Day 6 - The quintABsence of communication

• Today in the morning when returning home from dropping Florian off at nursery we passed a garden near our home. There was a cat sitting on the grass which for Matthias (and any toddler I assume) is the pinnacle of excitement. I didn't even notice it at first as it was only visible from his angle behind the hedge. So we started talking:
  Him: "Where's the cat?" Me: "What cat?" H: "That cat!". So we walked back and I had a look and really there was a cat lying outside. H: "What's it eating?" M: "It's not eating anything" H: "What's it eating?" M: "Nothing, It's just lying there!" H: "What's it eating?" M: "Ok, it's eating a mouse." H: "What mouse?" M: "Just a mouse" H: "What mouse?" M: "No mouse!!" H: "And the dog?" M: "What dog?" H: "What's the dog eating?" M: "What dog?" H: "What's the dog eating?" M: "There is no f#*%&ing dog!!!!" H: "The cat should go home." M: "It is at home" H: "The cat should go home." M: "But it is at home, that's his garden!" H: "It should go to the other garden" M: "No it won't it is at home." H: "The cat should go home" ... Eventually I just dragged him off. Lesson learned: Do NOT ever try reasoning with small children, you can only lose.
• Then after playing a bit at home we had to go to the eye doctor for a routine eyesight test. It turned out that at his age this is more of an IQ test than anything else. In preparation for the test I had to practice with Matthias for a month(!) to name four symbols: a square (which he names "carpet"), a circle (which he names "sky"), an apple and a house - not quite right but at least consistent. The doctor doing the test is quite an attractive young lady so obviously I wanted to impress her with my training skills. So here's how it went: She told me to put Matthias on my lap and started to show him some symbols. She: "Matthias, what's that?" Him: "..." S: "What is this little Matthias? H: "..." S: "Ok, try something else, what is this?" H: "...". So that continued for five minutes then she said to me: "He's looking at me like an autobus, can he actually talk?". Being too proud to give up I took over the symbol pointing, ... still nothing. Then in a final attempt they succeeded: S: "Matthias, can you talk?" H: "yes" S: "Can you say house?" H: "yes" S: "Will you say it?" H: "yes" S: "Say it!!" H: "... house". Ah there we go, good boy, after that the spell was broken and it turned out that his eyes are just fine.
• Matthias has two pairs of shoes, one blue and one brown. In the afternoon my wife took him to a friend wearing the brown ones. Problem: When it was time to go back home in the evening he wanted to wear the blue ones, which ended in quite a severe tantrum!! So what do we learn from that: always bring the spare shoes, NOT!! (Never spoil your child).
  
• In the evening as Matthias was so tired he was put to sleep early and I stayed in our lounge with Florian. He wanted to watch TV. I told him that's not possible because the sound would wake Matthias up. We ended up watching ... drums rolling, excitement ... jungle book, this time - without sound (how low can you go?) which is a very meditative (aka boring) experience. The amazing thing is that Florian could realtime dub most scenes. I hate home cinema (other movie buy I must, "Ratatouille" mention Florian did).
• Lunch: chicken filet ("Schnitzel"), rice, apple. Dinner: Chinese style beef.
  
• I was quite tired all day, had to up my caffeeine dosage to two.