Why do balloons pop?

(Saturday morning.)
Alex: Please wake up, Daddy!


Alex: You know what “road” starts with?
(Pause.)
Alex: Road!
Alex: I’m just being silly. I didn’t have a choice.


(Alex has just completed the dinosaur puzzle.)
Daddy: That’s a volcano. And what are the dinosaurs doing?
Alex: They’re saying “Ugh!” And their mommies say “No, no! Don’t talk to the ‘cano that way!”


(Daddy is driving Alex to Thomas’s birthday party.)

Alex: But I share with my sister named Claire.

Alex: You can go a little bit fast, Daddy.
Daddy: Okay.
Alex: You can’t go really really fast because that might make me a little bit angry, and I might want you to go just slowly.
Daddy: Okay.

Alex: I see Costco, Daddy.
Daddy: That’s right! You know Costco!
Alex: We’re not going to Costco, we’re going to the party.
Daddy: That’s right.

Alex: This is a great place – Daddy, a red car right there!
Daddy: Yeah.
Alex: Where’s that reflection coming from?
Daddy: I don’t know.
Alex: It’s from your battery! I mean your Blackberry!


(At the party, the kids are playing with balloons. One of them pops in Alex’s hand when he goes to pick it up, and he is mostly unfazed. A little later, a second balloon pops in Alex’s hand when he goes to pick it up, and Alex gets a little bit upset.)
Alex (to Daddy): Why do balloons pop?


Mommy: What did you do at the party?
Alex: The balloon popped, and Daddy got me another balloon, and it popped too!
(Mommy and Alex laugh.)
Mommy: What did you do?
Alex: There was a cookie on my cupcake.
Mommy: There was a cookie on your cupcake?
Alex: Yeah, it was a baseball! Then I won’t have any cookies, if there was a cookie on my cupcake.
Mommy: Yeah? Who was there?
Alex: Thomas.
Mommy: Thomas.
Alex: Angelina.
Mommy: Angelina.
Alex: And… William? Who else?
Mommy: I don’t know. Do you remember?
Mommy: Was Kate?
Alex: No…
Mommy: No?
Alex: There was Thomas’s sisters.
Mommy: Okay. Was there…. Everett?
Alex: No. There was just three.
Mommy: Oh, that was all?
Alex: Yeah.
Mommy: Were there – were there kids there that you didn’t know?
Alex: Yeah.
Mommy: Who? Do you know their names?
Alex: I don’t know Thomas’s sister’s name, or the other sister’s name.


Daddy:Alex, didn't I ask you to get in the car?
Alex: I was just lookin' at those boys.
Alex: If you say that one more time I will get angry.


(riding in the car)
Claire (pointing to each item in turn): Book... frog... Juju Daddy Alex... Mommy Daddy Alex Claire… Mommy Daddy...