Anthony is always saying things that are surprising or interesting (to us, at least) for one reason or another, and today he had a couple of gems.
We were doing our God Blesses before bed, and he said that he wanted to do a special God Bless for Mommy in Japan. Our normal pattern is that I say something that he then repeats, so the conversation went like this:
| Me: | A super God bless for Mommy in Japan... |
| Anthony: | I don't want to do the one that you say, because I love Mommy more a super lot. |
| Me: | Oh, okay, well, say what you like! |
| Anthony: | God bless Mommy super super super super super super super super suuuuuuuuuuuuuper super suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper.... (long pause) I forgot what I say after that. |
We eventually worked it out 🙂
The other one that struck me is that while we were making a “space ship” out of a cardboard box, I remembered having seen news of a recent Space Shuttle launch, so I thought to show him some pictures of a Space Shuttle launch. I pulled up some shots with my web image viewer, and eventually found a nice one showing the Shuttle on the launch pad, with the two solid boosters on the side of the big external tank.
I started to tell him how the people were in the part that looked like airplane, and that the other parts were... at which point he interrupted me. “I know daddy,” he said as he pointed to the two solid booster rockets, “those two parts go away like this....” He then brought his hands together as if in prayer, then quickly peeled them apart to the sides, exactly how any adult who has seen a video of a Space Shuttle launch would describe how the solid boosters fall away.
He then pointed to the big external tank and the shuttle itself, and proceeded to explain how the big tank would fall away a bit later, again, using his hands exactly how any adult would do it.
I was shocked. Where do kids learn these things?! I asked, and he said that he saw it in a book. Wow.
Despite Anthony being the smartest kid in the world :-), other kids have their own surprising moments. A few days ago, my brother and his wife (the ones who welcomed their second child two days ago were snuggling with their two-year-old, Grace, and asked her about something they had never discussed before: “Grace, do you know your last name?”
She had no idea what they were talking about, so they told her “Your last name is Friedl,” at which point her eyes brightened up and she said “Oh, Friedl! F · R · I · E · D · L. Friedl.”
At just a bit over two years old, Grace is much too young to be able to spell, so her parents were stunned and dumbfounded, to put it mildly. (“We both about fell off the bed.”)
Of course, anyone with the last name “Friedl” knows that you're forever having to spell it for people (who want to write Friedle, Friedel, or any of a number of other misspellings), and Grace had obviously overheard her parents spell it over the phone a thousand times during her short life.
This perhaps also explains how after spelling her last name and repeating it again, she then recited their phone number. (Wow!!!)
My first reaction upon hearing the story was to suggest asking her whether she knows of a cure for cancer.
I heard Grace spell the name and recite her phone number over the phone. But I think she was cheating – I’m sure she was reading it off a cheat sheet. 🙂
1) Vacation in Tunisia: During daytime the kids did some t-shirt painting. By surprise they gave it to the kids in the evening during ‘Kinder Disco’. Hannah was asked first to come to the stage. She was asked ‘What’s your name’ and ‘Where do you come from?’. She replied ‘Hannah’ and ‘Germany’. Besides the fact that she went to the stage and seemed to be not shy at all we have been very surprised about ‘Germany’. She knows our address in Germany (Wendeburg, Ahornring), but we’ve never told her the country itself.
2) At home: Hannah was not willing to make up the living room after playing, a lot of toys, books and the like are spread. I reminded her 2 times to make up the room. At the third and last reminder I told her that everything which has not been removed in time will be thrown away by myself in the evening while she is sleeping. At this point she started to do something. I did not check the result immediately, but later on I still found some items left on the floor (but not knowing exactly what it is, I just assumed there are still toys or the like). I asked her whether she completed to make up the room, because something is left. She said ‘Yes, I put MY things away, I just left the trash, YOU can throw away!!’ I was shocked!! I’ve never expected this reaction. How can she be that smart to use my own threat against me … ?!?!