while in the garden

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our landlord recently had the property cleaned up by a landscaper. today Phoenix explored the formerly overgrown regions while carrying his bubble wand. he found himself a perfectly proportioned nook between two trees and plopped down.

while waving his bubble wand, Phoenix announced "I'm in the forest. I'm the king of the world!"

berkeley boy

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Yesterday, this well-dressed young man gave me his spiel about needing money for food. As a New Yorker who has grown impervious to these requests while walking through Downtown Berkeley - i know, i'm a heartless asshole - I simply replied "No." Phoenix, on backup from the stroller chimed: "Not today!" 

emotional nachos

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Phoenix has been somewhat picky about food lately. but as usual, i plowed forward with my culinary efforts. tonight was a fun dinner of nachos - a first for Phoenix. they consisted of pinto beans, ground pork, onion, salsa fresca, monterey jack cheese, roasted red bell pepper and avocado.

at first, he was skeptical and somewhat uninterested. after some time to poke and explore, he finally ate some. he responded, "Interesting dinner, Daddy." i was thrilled.

then after some enthusiastic eating, he quipped, "Awesome dinner, Daddy. I love you!"

i blubbered in my nachos, swept up by a moment that i didn't know i had been waiting my whole life to have.

you, too

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following a long and easily distracted breakfast, Phoenix finally decided he was finished. i wiped off his hands and said, "okay, you can get down now. peace out."

climbing out of his chair he replies, "i want to play in my room. and i want you to peace out in my room, too."

brown bag guinea pig

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This was announced yesterday during lunch:
"There was a guinea pig in the classroom. I just need to talk about that."

super powers

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while walking home from preschool today, the boy announced:

"red means go and green means stop! that's my super power!"

poetry blocks

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The boy received this awesome set of stacking blocks for his birthday.  Each block has a gorgeous rendering of a nature scene and a short poem. Every time I tried to read him one of the poems, he nested that block inside a larger block. This went on for a few minutes. Finally, I asked him why he didn't want me to read the poems. He said "Bye Bye Poems! Yucky Poems!"