The Daily Pooklet

Today I asked Pooklet, "How are you?"
"Fine."
(pause)
"Thanks... for asking."

------

The last few days he's been vocally denying us everything: "No sing the song! (while we're singing)"
"No wash the dishes!"
Today, after I blew the hair off his forehead, he said, "No (blows) pfhhhhhh!"

------

He's also been telling me to sit down in specific places near him. He'll use the Cantonese word for 'sit' and end with 'right HERE!'

------

Yesterday, we all played in the park with some friends and he flew his first kite. His exuberance is so guileless it makes it all the more heartbreaking when he so easily suffers allergic reactions, like the big rash that appeared on his legs and made him whine in sleepless agony last night. We suspect it was the air and grass. We've all been suffering allergic reactions to some degree over the last week or so.

today's pookletisms

lately, when the pooklet wakes up in the morning and we take him out of his crib, he's been trying to make off with his crib-only duck blanky, so we tell him that ducky has to sleep and therefore remain in the crib.

this morning, when i reiterated this rouse, he covered ducky with the big blanket we also leave in the crib, and he began patting and singing to the duck. so, i told him to "sing the whoa-whoa (dog)." he then sang, "whoa-whoa, whoa-whoa, whoa-whoa, choo-choo."

------------------

later, for breakfast, he wanted to throw out the bottom end of his banana, but i told him he can eat it. still, he wasn't buying it, so i told him that i'd eat it, so he ran it over to me and said, "daddy eat it." so i ate it, and he said, "yayy!"

home alone, part 2

at kindergym today, i juggled two kids by myself mostly (a friend helped with the numgat).

at the end of class, the numgat started doing hand/head stands, and the pooklet joined in the fun, alternately doing his own head/hand stands, and knocking her over, which consistently made her laugh. of course, i joined in the fun as well (with head/hand stands, not the knocking-numgat-over part).

Today's the first day of three days with the wife gone to NYC with her old UCLA roommates.

I had to use the bathroom, so I asked pooklet if he'd play in his crib. To my surprise and supreme pleasure, he immediately said, "um hm" in the affirmative, gathered the toys with which he was playing, and trotted off to his room.

We've been rewarding the pooklet with toy cars every time he says, "Pee!" or "Poo!" and actually has to go. He's allowed to pick a car out after each success, but the success part for the parent is lost on the child, and three times in the space of a minute did he claim "Pee!" only to discover a new rule from the daddy. "Once every hour, Pooklet." Still, it was the first time I've seen him take his underwear all the way off by himself!

it's so nice to be wanted by your offspring

pooklet was crying at my departure this morning for work, scampering down the hall to catch me before i went out the front door. i bid his tearful self goodybe, and then shut the door. he then lifted up the window shade and looked out the front window at me, so i kissed him through the glass. he reciprocated, and made my day.

snapping my fingers as i walked down the hall to my desk at work, a coworker said, "no one should be that happy on a monday." i said, "i got enough happy to spread."

Sing the Mau-Mau

Pooklet's been wanting us to pat him to sleep while singing him the Chinese word for 'cat' over and over. Tonight I resisted it a little, ad-libbing a song about cats, but he moved the ducky blanky from his mouth and flatly ordered me to "Sing the Mau-Mau." So, I picked a melody and just sang 'Mau-Mau' over and over.

"Sing the Mau-Mau."

patting the pooklet

For the past few weeks, in the early post-binky era, we've seen how easy it is to get a crying pooklet resisting bedtime to submit to quiet, stillness, and sleep. All it takes is patting his side, draping his duck blanky over his face, and singing "Come Ye Sinners," and it seems only one or two verses is all that's required.

One day when we were playing in the afternoon, the pooklet tried to get me from sitting to laying down, and then patted me on the chest while humming melodically.

He's also patted his stuffed ducky and sung to it.

The wifey tells me that when his duck blanky was in the wash and she'd substituted a stuffed ducky, he put stuffed ducky on his face.