星期天Sunday
最近,曼尼开始把自己闯的祸怪罪到他虚构的朋友头上。有一天他砸了一个盘子,却跟老妈说是约翰尼·切达干的,似乎这个约翰尼·切达总是这个圈子里的害群之马。Lately,Manny has been blaming things he does on his imaginary friends.The other day he smashed a plate on the floor and then told Mom it was Johnny Cheddar,who seems to be the troublemaker of the pack.
曼尼砸碎了盘子还撒谎,这是罪加一等的事,但老妈没有罚曼尼,却罚了约翰尼·切达思过。最悲剧的是老妈罚“他”在客厅里新买的那张活动沙发上思过,结果我就不能坐在那上面看电视了。Instead of punishing Manny for breaking a plate and then lying about it,Mom gave a time-out to Johnny Cheddar.What really stinks is that the time-out chair is the brand-new recliner in the family room,so I couldn’t sit in it to watch television.
我前面说过,我很清楚这些虚构朋友全是胡扯,不过曼尼这么认真,简直让人有些神经质了。每次我要在屋里坐下之前,都要确认一下,以免坐到曼尼的朋友身上。Like I said,I know this whole imaginary friend thing is a bunch of baloney,but Manny acts so serious about it that it’s kind of spooky.Whenever I go to sit down somewhere in the house,I make sure none of Manny’s friends are around.
我最怕的就是跳到沙发上看电视,把小吉姆给压扁了。What worries me most is plop down on the sofa to watch TV and squish Tiny Jim.
倒不是说我最近常看电视。老妈很担心电视看多了影响曼尼的社交能力,所以他在家的时候,老妈就不想开电视。It’s not like I’m watching a lot of television these days anyway.Mom is pretty worried about Manny and his social skills,so she doesn’t like the TV to be on when Manny’s around.
最近,老妈想出了一个点子,叫“家庭之夜”,让我们一起玩桌游或者外出吃饭,但就是不看电视。Recently,Mom came up with this idea called “Family Night”,where we play a board game or go out to dinner together instead of watching TV.
我猜这个活动的用意在于让我们有更多互动,对曼尼造成潜移默化的影响。I guess the idea is to get us to interact with one another more so it rubs off on Manny.