Una came up to me the other day to ask me why church and shirt are the same. They aren’t the same at all. I run a mental image of the letters that compose the two words and they are far from similar. But to someone who is just learning the phonics — they do appear the same.

I told her CH and SH gives the same SH sound while RCH and RT when positioned at the end of the word assumes almost the same ending sound.

How do you explain to a 4-year old the difference between numbers and ordinal position? Am amazed at the learning materials they currently have — I swear some of the items I learned when I was already in the 3rd grade. I just hope all these efforts at pushing our kids ahead will not backfire.

How about living things and non-living things? I asked her, the robot moves so it is a living thing. She answered back: No oi, it moves only when I play with it and it does not grow or need food and water.

I am so excited. I will have her join us in our next session where Jude and I talk shit and drown Vodka. But she might hog all the chips and salsa.

Una: Papa, iya guba akong cover sa shoes.

Santino : continues ripping papers.

It’s been a long week and am BEAT. I’ve been working 10 hours a day and taking care of Max at night. Jude had it worse — he’s working more than 12 hours and getting at most 4 hours of shut-eye.

Nothing does it better.

And he sang: “Happy Birthday, ako,” while we were in the cab.

His Dida (mommyminda) gave him his toy robot which he dubbed DAN-TING robot. And they cannot be parted even in his sleep.