Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Let Me Do It For You


Read this post at Absolutely Bananas about a young make-up artist.
My little rascal tried something similar with me once. We were getting ready to go out when she came up to me, hands behind her back, and asked me to bend down.
So I did.
Then she showed me what she had been hiding behind her back.. a permanent marker.
“Let me do it… Let me put your lipstick on for you…!”

Sunday, October 28, 2007

What Did You Say? – 7


Thaïs happened to come across cartons of her milk stored in the larder. All excited she blurted out, “Oh look! Those are my dudus!”
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Thaïs: Tana, help! Daddy’s rubbing his ‘deard’ on my cheek. It’s poking… Daddy! Don’t stop ‘dugging’ me!
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Thaïs went out for lunch with Mario’s parents and Mario’s sister and her family. When the rest of them were ordering their drinks, she placed her order too. “I’ll have a beer,” she told the waiter.
I’m told there was pin-drop silence all around the table.
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Thaïs caught me cursing today. “Mind your language, Tana,” she said. “Go stand in the corner and face the wall!”

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Silence Is Golden


…but unfortunately, that is a phrase Thaïs doesn’t believe in.
My daughter can talk. No, I mean, my daughter can TALK. From the moment she wakes up in the morning to the time I tuck her in at night, she talks non-stop.
But doesn’t she have an afternoon nap, you wonder? You should get some peace and quiet then… She does nap for about two hours in the afternoon. Most days. Occasionally she skips it, when her cousins are around and she’s too excited to sleep. But of late I’ve noticed that she has started talking even in her sleep. I’ve heard her carrying on lengthy conversations with her cousins while she’s sleeping.
I got quite alarmed the first time I heard her. Most of the time she’s bullying them into letting her get her own way, which is generally the case when she’s awake. I guess being the youngest, and being the only girl, she gets away with it. So the only time she isn’t talking is when she’s eating. That’s the rule here, no talking until you finish eating. It works, for the most part. You’re only allowed to talk if you have something really important to say, like, “Look at my boo-boo… I fell down today.” If you examine the ‘wound’, it’ll usually be a superficial scratch. You wouldn’t even give it a second glance. But I guess to a two-and-a-half year old, it’s important. Or maybe it’s just her burning desire to talk.. And boy, is she loud! I suppose she has to be, to be able to bully her cousins. But I wish she’d turn down the volume when she’s with us. Sometimes we’ll be sitting two inches apart and she’ll yell right in my ear. Then immediately she’ll apologize, whisper the same thing again (like I didn’t hear it the first time!) and give me that heart-warming smile, I just want to pick her up and squeeze her!
Her dad and her aunt (my sister) both talk a lot, so there’s no surprise where she gets it from!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Words Of Wisdom – 1


Thaïs has suddenly become very concerned about my well-being. This morning as I was warming up her milk:
Don’t stand in front of the my-co-ro (meaning microwave) when it is on. You might get cooked!
I guess it’s the thought that counts.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Two-And-A-Half Going On Twelve-And-A-Half


Thaïs: I need to wear a bra…!
She was at her grandparents’ place when this episode took place, so unfortunately no pictures. But I believe she spent the whole morning going around the house with a handkerchief tied around her (ahem!) bust!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Potty Trained At Last


Finally! I knew it had to happen eventually, but the way she was going I was beginning to worry…
What am I talking about, you ask? My darling daughter has finally deigned to crap in her plastic potty. We’ve been trying to get her to do it for almost a year. She started peeing in the potty before she was two years old. But she wouldn’t crap in it.
Then, after a couple of days of getting the hang of peeing in the potty, she crapped in it – once. I was overjoyed, thinking my days of dealing with dirty diapers were over. (So much so, that I took pictures – if you’d like to see them, let me know.)
Little did I know that I would have to wait for about 8–9 months for the next crap. In the potty, that is. So, that first crap turned out to be a mistake, as I found out the very next day. ‘Coz when, with royal salute, she announced the arrival of His Majesty The Shit, she asked for a diaper. A little confused, I asked her why she wanted one.
“I can’t do it in the potty,” she said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“No. It’s not coming out. I need my diaper,” she said.
I tried showing her the pictures I had taken the previous day. I thought maybe jogging her memory would help. No luck. And no amount of reasoning, pleading or cajoling would change her mind. So I just left it at that. I did try bribing her with chocolate a few times, but that didn’t work either.
Three days ago, out of the blue, she went to her potty and sat down on it. I happened to be in the same room, and after a few seconds I heard a steady trickle.
“OK,” I thought. “She had finished her juice a little while ago, so what goes in must come out.”
After a few minutes, while she was still sitting there, she said “Oooh… Shit!”
Knowing that she has somewhat of a colorful vocabulary, I told her to mind her language.
Again she said, “Nooo… Shit!”
That’s when I turned around and saw her standing up, peering into the potty.
Seeing the unusual behavior, I went over look at what she was staring at. And there, in her potty, lying in peaceful solitude, was a perfectly shaped turd.
What excitement ensued! I yelled out to Mario and gave him the good news. We clapped and danced. A mini celebration of sorts. Thaïs was rewarded with some chocolate. Oh, and yes, I took pictures.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

My Daughter’s First Phone Message


Thaïs took her first phone message today.
As it turned out, we had quite a few jobs to do in town this morning and we knew it would be pretty tiring for Thaïs, more so in this heat. So to spare her the discomfort, we decided to make two trips into town. The first trip Mario would make on his own, and complete all the jobs that he didn’t require my help for. That way, the second trip would be a lot more tolerable for Thaïs.
To save time, we also decided that Mario would call me as soon as he finished to let me know he was on his way back home to pick us up. That way I could start dressing up the little one, so we could all leave as soon as he got back.
Anyway, Mario called about an hour or so after he left. As luck would have it, I was at the front door talking to a salesman. Thaïs saw that I was busy, so she took it upon herself to answer the phone. This, by the way, is the first time she’s ever done that. A little while later she came out and said, “That was Daddy on the phone.”
As I was still preoccupied with the salesman, I said absent-mindedly, “Really? What did he say?” Asking her that was the biggest mistake I could have made. I knew why he had called. Without hesitation Thaïs replied, “Daddy said to put on your clothes!”
I wish I had my camera with me at that moment. I would have loved to have recorded the look on the salesman’s face when she said that!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Toddler Harassment – 1


According to Wikipedia, there are several types of harassments. But nowhere in its exhaustive list does it mention anything about ‘toddler harassment’. Yes, I said ‘toddler harassment’, and if you’ve ever been in a situation where you have a whole list of things to do with not enough time to complete them, and, in addition, you have your little bundle of joy running around the place, getting between your legs, quite literally, you will have a fair idea of what I’m talking about. You know you’re being harassed by your toddler when:
  1. You pick up your toddler’s toy cell phone and try to dial a number.
  2. You’re putting together a chicken-and-macaroni bake dish and you almost throw in the macaroni –uncooked.
  3. Your doorbell rings and for some unknown reason you go answer the phone.
  4. You’re hanging the laundry out to dry and half way through you discover you’ve been taking said items out of the dirty clothes basket. (This may be partly my fault since it was my idea to have identical clean and dirty laundry baskets.)
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve labeled this post ‘Toddler Harassment – 1’ because I’m sure there’ll be a sequel. Maybe more than one.