We told Pia that, before she can go out to play, she had to pick up her toys and put them away in the toy boxes. So she picked up the toys and placed them in their boxes.
But Sammy was also in the room. He starts rummaging through the toy box, pulling out toys and scattering them.
When Pia saw what Sammy was doing:
Pia: Daddy, Sammy is uncleaning!
* * *
Another normal workday. Stepping outside the door, Daddy waved goodbye to Mommy and Pia:
Mommy: Have a nice day!
Daddy: You too!
Pia: Bye-bye Daddy, see you tomorrow!
Tomorrow?!?!
* * *
We brought the kids to a shoe shop in the city. Pia tries on a shoe Mommy picked for her:
Daddy: How do you like it Pia?
Pia: It's a livadivbig
Daddy: It's a what?!?
Pia: It's a liva-div-big!
Daddy: Oh....you mean it's a little bit too big?
Pia: Yes.
* * *
Sammy stank with the unmistakable smell that says this baby's diapers were fully loaded and he needed to be cleaned.
Daddy picked Sammy up and laid him on the bed, not noticing that some of Sammy's poopoo had already been squished out from the back edge of his diapers.
The bed sheet was smeared. Both Yuck and Eww aptly describe the mess.
When Pia saw what happened, she delivers her lecture and extracts an oath:
Pia: Daddy, next time, before you lay Sammy down on the bed, you must check if he has poopoo first!
Daddy: Yes, I know.
Pia: DO YOU PROMISE?
* * *
Sammy's official first word is.....BA!
We have been telling him "bad!" far too many times. If he puts his thumb into his mouth, Mommy cries, "Sammy, no! Bad!". If he slips his slippers into his mouth, Daddy reminds him, "No! Bad!".
So now, when he tries to reach for the table lamp, and we say 'No!', he will complete it with 'BA!'
* * *
For several months Pia had been reminding us that she didn't want to be called Pia anymore. Instead, she wanted us to call her Sophia (her real name).
If we made the mistake of calling her 'Pia', she would shout back: "DON'T CALL ME PIA!"
Still, we kept on forgetting. In part because we have called her Pia since she was a baby. And partly because it's hard to take a 5-year old seriously.
Nevertheless she remained insistent. Until something happened at home one day and changed her mind.
Her assignment that day was to write out her name ten times, a task which proved challenging. She endeavoured to write "Sophia" properly, but kept making the same mistakes. She'd get the 'P' written in upper case and forget the 'i', so that 'Sophia' came out as 'SoPha'.
After an hour of trying, she came to a Eureka moment -- "Pia" is shorter and easier to write than Sophia.
Pia: "Mommy, I want you to call me Pia. My name is Pia, so I will write Pia ten times."
* * *
