Why, yes ...

... I am king of the castle, in fact.


... Raise the drawbridge!


Steps? I'm going to climb up these tires!

Language barrier revisited

Mimi: Oliver, can you say ... what is it?
Me: Goederenwagon.
Oliver: ... gggôôhm.

Language barrier

Last night, before bedtime, Oliver took an interest in a Dutch reading primer given to him by his oma. Mimi suggested that it would be more useful to speak Dutch to him without the book, for example, by referring to the toy trains he was playing with.

I got as far as describing Thomas the Tank Engine as a blauwe trein and then I couldn't come up with the Dutch word for this:



Upon which Oliver, adopting the slow and slightly condescending tone some might use with someone learning English, said:

'Can you say boxcar, daddy?'

Goederenwagon, that's what it's called.