingly, and giggling, he tapped the wrist of the woman standing behind him and offered his open hand.  The surprised woman smiled, bent down and shook hands with Dominic.

The gingerbread children

At bedtime.  Dominic is talking about one classmate who's teasing him:

Dominic: (somewhat pensive) My classmate calls me 'biscuit man'.

Mommy: Why?

Dominic: Because I always have biscuit for my snack in school.  (Smiling wide) But I don't care.

Pia: (in the bunk below) And I'm a biscuit girl!  Because I always eat biscuit!

 

 ***

Our cute little bounty hunter

Domu seemed anxious to have money.  Probably to buy a chocolate bar.  We had explained to him a few days earlier that money is not free, and that people work to get money.  Since then, he occasionally seemed distracted.  Apparently, he's been working his brain trying to figure out how he can get his hands on some coins. 

The first working idea that he revealed to us was not promising:

Dominic: Daddy, if some bad men got some money and the police are chasing them, and we use our car to crash into the bad men's car and the police caught the bad men....can we get the bad men's money?

Eat my dirt

One of Domu's classmates call him 'biscuit man' because he always has biscuits for snack during Recess.  Eager to help him assimilate, we were curious what his classmates were having for their snacks, so we asked him:

Mommy: Dominic, what do your classmates eat during recess?

Dominic: Some of them eat apples.  Some of them eat oranges.  Some eat grapes.

Mommy: Do any of them eat yogurt?

Dominic: Sometimes

Pia : (butting in) Do any of them eat dirt?

 

* * *

I can jump from a tall building

While watching the movie Daredevil (starring Ben Affleck) where Daredevil jumps from rooftop to rooftop:

Pia: Daddy, how can he jump like that?

Daddy: Like what?

Pia: (pointing to TV) Like that , he can jump from tall buildings.

Daddy: Because he's not afraid.

Pia: I'm also not afraid. I can also jump from a tall building.

Daddy: Don't do that!

Pia: Dahhdeee...!  I will not do it while I am still a child.  I need to practice first.

The Best Seat in Town

From his favorite sitting location, Sammy can relax and take in the view from our bedroom window. He especially likes to watch cars go by.

Water fountain

Playing with the water fountain.

I find the design of the fountain unusual. The water shoots straight up instead of sideways.  If it went sideways you could sip from the arching water, but in this design the water goes straight up, and then back down towards where it came from. This design seems to be quite common here.

Curses, foiled again

"Jane* ruined my plans", said Dominic. The 'plans' refer to playing in one the contraptions in the playground.  Apparently some of girls in his class didn't want him playing there since they were playing.

It was funny hearing the phrase 'ruined my plans'.  First time Dominic uttered them.

 

*not her real name

Are you not yet finished or not?

Mommy: Dominic, Pia, are you not yet finished?

Pia: Yes!

Dominic: No!

Mommy: (confused) Finished or not?

Dominic: Mommy, when you ask 'not' you don't know what we mean when we say yes or no.

In other words, Mommy's way of asking questions lead her to confusion about the answer. Does Yes mean yes, we are not yet finished, or does 'No' mean, no we are not yet finished.

Sammy the Friendly Ghost

At the dinner table.  Pia was pretending to be a ghost and goes 'awoohh', 'Awwwoooohhhh', 'AWOOOOOHHHHH'. 

Sammy is silently observing.  He's never seen this before.

And then he jumps in :  'ahhhhhhhh', 'Ahhhhhhh', 'AAAAHHHHHHHHH!'

Soon the kitchen is filled with awoooooooooooohhhh and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  from this 10-month old boy.

Cosmological Musings

"I'm going to make a rocket that will go to the sun!", said Dominic.

Daddy:  But the sun is very hot.  The rocket will melt.

Dominic: This rocket is very strong. It will not melt.

Daddy: (Teasing) What if the sun runs away just before the rocket arrives?

Dominic: (Getting the joke)...or what if the sun is a balloon and it pops when the rocket hits it?....or what if the sun is made of rubber, and the rocket bounces back to earth when it hits the moon?...or what if the sun is really as small as a coin?....or what if the sun opens its mouth and eats the rocket?

Pia: (chiming in) What if the rocket hits the sun's eyes?

Thud!

Thud went the carpet.  In every home with a baby, everyone instinctively knows what that sound means. 

Sammy lay flat on his back after falling off the sofa.  A second later he started bawling.  And then Pia started sobbing. 

She had been taking care of Sammy.  Sammy sits between her and the sofa's backrest. That way, Pia keeps Sammy away from the edge of the sofa. But when she stood up for a moment to get something from her desk, Sammy fell.

It must have been some fall.  He has scratches and a mild bump on his forehead from the fall.

The Metal Eater

As a growing baby, it's not enough for Sammy to eat paper. He's now moved on to steel.

Advanced math degree required

Eating at the dining table, and testing Dominic's ability to do maths in his head.

Daddy: Dominic, if a box of cornflakes costs $3.00, and you have $10.00, how many boxes of cornflakes can you buy?

Dominic: (after thinking) Three.

Daddy: That's right.

Dominic: (seriously) Daddy, if one box of vegetables cost $10.00 and each vegetable costs 59 cents and you have one million thousand eighty-five twenty two dollars, how much money do you need to buy five hundred thirty three boxes?

Who should I eat?

It's Pia's job to set the table for lunch every day (Dinner is Dominic's).  But today she seems to be not in the mood.

"I'm too tired to set the table," claimed Pia, while running and jumping around in her bedroom.

Daddy: But if you don't set the table, we won't be able to eat food,  and if I can't eat food, I have to eat a little child.  Who can I eat?

Pia: Eat Domu!

Daddy: I don't want to eat Domu.  He smells bad.

Pia: I also smell bad.

Daddy: But you just took a bath.  You smell good.  So I will eat you.

Pia: I don't smell good! 

At that point she turns around, bends over, pulls down her pants: "Smell my recty!" *

 

(*rectum)

Say please, please

At lunch.

Daddy: Pia, can you get the water from the fridge?

Pia: (poker faced, no response. not even looking up from her plate)

Daddy: Pia, could you get the water?

Pia: (no reaction)

Daddy: Peeeeeeeeee-yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Pia: (still poker faced) You must say please.

Pulitzer Prize Photo

Dear Sir:

We regret to return this photo you submitted for consideration to the Pulitzer Prize Photo of the Year Award. Your photograph is awful and has absolutely no journalistic merit. (And the goggles seem to be upside down).

Please do not send us any more photographs.

Regards,

The Pulitzer Prize Committee

Our spider man

We were concocting a radioactive spider-based formula to give Dominic the proportionate strength of spiders. Something went wrong and it gave him the proportionate size of spiders.

I must have hit the 'Defrost' button on the microwave instead of 'High'. Anyway, we still have another normal-sized kid.

Pia, can you come and drink this...

The Stalker from the skies

Pia: I cannot play very well at Domu's school.

Daddy: Why not?

Pia: Because I don't have sunglasses

Daddy: Why do you need sunglasses?

Pia: Because the sun is shining and when I play, I might look at the sun and it will hurt my eyes.

Daddy: So don't look at the sun

Pia: But the sun is looking at me!

The Robot Uncle

A friend visited us at home.  After he left, Pia asked, "Daddy is that your friend?". 

"Yes"

"Is he Uncle Robert?"  (she pronounces it as Robet)

"Yes"

"Is he a Robot?"

Mr. and Mrs. Leopold

"Hello, Mr. Leopold", Dominic greeted his Daddy.

"Stop that, Mrs. Leopold", Pia said to his Mommy.

They've taken to calling us Mr. and Mrs. Leopold.

Except that we don't know where they get picked up the name "Leopold".  It's not our name.

Until we solve the mystery, we remain clueless why we are suddenly "Mr. and Mrs. Leopold"

Another Aussie Milepost

"Let's play footy", said Dominic, while holding his basketball. 

Footy.  That's the Australian word for - I believe - any of the several versions of football played here. Dominic didn't learn that word from us  --  we've never uttered it ourselves.

That's another Australianism he's picked up on his way to becoming an Australian.

Meanwhile Pia has picked up "To infinity and beyond!" on her way to becoming an Austronaut.

Honey, we shrunk a kid

This photo should win an award. For effort.

Your logic does not resemble earth- logic

Pia was showing off something new she could do.  She leapt about 3 feet from a standing position:

Pia: Daddy, don't tell Domu I can do that.

Daddy: Why not?

Pia: Because I don't want him to know that I can do that.

Daddy: Why not?

Pia: Because he doesn't know that I can do that.

Daddy: Why not?

Pia: Because we didn't tell him that I can do that.

New Dress Code

Our family has adopted a more conservative dress code.

Surprisingly, it hasn't affected Dominic's accuracy at the hoop. He still misses the basket (and the board) 100 percent of the time.

The little engine that could

As a baby, Sammy's options for amusement are pretty limited.  If he's not in his playpen, he's usually sitting in his high-chair.  Sitting in a chair for hours can get pretty boring as you may imagine, so Sammy has devised a little game to amuse himself.

He'll close his mouth lightly, then make a sustained blow of air pass through his lips, making them flap together very rapidly, producing a high pitched purring sound, only it doesn't go prrrr.  It goes: brrrrrrrrrr-brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-brrrrrrrrrrrrr-brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-brrrrrrrrrrrr.

When he's getting into it, he will also use his fingers to flick his already flapping lips, making the sound even more bubbly: blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu BLU BLU BLU BLU BLU BLU BLU BLUB!

There's our little engine on the go. 

Stranger than a UFO in the sky

We were walking back home from church one night. It was just past 7 but already very dark. Autumn nights get dark very quickly here.

Hundreds of stars filled the black sky from one end to another. The moon was nearly full and seemed bigger than usual. Tonight it shone so brightly and so clearly its craters were visible.

It was an awe-inspiring sight, and the children were clearly moved:

"Look at the stars!", shouted Dominic, while pointing the to stars.

Pia pointed up to the Moon and shouted: "Look! The Sun!"