Five-years old

Killing off the competition

Nico's friend: "Nico will you marry me?"

Nico: "Yeah, okay... Oh wait! I can't marry you because I'm going to marry my mommy."

Nico's friend: "Nico, you can't marry your mommy because by the time you get old enough to get married, she's probably going to be dead already!"

Reassurance in the face of Spanish governmental bureaucracy

Nico: "Mommy why are you so upset?"

Me: "I'm just so mad because we've been waiting in line for two hours and now that woman is saying we might have to come back another day!"

Nico: "Oh Mommy, if it makes you sad, let's just not talk about this pain."

Perceptions of an urban child who takes the metro a lot.

Nico: "Mommy what is your job?"

Me: "Well I take care of Luca and sometimes I write things for newspapers. Do you know what a newspaper is?"

Nico: "Yeah I know what they are. They're really dirty and they come from underground tunnels where rats live."