Sammy has an old habit. He likes to put his left thumb into his mouth and suck on it. He's had this habit since he was born.
Now he has a new habit.
After he poops in his diapers, he like to insert his left hand inside his messed up diapers and feel what's inside.
Habit 1 and habit 2 tend to combine and we have to be always on the alert.
* * *
Pia and Mommy borrowed a cartoon movie DVD from the library. It's about Scooby Doo and the Gang in Egypt trying to solve a mystery while being chased by a Mummy.
While checking out the DVD at the library, Pia asked Mommy what the title was, and Mommy read it to her: 'Scooby Doo in Where's My Mummy?"
Later at home, after dinner...
Pia: Mommy, I'm finished eating. Can I watch "Scooby Doo and the Mother"?
* * *
We're trying to teach Sammy to say new words, but each time he pretends that he's unable to learn new words. Instead of repeating the word we're teaching him, he will say: 'pahpah', and then grin.
He enjoys it when we groan at his 'inability' to learn a new word.
Daddy: Sammy, say 'A' (as in A-B-C)
Sammy: (grinning) Pahpah!
Mommy: Say 'Mama'
Sammy: Pahpah!
Dominic: Say 'car'
Sammy: Pahpah!
Pia: Say 'Sammy'
Sammy: Pahpah!
* * *
Reading about the Exodus to the children -- we were at the story where God gave the commandments to Moses. One of the commandments was 'Do not take the Lord's name in vain'.
Trying to come up with a child-friendly version of this commandment...
Daddy: "... do not use God's name for fun"
Pia: Like an electric fan?
* * *
People have wondered why Australians turned out speaking the way they do. Why do the Ozzies mumble their sentences? Why do they not enunciate their words clearly, like the Americans and Canadians do? After all, the Aussies, like the Americans, are sons of the same English fathers (and Scots, and Irish, and Italians). What happened?
Received wisdom is that it's because of the flies.
Australia in summer is a land ridden with aggressive, moisture-seeking, super-sized flies who like to gang up on people.
Woe to you when you are walking with both hands holding your shopping bags, defenseless and unable to wave them off, for that's when they try the hardest to insert themselves into your mouth, your nostrils, your ears, with such tenacity you will want to give up and cry. They will buzz around you for kilometers.
These are not the flies of other countries. Those leave you alone and even steer clear of people.
People simply had to learn to speak without opening their mouths.
And that's the truth. Or the most interesting explanation anyway.
* * *
At Mass:
The song's lyrics went something like this:
"...if you eat this bread and drink this wine you will not thirst..."
Pia: (in a solid voice, sings her own version) "...if you eat this bread and drink this wine you will not toast..."
Think about it.
* * *
Dominic, Pia, and Daddy went to see Myer's Christmas Parade. It's an annual parade organized by Myer Department Store. I guess it's equivalent to Macy's Christmas Parade in the US.
Before the parade began people handed out red balloons to all the kids. All the balloons looked the same and there was no way to distinguish one from the other (that the balloons were identical is central to this story).
When the parade finished, we started walking toward the train station. As we walked, more and more people started leaving the parade as well.
Daddy, afraid that the kids might lose the balloons, took both balloons and held it. It soon became crowded, and Daddy noticed that one of the balloons had fallen off its stick. There was no way to go back for it as the crowd didn't allow any mobility except forward:
Daddy : (to the children) Oh no, one of the balloons fell off!
Pia: (quickly doing the math: 2 children + 1 balloon = one child with no balloon, staked her claim). Daddy! You lost Dominic's balloon! Now Dominic has no balloon. How can Dominic find another balloon!?!?
* * *
Spring has sprung, as they say here, to mean that spring has arrived. It's still spring for a few more weeks, and then it will start to say goodbye, giving way to summer.
During daytime it already feels like spring has gone. The days are longer, and very very sunny. You can almost still get a sunburn at 7pm.
These sunny days easily make Pia thirsty. One hot day, while walking with Mommy to school to pick up Dominic:
Pia: Mommy, I'm thirsty.
Mommy: Didn't you bring your water bottle?
Pia: No, you should bring it.
Mommy: Why should I bring it? It's your water bottle. Next time, you should remember to bring to bring your water bottle.
Pia: I did remember.
Mommy: So where is it?
Pia: Mommy, I remembered to bring it, but you should bring it!
* * *+
It was drizzling after Mass. Since we walk home from church, we had to loiter a bit, and wait for the rain to stop.
As we were chatting with one of the parishioners, the parish priest appeared. We introduced the children. The priest, who had thick eyeglasses and apparently bad eyesight, looked intently at Dominic's shirt. "Kill Jesuits?", he said, "is that what the shirt says?".
Daddy knelt down, and took a closer look at Dominic's shirt, "No, it says 'Kids Jeans!'"
* * *
At church during collection. As is our custom, we handed some coins to Dominic and to Pia to drop into the collection bag.
When the collector passed by, Dominic went through the routine: with his fist closed, he lowers his hand into the bag, drops the coins, then pulls out his hand.
There didn't seem to be the usual plinking of the coins, but we didn't give much thought about it.
Toward the latter part of the Mass, we saw Dominic playing with coins. Coins which looked suspiciously like those he was supposed to have dropped.
Sticky fingers.
Admonishment came swiftly.
* * *
