Entries from June 2008 ↓

While driving yesterday, my three year old suddenly asks from behind me, "Daddy, do you have at least one hand on the driving wheel?"

"Yes," I reply.

"Thanks," she says, and nothing more is said.

So I swing by Dunkin Donuts for lunch today, figuring that I will try one of their new "flatbread sandwiches". I see the offerings are Turkey/Bacon/Cheddar, Ham/Swiss, or Three Cheese.

"Could I get the Ham and Swiss sandwich please?" I ask.

"Sure," says the nice Chinese lady, coming over to the register. "What kind you like?"

"Ham and swiss," I repeat, thinking that she is just reconfirming my order.

She pauses. "Yes but what kind sandwich you like?"

"I'm sorry?" I ask now, generally confused.

"Sandwich. What kind sandwich?"

Now I'm thinking that maybe there's a choice of bread or something that I've missed. "What are my….choices?" I ask.

At this point the Chinese man filling the donuts turns around and says, "We have three kinds sandwich. Turkey bacon, ham swiss, and three cheese."

"Oh!" I say. "Ham and swiss."

"Ham and swiss," he tells the lady.

My fault for not being clear, I guess. Maybe, *maybe* giving her the benefit of the doubt, me saying "ham and swiss" sounds like "sandwich" and she thought I kept asking for a generic sandwich over and over again.

Yesterday my oldest, while waiting to be driven to school, is trying to explain to me that if you're spelling cats, you don't need to put the line over the s.

I have no idea what she's talking about. It doesn't help that I'm trying to clean the kitchen before running her out the door to school. She tells me, "That's ok, I'll think about how to better explain it to you."

As we're driving she explains, "If you're talking about the cat's whiskers you use the line, Daddy, but if you're talking about two cats, you don't."

"Oh!" I say as it dawns on me. "You're talking about the apostrophe!"

"Yeah," she says shakily, not really sure if that's the right word.

"So like if I said K's backpack I use the line above the S, but if I said there are two Ks in your class, I don't."

"Right, Daddy. That's what I meant."

"Ok, now I get it. Know what that's called? That's called possessive and plural."

"What?"

"Did I lose you?"

"Yeah, you lost me."

"Don't worry about it. Know where else you use the line? In contractions. Have you learned contractions yet?"

"Contr…..no."

I have to remember not to fill the child's brain up too fast.

Today the 3yr old was all about the stories:

"Daddy, today at work my friend Jessica learned a new word: Protest. And my friend Courtney? Has a new book. The title is the Princess and the Princess and the Prince and the Mean Witch Who All Live In The Castle With The Dragon. The one princess's name is Belle and the other princess's name is Ariel. The prince's name is Max and the mean witch's name is Caliban. His helper with is named Sycorax."

Jessica and Courtney, I may have mentioned, are women where I work who she has borrowed as imaginary playmates. Caliban and Sycorax are characters from Shakespeare.

On an unrelated note, do all little kids go through a phase where most words start with the Y sound? I remember my oldest once telling me a story to the effect that, because of something the "yady" had told her she could not have, she "had a yiddle meltdown."

Well my youngest, my son, seems to be doing the same thing . The other day, playgroup father Kip was over. When I walked in the door after work, there was my son, very excitedly yelling "Yip! Yip!" When he can't find his mother he wanders around the house calling "Mommy! Yahyoo?" And in the morning he more often than not walks his "yoos", although whether he's asking for juice or shoes is very hard to distinquish.