Sammy picks up various phrases from watching cartoons. Sometimes he understands them. Sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he almost does. He recently picked up ‘hot cocoa’.
One day while holding his cup of cold orange juice:
Sammy: Mummy, my hot cocoa is cold!
* * *
A couple of months ago, Pia got some drawing paper, drew a necktie, coloured it with crayon, cut it up, punched a hole in the paper necktie, tied a piece of string, and presented it to Daddy as a gift.
Pia: (beaming and proud) Here Daddy, I made you a tie.
Daddy: Thank you, Pia. It’s beautiful.
The inevitable question came up today:
Pia: Daddy, how come you never wear the tie I made?
* * *
Sammy has started to want to pick up the phone each time it rings. And when he grabs it, it’s very hard to make him let go and pass the phone to Mummy. It’s starting to become a struggle between Mummy and Sammy. Each one is starting to devise techniques to make sure they grab the phone first.
One day, the phone rings. Sammy runs to the phone and picks it up. He sees Mummy coming.
Sammy: (stretches open palm towards Mummy) Stay! Stay!
* * *
Sammy calls an apple ‘apoo’. One day, Sammy and Pia are seated beside each other at the dining table, eating apples. Sammy started coughing, and directed his mouth towards Pia and her apple.
Pia: Mummy! Sammy is coughing at me!
Mummy: Sammy, stop coughing at Achie.
Sammy: No! I coughing the apoo!
* * *
Daddy had to step out of the house and come back shortly. Mummy was asleep. So Daddy was instructing the children on how to answer the door safely:
Daddy: What should you do when you hear a knock on the door?
Dominic: We don’t open it.
Pia: We ask “Who are you?”
Daddy: Correct.
Dominic: What if they say “It’s Daddy"?”
Daddy: Well, you know my voice, right? So if it’s not my voice, don’t open it.
Dominic: Or we can look through the glass (the peephole)
Daddy: Yes, and you can see if it’s me.
Pia: Can you draw us a picture of your face so we don’t forget what you look like?
* * *
Mummy always reminds Sammy to wash his hands before eating: “Come Sammy, let’s wash your hands first.”, or “tell Daddy to wash your hands”
One day, Mummy served some donuts.
Sammy: Can I eat donuts?
Mummy: Yes.
Sammy pulls a chair towards the sink:
Mummy: Sammy, what are you doing?
Sammy: (in his Mickey Mouse voice) I want to wash your hands!
* * *
One day, while reading her textbook:
Pia: (reading) “Matter is anything that takes up space and has weight. Matter is made up of invisible particles called atoms.”
Daddy: You are matter. I am matter. The TV is matter.
Pia: (tentative) Is milk matter?
Daddy: Yes. And because you are matter, you are made up of atoms.
Pia: (pondering) You’re making me feel strange.
Daddy: Daddy is made up of atoms. We are all made up of atoms.
Pia: Now I really feel strange. My mind is getting mixed up. Stop it!
* * *
It’s bedtime and it’s Pia’s turn to lead the prayer. One of the prayers is the Glory Be. Sometimes she gets the words wrong:
Pia: Lorry be to the Father, and to the Son…
* * *
We uploaded a video of Dominic solving his Rubik’s cube. We put him on YouTube.
He enjoyed it so much that one day…
Dominic: Daddy, can you put me in the news?
* * *
Daddy lecturing Dominic and Pia.
Daddy: You are lucky. When your Mum and Dad were your age, our parents didn’t have to teach us. We studied our school lessons on our own: Reading, Writing, Math,…
Pia: … April, May, June.
* * *
Daddy has made Pia’s math assignments a little harder. Before, she gets simple math expressions and just has to solve them. But now she gets word problems and she has to come up with the math expression herself before solving it.
Today’s problem: Jane has 36 apples. She gives 12 apples to David. How many apples does Jane have left?
Pia: I don’t know how to answer this.
Daddy: Just read the question and understand it.
Pia: I DID!
Daddy: <frustration> Think. What are we looking for? What do we want find out?
Pia: (hesitantly…) The answer?
* * *
Pia brings home a computer printout of instructions she wrote at school.
HOW TO A FLY BY SOPHIA
1. Get a long botl
2. Get same coc botl
3. stic the coc botl
4. get two gold eyes
5. stick the gold eyes
6. cover the fly
7. enjoy your minibeast
* * *
Daddy believes children pick up how to do things by letting them do things. He decides it’s time for Sammy to start learning how to dress himself up.
Daddy: (handing Sammy his white cotton shirt) Here Sammy, put your shirt on.
Sammy: Oh-Kay.
Sammy sticks his head into the shirt’s head hole. Then he sticks his right arm into the same hole (the shirt is a few sizes too big for him). Then he sticks his left arm into the same hole again.
Then he pulls down the shirt to just under his arms, turning it into tube top.
Sammy: (triumphant) I made it!
* * *
Pia is mastering how to spell the days of the week. She’s having trouble with “Thursday” and “Wednesday”, but Daddy thinks it’s because she’s not putting effort into it. They’ve been at these two words for half an hour, and Daddy’s getting really fed up by Pia’s delaying tactics:
Daddy: (exasperation) Come on Pia, study the spelling now.
Pia: I already know how to spell!
Daddy: No you don’t. You can’t spell ‘Thursday’
Pia: I can!
Daddy: (frustration) Pia, you’re killing me.
Pia: YOU’RE killing me. I’m nearly dead.
* * *
Lunch time. Rounding up the two older children to come to the kitchen and eat can be frustrating. They ignore calls as if they didn’t hear anything. But not Sammy, who loves to eat. One shout of ‘time to eat!’ and he’s at the table before the final syllable has completed.
One day, Mummy, Daddy, and Sammy are at the table, still waiting for Dominic and Pia to come into the kitchen to eat.
Sammy is already feeding himself:
Daddy: Sammy, go call Achie.
Sammy: (in his Mickey mouse voice) I eating! (slave drivers…grumble grumble)
Mummy: Come on Sammy, call Achie.
Sammy: Mummy, I eating!
Pia comes into the kitchen and sits at her spot. Sammy sees the opportunity to do as he was told.
Sammy: (shouting into Achie’s face) ACHIE, WE EATING NOW!
* * *
If United Nations translators were like Pia, we would have more wars. The children did not do their homework yesterday, so we made them promise to finish it today.
Daddy calls home from the office to check on the promise:
Daddy: (talking to Pia) Did you finish the assignment I gave you yesterday?
Pia: (Confident) Yes
Daddy: Did Mummy give you new assignment?
Pia: (dreading the thought that Mummy might give them additional homework, very softly)...No...
Daddy: Can I talk to Mummy?
Pia: (handing the phone to Mummy) Daddy said you don't need to give us any more assignment.
* * *
Sammy still needs help when he needs to poo. He sits on the toilet seat, with his feet on the seat cover. Either Mummy or Daddy patiently hold him while he does his thing.
One day, while Sammy was making poo.
Daddy: Sammy, what colour is your poo?
Sammy: (thinks for a couple of moments, then sneaks a peek down). Boo-rown!
* * *
Sammy is learning to identify shapes and colors. He gets them now, but his pronunciation has catching up to do.
Mummy: (pointing to a white circle) What's this?
Sammy: (in his Mickey mouse voice) White circool!
Mummy: (pointing to a yellow square) What's this?
Sammy: Lelo squares!
Mummy: (pointing to green triangle) What's this?
Sammy: Green triangoo!
Mummy: (pointing to red diamond) What's this?
Sammy: Red damayond!
* * *
Pia had just had her hair cut into a bob. It was a little uneven, but passable for a 6-year old (Daddy cuts her hair).
One early morning the family had to leave early to go to church. There was no time to shower. Pia's hair was the definition of a bad hair day -- hair on the left side of her head was massed together into a ball half the size of her head. The hair on the right side of her face separated into thick strands going in every direction, like hair on corn cobs.
Pia looks into the mirror:
Pia: Ohh....I don't look so good...
* * *
Sammy: I want to pee
Daddy: (busy at the computer, ignores Sammy)
Sammy: (this time with more urgency) I want to pee.
Daddy: (still ignoring)
Sammy: (Now jumping up and down) Unh...unh...I want to pee!!!
Daddy: Ok, let's go
Daddy heads to the bathroom, but Sammy heads to the kitchen
Daddy: (goes to the kitchen, puzzled) What're you doing there?
Sammy points to the chocolate biscuit in his hand. He wants to set it down somewhere before going into the toilet.
Daddy: Ok. (heads to the toilet and waits for Sammy)
Sammy doesn't come. So Daddy goes back to the kitchen. Sammy sits at the dining table, biting into a big strawberry he discovered, and completely forgetting he needed to pee.
Daddy: What are you doing?!? Let's pee!
Sammy: (munching) I eating.
* * *
