Phillip's First Word

Other than the sporadic "mama" & "dada", Phillip's first conscious use of terminology was "car". At first, he used it on his toy cars, but soon he made the connection to real world cars, and a ride into downtown Seattle became an exciting event: car! car...car...car?....car... CAAAR....car...car...carr, car...caaaaaaaar....car.... needless to say, we have a congestion problem in Seattle.

Chicken country

Phillip (4) loves geography. He has maps, a globe, an atlas and a flash card game to test and improve his knowledge. After playing the US states flash cards, where he scored 42 out of 50 just by looking at the shape, he wanted me to show him the silly country on the globe. "Which silly country?" I ask. "The one with the silly name, the 'chicken country'." he says. I started "crawling" my memory, but nothing emerged. Phillip grew impatient, and started to spinn the globe. "Here, let me show you, this country, the orange one..." and he pointed at "Turkey".

Disgusting...

Anna (2 1/2) is ready to go to bed. Part of the daily routine, is a kiss to brother Phillip and a kiss to daddy. Looking at Phillip she performs a 1/1o th of a second kiss, and with the expression of just having bitten into a lemon: "Phillip is dirty!" True, he had some chocolate around his mouth - which would normally not be a problem - but today it was. Then a kiss to daddy, and I guess this was not good either: "Whaaaaah, yucky" !

Pebious George

Phillip & Anna love watching "Curious George", and for the longest time, Phillip called him "pebious George". We tried to tell Phillip that the monkey's name was "curious George" and not "pebious George". One morning, I watched it with them, and it started to dawn on me: it aired on PBS, and he called him "PBS George".

That was until recently, when my wife and I finally succeeded - and Phillip started using the monkey's real name. One evening, we watched the evening news, and the President was on, Phillip asks: "Who is this, dad?" - I say: "This is George W., our President." - Phillip asks: "Oh, is this Curious George?" watch on YouTube

Papa happy

Julius (2y) distributed half of the sand of his box over the terrace his father had just cleaned. His mother said, your father will not be happy. I will have to clean this later. He was concerned and his last words before falling asleep were "Maman nettoyer (cleans), Papa content".

Down under

When Phillip was 12 months old, we went skiing in Whistler. For his care and entertainment we hired a baby sitter. Many of them are Australian, and so was ours. When she came into the room for the first time, and spoke a few words, Phillip noticed the accent and immediately identified her, you are a "Wiggle".

NB: The Wiggles are an Australian group playing children's music. Very popular in the US.

Non-obedient parents

Little Anna (2 1/2) is very fond of chocolate. Just before dinner she requests "chocolate". Mom tells her that she can have some after dinner. Anna insists that she wants some chocolate now: "Mommy, I want some chocolate now, I said". - "Sweatheart, you first eat your dinner and then you can have some chocolate". Anna is quick to respond: "Mommy you are not listening!"

Pilgrims are born at Costco

Phillip came home from pre-school the other day, mentioning that his buddy Dennis was born at COSTCO (large warehouse retailer). Upon further questioning, he also mentioned that Dennis had told him, that he had walked thru every state, and that he is a pilgrim. Apparently, there was also a sex change involved - because Dennis said: "first I was a boy, then I became a girl, but now I am a boy again." We had no further questions.

The Bear

Phillip was just about 15 months, when we travelled to Europe. He only knew a few words, at the time, and bear was one of them. It also happened to be his favorite toy pet. During layover, in the waiting lounge at Copenhagen airport, he spotted an elegant lady in a long mink coat. His eyes sparkled, he hurried to the lady's seat, and volunteered a big hug around her in the fur. With closed eyes and the intensity of finding a lost love, "BEEEEAAAAR" !

My Orca...

Son Phillip (@ age 4): "Daddy, where are we going, when we fly to Europe?" I explained that we would be going to an island called "Mallorca". A few days later, our neighbor came over, and Phillip couldn't wait to break the news: "This summer we are going to my Dad's orca!"

Update: Phillip started to get the point that it is not his dad's orca. His latest opinion in the matter: "It's everybody's orca".

It's raining cats and dogs ...

Watch what you say ... yesterday, just about ready to leave the house for preschool, I told my 2 children that it was raining cats and dogs, and therefor they would have to wear rain coats. Anna (2 1/2), who is a little apprehensive of dogs these days, stood at the open door, looking up into the sky, looking back at me. "Anna is staying home, it's raining dogs!"

Mom: So where are we going today?

Phillip at age 2: I want to go to the museum of animals.