Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

Alex: Everyone has a big name and a small name. My small name’s Alex. My big name’s Alessandro.
Dina: What’s daddy’s small and big name.
Alex: His small name’s Nick. His big name’s… Drax!

Today as the were taxiing after landing, Alex had to go. So as soon as the plane stopped he jumped up and said he had to go, loudly enough that the stewardess helped push people out of the way so he could get to the WC. Then he came out dangling and naked and she kept people away so I could come and help him get dressed in the aisle :)

Alex’s first to do list.

• iPad 3 for daddy was hard to distinguish from 3 iPads in Alex’s mind. He spelled iPad himself, purposely writing the “D” backwards for space reasons.

This was a while ago. We went to parent-teacher night at Alex’s Kindergarten. We survived despite the fact that it was entirely in German. As an ice-breaker, the kids had answered some questions the teacher asked… what is {your | dad’s | mom’s} favourite { food | drink | animal | something else}. Alex was pretty easy to identify, since his favourite animal is a monkey. He thought mine was spaghetti (close, lasagna), coffee (not really, but it is definitely a mommy/daddy drink, so it’s not hard to see why he chose that), and dinosaur (projecting… it’s definitely a turtle). One kid replied that his mom liked “white wine and Red Bull”. “White wine”. Sure.

Alex started Kindergarten on Monday.

• 5 x 1/2 days a week. 4 mornings, 1 afternoon.
• It’s all in Swiss German.
• He has a separate gym class 1 afternoon a week.
• He has  DAZ (Deutsch als Zweitsprache (German as a second language)) once a week.
• It takes him and his friend 10 to 15 minutes to walk to school, despite the fact that it’s 320m (0.2mi) door to door.
• Arianna cries when Alex leaves.

[We're visiting a dinosaur exhibit in a rainforest-like setting.]
Nick: Alex, want to learn a song about rainforests?
Alex: OK!
Nick: Welcome to the rainforest,
Alex: Welcome to the rainforest,
Nick: We’ve got fun and games
Alex: We got fun and games
Nick: We’ve got everything you want
Alex: We got everything you want
Nick: Honey, we know the names
Alex: Huh, we know the names
Nick: We are the people that can find
Alex: We are the people that can fi-iii-iind
Nick: Whatever you may need
Alex: Whatever you may need
Nick: If you’ve got the money, honey
Alex: If you got the money, book
Nick: We’ve got your disease
Alex: We got your disease. Daddy… what’s a disease?
[Digression as we discuss what a diseases is and then digress further into the difference between similes and metaphors.]
Nick: Welcome to the rainforest, welcome to the rainforest
Alex: Welcome to the jungle, welcome to the jungle

Dina: Arianna, what do you want to do now?
Arianna: Nap.
Nick: Arianna, I don’t think you really want a nap. Do you know what nap means?
Arianna: Yes!
Nick: Really?
Arianna: Nap. Sleep.
Nick: So, you do know what that means. Cool. I’m proud of you for using different words to explain.
Arianna: Nap. Bed.

Spiderman BandAid,
Spiderman BandAid,
Does whatever a spider BandAid can.

Alex: What did you do at work today?
Nick: I met with a bunch of my work-friends, they’re called co-workers, to talk about things.
Alex: You had a play date?
Nick: Play dates with co-workers are called “meetings”, Alex.

Nick: Alex, do you want to drive me to the airport for my flight.
Alex: Dad, I’m not allowed to drive.

It’s tough combing Arianna’s ultra-curly hair as she screams, “Daddy, stop hurting me!”. I can’t really explain to her that it’s only going to be worse if we don’t un-knot it occasionally. Plus I feel guilty since she inherits the hair from me.

I’m not sure how good a job I did. :-(

On the good side, that was a 4-word sentence (unless you punctuate it as, “Daddy! Stop hurting me!” in which case it’s only 3… still good for her age).

I’m alone with the kids for a week… let’s see how this goes. (In addition, performance review feedback is due at work this week, as are a bunch of other stuff… I remember the good ol’ days when time off actually meant time off… either from stuff at home, stuff at work, or both… when did it become neither?)

say 1
say 2
say 3
say 4
say 5
say 6
say 7
say 8
say 9
say 10
say 11
say 12
say 13
say 14
say 15
say 16
say 17
say 18
say 19
say 20
say 21
say 22 
say 23
say 24 
say 25
say Ready or not, here I come.

• Good News: Arianna now pronounces the “x” at the end of “Alex”.
• Good News: Arianna’s vocabulary has exploded over the last few weeks. She constantly repeats the last word you say to her. She points at things and asks “What is this/that?” She actively works on her pronunciation, repeating words until she gets it right.
• Bad News: She still can’t pronounce the “r” in “shirt”.

What could top yesterday’s middle of the night wake-up, where I forgot to change Alex out of his underwear into his night diaper when changing him into his pyjamas, resulting in the inevitable middle-of-the-night sheet change?

[It's 02:00]
Alex: Mom! Mom…
Dina: [Groggy] What?
Alex: Come here…
Dina: [gets up... goes to Alex's room] What is it Alex?
Alex: My butt is sweaty and it made my hand wet.
Dina: That’s not sweat.

We are so showing this picture to his girlfriends.

From Varacalli Kids 2011

Dina: Knock knock.
Alex: Who’s there?
Dina: Interrupting cow.
Alex: Interruptin…
Dina: Moo!

[A couple of minutes pass.]

Arianna: Knahk knahk.
Dina: Who’s there?
Arianna: Moo!!!