Some Mint

A couple of days ago, we were driving past a cement factory and Sven said "what's that?" Erik told him it was a cement maker. Sven started talking about mints, and I realized that he thought that Erik said "Some Mint" maker. For awhile it was a rather odd conversation. Erik was trying to explain how cement gets made, and Sven was responding with assertions about mints that come in bowls. Sven might now think that candy mints are delivered in some mint trucks.

-Aki

My Turn to Talk

Sven is often the only child in a group of adults, so he has developed the need to assert himself conversationally. Often, when Erik and I are talking to a group of friends, or to each other, we hear Sven say "My turn to talk."

So, we let Sven have a turn. But more often than not, Sven uses his "turn" to discuss whose turn it is to talk. We get into lots of circular conversations this way. I realized, after trying to explain to Sven when it is his turn to talk, that good social conversational manners, are not that easy to figure out.

We've also noticed that when Sven feels very strongly about something, he'll repeat himself over and over, despite our best attempts to acknowledge what he said the first few times.

Mother's Day

We had a very nice Mother's Day. Sven and I made Nutella crepes for breakfast, and Erik cleaned up. Sven can shift all the dry ingredients, beat all the wet stuff, then stir the whole thing together. He's actually getting quite good around a kitchen (with the help of a large step stool). He can do everything required to make scrambled eggs, except turn on the stove.

Erik told Sven it was Mother's Day, so he greeted me with "Happy Mother's Day" several times. Then he asked me if I had found my chocolates. Since I knew he and Erik hadn't quite gotten around to doing thier shopping, I knew there wasn't any chocolates yet. But I played along and said - "no, where are they?" Sven responded "in a bag." When I asked where the bag was, he changed the subject :)

A few minutes later Sven said "Did you see the dress I got you? I got you a Princess Leia dress." Again, I played along and when I asked where it was, Sven said "upstairs, in my closet." So, we went upstairs and pretended to search the closet. But he was actually looking for a cymbal he thought was hidden in there.

The most interesting part of this exchange was that Sven knew he was supposed to give me something. I wonder how he figured that out. Later, I got a big yummy box of Fran's chocolates!!

That evening, we took my parents to Cirque de Soliel. I was a little worried that Sven might not be able to sit through a 2 hour show plus a 30 minute intermission. But he was mesmerized. He hardly stirred during the entire show. The only part he didn't like was a fake head getting blown off, because he didn't know it was fake. He thought it was a real person.

On the way home he relived the evening by going through the program. My parents also greatly enjoyed the show, so we highly recommend the Cirque for the entire family!

'Spensive Lightsaber

Sven has concluded that real objects are 'spensive, rather than the toy version. So, he will say "can I have a 'spensive puppy?" Unfortunately, Erik is very allergic to dogs, so Sven will never get a 'spensive puppy.

Last weekend Sven said, "Can we go to the 'spensive lightsaber store and get a red one, and a green one, and a blue one?" Then he told us that he gets the red one (the Darfa Bader one), Erik gets the green one (the Yoda one), and I get the blue one.