Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Please explain

A few years ago my parents took a vacation to a Spanish speaking country. I can't remember which one, could be Argentina, could be Spain, they've been to both so it's not like I'm completely guessing. At any rate, one of the presents they brought back for Mr. Dog was a t-shirt that features cells pushing baby carriages containing body parts. It is some kind of commentary on the use of stem cells. We're not sure if it is pro-stem cell research or anti-stem cell research, but the shirt is kind of cool. If we were able to read Spanish we'd be able to tell, but Mr. Dog took German in high school and I only know Dutch and some Italian. Up against the shirt, we're useless.

So Little Dog is fascinated by the shirt. When Mr. Dog wears it, he points to the cells, "What is this?" he asks. Mr. Dog explains they are cells.
"What is this?" asks Little Dog pointing to one of the body parts.
"It's a brain," he explains.
"What's this?" asks Little Dog pointing to another body part.
"It's a heart," he explains. And so on, and so on until the entire shirt has been explained.
He's done this three times tonight that I've overheard. Possibly more that I didn't witness.
And then, after covering all of the images, he points to the text.
"What's this say?" he asks.
"I don't know," answers Mr. Dog.
"This!" he points again at the text, "What does it say?"
"I don't know," Mr. Dog answers again.
"Does it say 'I don't know,'" Little Dog asks, without a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
And even without the sarcasm, we're left giggling. Sometimes parents are so useless.

2 comments:

chihuahua5 said...

Can you email/list the actual phrase?

geekymummy said...

Ok we need a picture of the shirt! I want one!
My kids are always asking "how do you sat that in spanish?" and getting Spanish books out of the school library. Make me feel quite inadequate!

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