Good boy!

First off, apologies to anyone who might be reading this for not posting for so long. Parents here, stuff going on, excuses, excuses. The parents are gone now, a good time was had by all, despite sneezing. 

There's so much that's already lost, replaced by all the new and exciting things that Nina, and all kids, do every day, every week. Just for the record I thought I'd try to remember some of them before they are so lost in the mists of time that they disappear from my memory forever, though I know that some post somewhere won't ever bring them back, and I know that I want Nina to grow up, and not to stay a baby or a toddler. 

In my opinion, A. has some issues with prioritising. For example: if we are 27 minutes late for something, and Nina has just done a poo, he may decide that it's a good time to wash the shower curtain. Admittedly, I would probably never ever prioritise washing a shower curtain, or updating my ubuntu, or tidying the mail table, over just about anything else I felt was urgent. But still - really? The shower curtain? Right NOW? Another example: before Nina was as reasonable, as articulate, as charming, as she is these days at bedtime, there was a moment each evening when MILK was needed RIGHT NOW or there would be SCREAMING. Screaming, like the kind the neighbours still talk about 10 years later. So I started to use the phrase "priority item", as in, A, can you make the milk as a priority item? This means: please don't finish unloading the dishwasher, wash the shower curtain, and have some indian snacks first; MILK is a PRIORITY. 

This phrase was repeated sufficiently that Nina took it up, but pronounced it: "paya aiya mama! Papa, paya aiya mama!" Now it's changed a little; it's: paya itah mum.  Also poignantly, "gainl!" has been replaced with "again!" and "payay", then "pengie" is finally "penguin" unless referring in particular to payah or pengie; they now have names distinct from their species, you see. It's touching that they are still the favourites, along with a new doll, named Dolly.

Kids don't know which things we say are facetious, or which are specifically in the context of talking to a toddler, or which things are just going to sound a little odd to some other adult. Every morning I get up first, play with Nina for a while, and then we both go in to get A. up. I usually pester him to drag his sleepy self out of bed at about 8:15 and succeed by 8:25, give or take 5-10 minutes. Anyway Nina knows that I want him to get up. Yesterday he finally sat up, at which Nina clapped, and said loudly "Good GIRL papa! Good GIRL!". We explained that Papa is really more of a boy; a man, to be technical about it. We didn't bother trying to explain that when she does something I really want her to do, a perfectly reasonable response is for me to clap and say "good GIRL Nina", but ... when we do something she wants, like say follow her into the bedroom, maybe not so much. So tonight when A. brought in the freshly prioritised milk: "good BOY Papa!" 

There's more, much more .. for another time; remind me to post about the little cartoon I drew...