Elliot says...

Why shouldn't a seven-year-old have a blog? A father poses questions and a son answers directly, honestly, and candidly with the directness, honesty, and candor that only a seven-year-old can bring. Dictated and moderated by AmsterdamAsp , these are the words of Elliot himself: simple and complex observations of the world from the mind of a six-year-old...

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Do you like herfst vakantie?

Yeah. [Why?] Because I just do. It's hard to explain.

Well... I was staying at Tobias's house [on Tuesday]. We played clowns. We put make-up on, but Caden [Tobias's little brother] was the lion. So the clowns had to get the lion, because the lion was going to eat us. He wanted to eat us. We had to get him so he would not eat us. But we ate Caden up for pretend. And we put some cuffs on Caden.

And we made some road stuff [earlier in the week, this "road stuff" was described as "mud soup"]. We put some leaves in it, and some pretend cinnamon. And we threw them into the bucket that has water in it. And we keep mixing it up, and it keeps on getting pinker and pinker. We were making road stuff, and the road stuff smelled like brick.

But I couldn't stay with him [Tobias]. I was going to stay at his house [for a sleepover], but I couldn't. Well, I stayed there a little while, but in the evening I was feeling sick, so I had to come home. But now I'm feeling better. But I'm not going to Tobias's house today. They said I could come back one day. So what day can I go to Tobias's house?

[What kind of projects have you been working on with Mommy?]

A turkey project. You can't eat the turkey. We made it with the beans on the box, and with the kind of things from Olivia. And then we did the eyes. And the nose. And the body is a balloon with papier mache. We had to take it [the balloon] out, and it [the remaining paper shell] was still an oval. Well, we took the little thing out on the bottom and it made a hole. So it doesn't have any air, but it's still an oval thing. We put some newspaper on, and now we painted it today. It's all brown because turkeys are usually brown.

[And why have you been making cookie dough with Mommy?]

To sell 'em. And we can also have some. We're selling them to people at the Zolder. To get mosquito nets for the kids in Africa [raising money for Millenium Promise]. Because they get really sick. And they don't have any money or food. They already have food, but they don't have clothes. Or money. Or mosquito bites. Or, they have mosquito bites -- but they still don't have mosquito nets. So we get money for the people in Africa, not clothes. And with the money, they can get mosquito nets. But I don't want to go to Africa. Because in Africa, when it comes in the night, you get sick. So I don't want to sleep there. 'Cause then I'll get sick or something. And then I'll die. I don't want to stay in Africa to sleep.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

What was Politiedag?



We went to a politie [Dutch for "police"] thing -- a thing that there was pretend polities there. But actually they were real ones. They were real.

But I was afraid. Because some black guys get taken by the polities. And I was wearing black. But they didn't take me away, because I have a soccer shirt. But those bad guys were not wearing it. But I was not a bad guy.

We saw Wieke -- Timo's mommy [Timo is a classmate of Elliot's, whose mother works for the police department and thus invited us to visit the event]. She gave me this pen, and I got to talk on the microphone inside the bus [Wieke works as a dispatcher for the police, so Elliot got to see how it works to receive calls from a walkie-talkie].

I have a politie thing [a sticker with the police emergency numbers on it -- which Elliot seems to consider to be a sort of badge officially identifying him as a member of the police force], so if you want to call me, then push een - een - twee. One - one - two. If you want to call me, then push 1 - 1 - 2. But if I don't hear you, then don't let me... Do you want to talk to me now? Cause I'm available. I'm wearing a politie hat. I got it from politiedag because I winned [knocked over a pyramid of cans with a foam ball]. And I got a drawing [coloring page] 'cause I winned.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Could you tell me about your circus at school?



Well, actually I had paint on me by myself. But my teacher painted me. I didn't put on my nose [his foam clown nose], so she painted on a nose with paint. But she didn't paint my hair. Because that would be silly to paint hair. I wore a wig. And I got my things on after. I had pants on together with my clown clothes.

When we were coming in, we marched next to each other. And we made, um... what was that called again? [After some consulting and dialogue in a mix of Dutch and English, we were able to come up with the answer that had eluded him] Een rij -- a row! Then we made another rij, but it was kind of a circle. When I went around the table, Daddy, remember? En je hebt gezwaaid? [And you waved at me?] And there was a song: dum, dum, dum, dum, a-dobee-dumdee-dumbee dum...

I was the clown, and I was in the song. My balloon was stuk [broken] -- so I made it sad like this... And then I got a new balloon, and I blowed, and I blowed, and I blowed, and it went "BAM!" And then it popped again. Then the circus directeurs said to me, sometimes I didn't know, but he did see me actually. Ik was op een step [I was on a scooter]. En nog een ding [And one more thing]. Ik heb niet met een voet maar twee voeten [I didn't just do it with one foot, but with two feet]!

Dennis was a leeuw [lion]. And Zubair. And someone else. They jumped through the hoop. The hoop was especially made for leeuwen. For pretend leeuwen. Dennis was wearing a yellow shirt, but he got whiskers because he didn't have whiskers. So they painted him with whiskers.

My Dad came to watch. And my sister came to watch. And Linda came to watch. And Mommy came to watch. But I didn't -- because I was in it.

And when we were done, we loopten [a grammatically incorrect form of "walked"] back naar de klaas [to the class]. And we got some limonade [kool-aid] and koekjes [cookies]. But I ate it before I went home. And then I went home, and that's it.