Groovey Ear Cheese

Yesterday, Sven tried some Gruyere cheese. He said "I like Groovey Ear Cheese."

This morning Sven asked about his Buzz Lightyear toothbrush. I had thrown it out months ago because it was getting worn out - but he was upset. He said "that teases me" -- I think he was trying to say "that peeves me".

Movie Appetizer

We were driving home from Oregon this weekend, and Sven was watching a movie on his DVD player that came with some previews. Sven called the previews "movie appetizers."

5 plus 5 is 5 plus 5

Yesterday, Sven asked for some Jelly Bean candy from the bulk section of favorite local co-op. I asked him how many he wanted and he said "five." So, I asked him if he knew what 5 plus 5 was, and he didn't understand the question.

When we got him I tried with fewer Jelly Beans. We started with 2 plus 2, and after some explanation, he finally gave me the right answer consistently. So, we graduated to 3 plus 3. That took much less time. But we were out of Jelly Beans because I let him eat the sum of each Arithmetic question.

Later that evening we did 1 plus 1 and he said 2, but he was a little unsure about 1 plus 2 - he finally said 3. Then Sven said "5 plus 5 is 5 plus 5", and ended the conversation at that. He refused to discuss it further.

Border Crossing

Most of the time Sven's reluctance to say his real name is only slightly annoying, or even cute. But last weekend, we thought we were in deep trouble. We went up to Victoria, Canada for the weekend. When we arrived at Canadian Immigration, the Officer holding our passports looked at Sven, looked at his picture (which was taken when he was 4 months old) and then said to Sven "what's your name?" Sven looked shy and didn't answer. So, she said "do you know your name?" and Sven said "Tinkerbell." At this point, Erik and I tried to convey to Sven the importance of saying his real name, but he wouldn't cooperate.

So, the Immigration Officer changed her question. Erik was holding Sven, so she said "do you know who he is?" indicating Erik. And Sven said "I don't know." What Sven really probably meant was "I don't want to answer these questions." Finally, in a quiet voice Sven said "I'm Thunder Nilsson.". At this point the Officer either took pity on us, or saw how futile the whole thing was, and let us go. As we left the Immigration office Sven said to me in a very small quiet voice "I'm Sven Michiya Namioka Thunder Nilsson."

On the boat home, I asked Sven if we could practice what he was going to say when we arrived in the U.S. Sven said "I don't want to practice. That woman was naughty, asking my name."

Hm, we'll have to work on the whole name thing before he reaches Kindergarten.