Embedded Files
2007 Merry Christmas from the Summers-Stays
I finished my Master’s at NYU and we moved to Ohio last December for a job with the Air Force Research Lab in Dayton. I am applying for a Ph.D. program in the fall. Lesli had cranial-cervical fusion and Chiari surgery last December. Her health is gradually improving since the surgery. Daniel learned to read this year and has started at a Montessori kindergarten. He turned 5 in October. Below we have our traditional Daniel quotes Lesli collected throughout the year.
We were reading a lift-the-flap nativity story. Daniel said excitedly, “Look Mommy, in this story,” and he opened a flap of the inn, “Jesus had a cat!”
Daniel- When is the world going to be gone?
Lesli- Never. Why? Why do you think the world is going to be gone?
Daniel- To make a good ending.
Daniel- When am I going to be a girl? Mom, do boys turn into girls?
Lesli- No.
Daniel- Why?
Daniel- Mom, why do you like pretty music?
Lesli- Don’t you?
Daniel- No, I like loud music.
Lesli- You should take off work tomorrow. You’re very sick.
Doug- No, I have to tell everybody about how the tracking database works.
Daniel- That will be hard to tell everybody because you don’t know everybody’s name.
Lesli (lying in bed) to Daniel- ‘Go wash your hands.’
Water runs for a fraction of a second.
Lesli calls out ‘You need to do it for longer and use soap.’
Daniel- ‘I should've shut your door.’
Lesli– ‘Don’t leave the Thomas train going. It uses up the battery.’
Daniel– ‘And batteries cost money and if we do that a lot it will use up all the money.’
Daniel– ‘Do you have your birthday when you go poopy enough times to have your birthday?’
I said something and Daniel repeated it. I asked, “Are you copying me Daniel?”
Daniel said, “Yes. Oh no – I have to say, ‘Are you copying me Daniel.’”
Daniel- How does God make cats?
Doug-Very carefully.
Daniel- No, I mean what does he make cats out of?
Doug- Legos.
Daniel- There are no Legos in heaven.
Doug- Of course there are. It wouldn’t be heaven if it didn’t have Legos.
Daniel- How did you know I was here?
Doug- Well, I was thinking where would Daniel be if he wanted to hide so he didn’t have to go to bed. and I thought, he would be under the covers. And I was right, wasn’t I?
Daniel- He’s not. I’m Lesli.
Daniel- Heaven is on another planet.
Lesli- Well, maybe. I don’t know. But Heaven is near. It’s both near and far.
Daniel- They should have put Heaven next to people’s houses.
I was trying to get Daniel to give me five after he bumped his head and I had been comforting him for a bit. Daniel said with dignity, “Crying persons don’t give people five.”
The glue stick lid fell off the table. Daniel said, “Lids always fall on the floor because they can’t fly.”
Daniel- When you were little why did you want to be my Daddy when you growed up?
Douglas- Because I thought it would be neat to have a little Daniel.
Daniel- How did you know Mommy would call me Daniel?
Lesli (giving Daniel a hug)- You’re my little one.
Daniel- You’re my big one.
Doug was reading Daniel the Bible story of Elijah going up to heaven in a chariot of fire.
Doug- Wouldn’t it be neat to fly up in the sky in a chariot with a whirlwind like Elijah?
Daniel- Yeah . . . but in the real world we just fly in airplanes.
I walked into the kitchen and Daniel was saying to himself, “And someone who can see without glasses and then you get glasses and then you can see blurry!”
Daniel- ‘You don’t look like a Mom. You look like a Mommy. A Mom looks like wif curly hair. You don’t have curly hair, so you look like a Mommy.’
Doug put Daniel’s sandwich in a baggy.
Daniel- That was rude.
Lesli- I don’t think you know what rude means.
Daniel- Yes I do. It means when someone does something you don’t like.
Daniel- Poppy, have you ever seen a picture of an automatic spoon?
Doug- No- what does it do?
Daniel- Well, it’s like a sewing machine. It goes down and gets some corn flakes and brings them up to your mouth. I wish I had one.
Daniel- I can’t talk focused. I talk blurry when I lean on your shoulder.
As Doug was doing our taxes, Daniel asked, “Are you writing, ‘From Douglas, to the government, please send us some money?’”
Daniel was sucking on his fingers and got saliva all over them. He said, ‘I need to wash my hands.’
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘Go in the bathroom.’
Daniel- ‘But how do I wash my hands?’
Lesli- ‘Turn the water on.’
Daniel- ‘Turn the water on?!! No way, dude! That will just get me more water!!’
Daniel’s cousin Georgianna (8 yrs old) talking to Daniel on the phone—“An opera is for grown-ups, not for little kids. It’s where people come and sing in a weird voice.”
Our tulip was getting old and wilting. Daniel said, all concerned, “ Mommy, look at the tulip. Is the tulip still living or is it trying to be not a tulip?”
The 18 yr. old youth speaker at church today said we should ‘perpetrate family relationships.’ (he meant perpetuate.)
Daniel on phone- And if I want to know if it’s nighttime, I just look out the window.
Doug- Come and brush your teeth.
Daniel, hiding behind the couch- Didn’t you notice you couldn’t find me?
Daniel observed that robots should have an E on the end, since otherwise people would pronounce it ‘rahbots.’ Doug said ‘Yes, there should be an E in there somewhere.’
Daniel looked at the word for another minute and said, ‘I think the E is hiding behind the T.’
Daniel- Do you know what I want to be when I grow up?
Doug- What?
Daniel- a librarian.
Doug- And what do you like about libraries?
Daniel- Get to check out books.
While we were passing a kid’s play place called Rollandia, I asked Daniel, “Have you been there before?
He said, “No. [pause] Why did you ask me?! You know everything I do!”
After a little girl hit him at the park
Daniel- Do you know why little kids hit?
Lesli- Because they get frustrated and don’t know how to control themselves yet?
Daniel- No, I don’t think so. It’s `cause their Dads teach them `bout weapons.
Daniel- Don’t say that word. That’s a mean word, and if you say mean words I repeat them.
A couple of days ago Daniel watched a Reading Rainbow show that asks ‘Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?’ Today he said, ‘I think the egg comes first, because a chick comes out of the egg and then it grows up to be a chicken.’
Daniel- I wish I had the force.
Lesli- Me too.
Daniel and I were looking at a cloud moving in the sky. He said, ‘I wish we could make a little hole in it. Oh look—there is a little hole in it.’ I said, ‘You made a hole in it.’ He waved his hand at it and said, ‘I can’t make any more holes in it. I guess I ran out of the force.’
Daniel- How do we teach cats not to meow?
Lesli- You can’t teach cats not to meow.
Daniel- But I want to teach cats not to meow. I want them not to meow so you won’t know when I’m doing stuff to hurt them when you’re not looking.
Daniel (about his bathwater)- That’s still hot!
Lesli- That’s not hot.
Daniel- If I were you I’d feel it warm, but if I were me I’d feel it hot.
Daniel- In primary they told us that our bellies would be happy and I was sitting next to Brice and he laughed about bellies being happy because bellies don’t have smiles.
We got Daniel some toy handcuffs. When we got home, Daniel said, ‘Oh I’ve always wanted real kittens and handcuffs.’
Daniel- I’m glad because Jesus made the sun so it will be daytime.
Lesli- Do you want to watch the Reading Rainbow that shows you how to make popcorn?
Daniel- I already know how to make popcorn. You get it out and put it in the microwave.
Doug- Do we put guns in our mouths? I’ll give you a hint: the answer is no or yes, and it starts with ‘n.’
Daniel- No.
Doug- That’s right.
Daniel- I meant, no it doesn’t start with ‘n,’ the answer is ‘yes.’
Doug- Earth was without form and void.
Daniel- What does void mean?
Doug- It means he hadn’t shaped it yet—kind of like playdoh when you haven’t shaped it yet.
Daniel- Yeah, but in the end he shaped it as a circle. He shaped all the planets as a circle.
Daniel is Spiderman—“Okay Green Goblin, I’m going to pay you back for all the bad stuff you did to me.”
He went and got small toys and said “This is money” and gave them to Doug. “There, now I paid you back.”
Daniel (at a traffic light)- Why did they make the go light green?
Lesli- I don’t know.
Daniel- But you’re a grown-up! You know everything!
While playing Stratego, Daniel said, “David and Goliath is like Stratego. Because in Stratego, the small numbers win.”
A couple days later, we had a bike race, which Daniel won. He said that his bike must be faster because it only has 2 gears, while mine has seven gears. He pointed out that this must work like Stratego, too.
I told Daniel ‘We’re out of ketchup.’
He said, ‘No we’re not. See, there it is.’
I said, ‘Oh.’
Daniel said, ‘I was right, Poppy. You were wrong. I was right. I like being right.’
I thought, ‘Boy, he’s taking after his parents.’
Daniel- Tyrannosaurus don’t have babies. They chase other baby dinosaurs.
Doug- Oh? Where do new tyrannosaurs come from, then?
Daniel- Hmm . . . maybe South America?
Daniel (reading a Bible lift-the-flap book)- Do you know where the lamb went?
Lesli- I don’t know.
Daniel- Lets look at the end.
Lesli- Lamb, are you in the garden?
Daniel- You can’t talk to them. They’re a long way from our house. They can’t hear you. They’re a long way from everywhere.
Daniel- Can I have a treat for eating my yogurt popsicle.
Lesli- A yogurt popsicle is a treat.
Daniel- It’s not a treat—because you don’t put it out of my reach.
Lesli- Daniel, isn’t this pretty music?
Daniel- Don’t talk to me right now. I’m talking to myself.
Lesli- Oh, what are you saying to yourself?
Daniel- Mommy, don’t keep talking to me or I will forget it.
Doug- Even when Daniel’s with other people he’s still alone.
Lesli- That’s because he’s never learned to socialize.
Doug- [laughs]- Which of us is gonna teach him?
Daniel was sounding out the letters in his name and said, “Where’s the Y?”
Daniel- How do Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh and all them know they are in a book?
A bunch of migrating birds stopped in the trees in our neighborhood. Daniel said, “Come listen to these birds. Those birds sound like a bunch of people clapping. Now it sounds like a bunch of people leaving the place with a big movie and arguing about it.”
This evening we were walking through a field at a park. Daniel stopped and said ‘Look,’ and held out his hand, which the sun was hitting through the swaying tall grasses. I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘It’s dapple.’
Daniel- What does salt taste like?
Doug- That’s a deep question, Daniel.
Daniel was jumping around and flailing his arms and accidentally hit me.
Lesli- Settle down.
Daniel- My body did it.
Lesli- Don’t let your body tell your brain what to do. Let your brain tell your body what to do.
Daniel- [pause] My body didn’t listen.
The following are emails Daniel wrote in January through March of 2007. For the most part he wrote them completely on his own. He learned to read in March and April. Since he learned to read well he has been reluctant to sound out words, partly because he knows there is a right way to spell them.
wee got a noo cat. i look at ol the brds on the brd websioeet
[I look at all the birds on the bird website.]
i leeek daenslrs. poppy leeeks robots. mommy leeeks fawrs. wut doo yoo leyk?
[I like dinosaurs. Poppy likes robots. Mommy likes flowers. What do you like?]
i just eeet a pees uv ledis. wen i eeet the pees uv ledis i got a sdorbrst. from daniel [I ate a piece of lettuce. When I ate the piece of lettuce I got a starburst.] In “eeet” the first e makes the sound from hen and the other two e’s make the sound from meet.
moee feyvrit dinoslr is a sdegoslirus. wt doynossaur doo yool leyk
[My favorite dinosaur is a stegosaurus. What dinosaur do you like?] Sometimes Daniel uses a y for an ‘ee’ sound.
deer Douglas
i wocht lly ply lly. wen or you cumeen hlm. i plad wif my tractor. i had pufs flr breakfast. frum daniel
[I watched Roly Poly Ollie. When are you coming home?]
Lesli- Why don’t you put a vowel before the L? Like ‘o-l’’?
Daniel- But in ‘Daniel’ the ‘L’ is ‘ull’ sound.
[I guess that reasoning is why he just types ‘L’ instead of a vowel plus ‘L’ for things like ‘RLY PLY LLY’ and sometimes uses ‘L’ for a vowel.]
Regarding Daniel’s transformer website (dsummerstay.googlepages.com/daniel%27stransformers)
Those are very impressive. So do they transform into anything else? As you can see I know nothing about transformers. Do you just take the parts and make whatever you want?
Aunt Kelli
you cant take the peeses off the transforormers. you can chanj dim in too cars. frum daniel
Daniel wanted to write an email to Doug and asked me what to write. I was eating breakfast so I just told him to say ‘Hello. How are you. Have a good day,’ and didn’t come in or see what he wrote until after he had sent it:
deer poppy
hell
hal or yoo
hav a gd dey frum daniel
The following message regards our new kitten:
shee is feydy cat if shees a feydy cat shee huyding ol the toym . frum daniel
[to martha demos] i liv in belbrook. mommy leyks it heer kind uv. i pwey geyms frum daniel
wel actlly I giv toks daln sdirs. ihav a cld! frum daniel
[well actually, I give talks downstairs. I have a cold.]
[to Lee Ann Setzer:] we went too the sdlr. wir did you go? I wet wif mommy too the sdir. yes. i eyt macrony and cheese tooday dey. frum danIel
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