the one with my cousin dheif

"Dheif, you're not going to complain. I told you to sleep in the afternoon and you didn't. Now, you're grumpy and you don't have the right to complain."

"Ahhh, mom! Stop bugging me. You...you...I---- (pauses for a while and thinks that Idiot is a prison cell for him if he says it)....You PEANUT BUTTER!"

Moral Lesson: Kids, find a cheesy word to subsitute for a real nasty one to get by being grounded.

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"Dheif, you gotta drink your milk. There are lots of kids out there who doesn't even have milk to drink. You should feel lucky."

"Yeah, yeah... I know mom...Kids like my cousin Keisha back home in the Philippines."

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Dheif went home for the first time in the Philippines. He was brought by Uncle Danny to his old Grandpa's native house. Native houses in the Philippines, especially the in the rural areas have that traditional bamboo floors and that steep staircase made of wood.

Upon entering the house, after that grueling climb on the steep wooden staircase, he exclaimed looking down at the see-through bamboo floor - "OH MY GOD DADDY! WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR CARPET!"

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Two years ago, they went back home again. This time, they stayed at my place in Dumaguete. Our neighbors got the hang of him. He was like real famous around the block, a kid walking and chattering the dark "L-ed" native american tongue.

In the afternoons, Tito Cooper, who just lives next door, who also happens to have a daily dose of my favorite rhum, always asks him. "How's your day Dheif?" Dheif goes, "T'was fine." or "T'was great."

This happened almost everyday. On one of these days, he was asked again. But before Tito Cooper could finish his routined question, Dheif goes...."Yeah, yeah, I know...How was my day blah blah...T'was great! There. Happy?"

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There are more stories about my cousin Dheif. I'll have to recall all of them first. Hang in there. This kid's comin' back for more.