Budding Capitalist

Mats has become obsessed with possession. All the nouns he used to proclaim with glee ("Bike!" or "Car!") are now followed by a possessive noun/pronoun. The car is “auto-ons” (=car-ours) or “auto-Tom” (=car-Tom) and bikes (Mats’ #1 fascination…well, second only to water) are now “fiets-Mats” (=bike-Mats) or, more often than not, “fiets-anders” (=bike-(someone)else). And after a hundred times of explaining that Mats can’t ring the doorbell of somewhere we don’t live, he points at random houses, shakes his head sadly, and proclaims “niet” (=not – as in we do not live here).

Even more recently, Mats has learned the word “money”. He waits eagerly for Joost to empty his pockets at the end of the day (don’t ask me what’s wrong with 1. a wallet, or 2. occasionally spending change to avoid getting even more change back, but "Silly things men do" could be (and probably is) a Blog in and of itself...). Apparantly, a wallet just isn't as exciting as a pile of cash on the kitchen table, just within tantalizing sight of Mats.

There’s nothing like an almost-two-year-old holding a penny in each hand, exclaiming “MONEY!!” to make you think that maybe he should have been named Alex P. Keaton. We’re in big trouble the day he learns the connection between the money and “fiets-anders” vs. fiets-Mats”.