Basketball

Me: lets go over to owen's; we can play basketball!

Dominic: Yeah!

A moment later: do they have restructions [instructions]? I don't know how to play basketball.

Me: well, do you know what basketball is?

Dominic: yeah, you hold the ball and try to throw it in the net.

me!

zoe is more and more adorable every day. lately, she yells "ME!!!" whenever i suggest something to do.

for example,

"who wants to go outside?"

"MEEEEE!!!!"

she's not totally indiscriminate about it though... she's usually careful enough to only say it when she really wants the thing.

"who wants to eat dinner?"

silence.

but she wants to do just about everything, so it's now our favorite thing to ask who wants to do something, just for the reaction.

today, mathias was setting up the new bench for the tv. after he set it up, he was moving over the tv and the wires and everything. he says to me, "is there anything else we want back here that has to have power?"

"MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

i almost killed myself laughing.

"miss me, miss me, kiss me"

I told Dominic to say "you missed me, you missed me, now you gotta kiss me!" when I missed him with the ball for a game we were playing.

but I really don't think he understood the concept: he yells, "miss me, miss me, kiss me!" And comes running over with his lips puckered up for a big kiss.

breakfast story

before i forget how this went...

at breakfast this morning, i had this conversation with dominic:

dominic: i want to sit next to you

me: ok, why don't you sit in opa's chair?

dominic: put opa's chair in the corner and put my chair there!

me: why? your chair is the same as opa's.

dominic: [insisting] put my chair there!!!

me: why don't you want to sit in opa's chair?

dominic: if i sit in opa's chair, omi will call me 'opa'.

my parents came back

it was great to see my parents again - but for such a short time! it was gone so quickly. here are a few pictures.

who's telling this story anyways?

let's see if i can remember this right (even though it just happened!) -

dominic says at bedtime, "tell me a story"

ok, once upon a time there was a mean monkey---


"no it was an escavator!"

ok, there was a mean excavator---


"no, she was nice! a nice mouth escavator!"

ok, there was a nice mouth excavator. and she always helped everyone and was nice to everyone. one day she saw a monkey---


"no, it was a truck!"

ok, the truck needed help carrying his groceries---


"no, it was a pick-a-purple-pickle-pick truck!"

ok, the pick-a-purple-pickle-pick truck needed help with groceries---


"no, it was carrying pickles!"

well, the excavator helped that truck carry his pickles---


"she carried them one at a time"

were they very big pickles?


"no, they were tiiiiiiiiny."

oh, well, then she can carry a lot of pickles if they were tiny.


"ok, they were a little bit tiny."

ok, she carried them one at a time across the river---


"to here!"

she carried them one at a time across the river to dominic's house---


"it's omi's house!"

she carried them one at a time to omi's house---


"she put them in a jar!"

ok, she put them in a jar in omi's fridge---


"no, she put them in the freezer! in the downstairs freezer!"

and then opa ate them---


"no, dominic ate one!"

ok---


"and it was TOTALLY SPICY!"

[at this point, i start dying of laughter]

"it's not funny!"

ok, opa was eating them and dominic came and said, can i have one? and then he ate one and it was TOTALLY SPICY. 


"ok"

the end.

could she be any cuter?

seriously.

"there's my opa!" (she says "pa! pa!" also says that for "papa")

that sneaky squirrel

"tell me a story" is probably the phrase i hear most from dominic. generally he directs the stories and gets excited when you tell it (even if he just told you what to say).

but often we have a story theme. for example, here is this week's story theme.

one day, that sneaky squirrel (a kinder surprise toy) went sneaking up the stairs early in the morning before anyone was awake. she sneaked into the kettle and when opa came to make his mate, she jumped out at him and said 'boo!' opa was so surprised he fell into the dishwasher!

easily adjusted:

the squirrel sneaks into the ______ and surprises _______ when s/he _______________. s/he is so surprised, s/he jumps into the _______.

endless stories.

sunshine became a stranger to us

apparently dominic has seen so little sunshine that when we found a little (a few weeks ago), he could hardly stand it! 

admittedly, it had been a long day and he was very tired. he wouldn't open his eyes long enough to get used to it. and i believe he was tired and hungry. it was pretty funny though.

falling asleep at dinner

once dominic falls asleep, he's really asleep. it's very hard to wake him up. on the other hand, he rarely falls asleep anywhere but in his bed. sometimes in the car, but i've never seen him fall asleep at the table, even when he was a baby.

but the other day at dinner, i commented that he was looking so tired. then he kinda curled up in his chair, and the next thing i knew, he was asleep! an hour and a half before bedtime! mathias carried him downstairs and i put on his pajamas. he woke up a little bit but fell right back asleep. and then he slept all night! he slept from 6pm to 7am. it's like some kind of world record. and no sign of him being sick. he was in a great mood the next day.

dominic's questions

i love that he does this and that he's so curious, and i even love answering the questions... but sometimes, just sometimes... i would like to have a five minute vacation from questions.

what does fire come from? what do leaves come from?


is my blood orange? are my bones green? (...no, i want them to be green!)


what is the fridge made of? can we take it apart to see?

so sweet