So back in October our friend John came to visit us in Spain. While there he tried to get you to tell us “what the fonz says”. However, you refused to say the iconic “Ayyy”, choosing instead to put up your thumb and say “Beeee”.

In the midst of all our travels we quickly pushed this to the back of our minds. Until last night at dinner when you started asking (with your thumbs up) “who says Beeee, daddy”. It took us about ten minutes before your mother correctly guessed the Fonz.

I am going to get Daddy some bacon… some soda…. some wine…. some football.  I want to get all that for Daddy and give it to him!

Lilah, you have finally come around on some of Daddy’s “moogis”. Last week you woke yourself up coughing and so you got to spend some insomniac hours with the old man. I happened to be watching some Little Feat videos on You Tube and you were interested enough to ask me who was singing. After thinking about the answer, Little Feat, for a bit you replied that “I like little feat, that’s my moogis daddy”; “they don’t have little feat, they have big feet.”
Which made me smile, both on the inside and the outside.

Ever since that night you have also been going around singing:
“der’s a fatman
in da tub
with the blues on” (Winnie).

While I appreciate the fact that you have been asking to hear “Fatman in the Bathtub” ever since, I can’t help but get the feeling that you are calling me fat.

We took you swimming in the Mediterranean sea this afternoon. As promised the water was clear, warm, and quite calm (quite a difference from last summer on Ocean isle eh?). While you are still very adamant about not going under the water, you continue to get braver and braver with each visit. Today you even swam around on your own with your water wings, and after the first couple didn’t even mind the small waves that splashed in your face.

The highlight of the day, however, was while we were playing in the sand where I was teaching you to make drip castles. Three minutes in and you made the declaration “I’m Poopin’ on the Castle Daddy”. Made up several chants about poopin’ on the castle, and wanted to know “What’s the princess say when I am poopin’ on her castle?”. As I howled your mom just shook her head and muttered something about the trials of being in charge of two 3 year olds.

• Books are, and always have been, your favorite toys (though puzzles are closing in).
• I can get you to go almost anywhere by challenging you to a race (you don’t like to lose, and when you get there you declare “I RACED!”)
• “It’s alright Daddy, you can try it if you want to”
• The fact that we can tell how tired you are by the frequency of unprovoked “I Love You”s bestowed on us as you lay in bed on your way to sleep.
• A little while ago mommy told you to leave me alone because I had to an emergency at work that needed my attention. You then told me “Ima ‘mergency too daddy”. That one broke my heart.
• Just today your threatened me with “I will take your work away Daddy” apparently you think I like work in the same way you like your puzzles.
• “I Can do it all by myself”
• How you ask me to be Winnie the Pooh and get all tickled when I say “Oh Bother”
• When you are Eeyore and claim “It’s gonna rain”
• The unbridled enthusiasm when “Its morning Time!”
• “I Like to jump on ‘er fat belly daddy”

As we got ready for bed this evening, Lilah, I started quizzing you on where things come from. We started with the origin of the wind and ended with “your head” at which point you were unable to give a non-recursive answer.

According to you, Lilah,

wind comes from the sky;
the sky comes from clouds;
clouds come from chickens;
chickens come from barns;
barns come from the ground;
the ground comes from dirt;
dirt comes from doors;
doors come from houses;
houses come from people;
people come from bellies;
bellies come from ur body;
bodies come from germs;
germs come from your head.

It makes perfect sense…except for that part about the chickens……

As I was getting Lilah dressed after her bath this evening Camille announced that Lilah has a boyfriend, which as usual, Lilah repeated “I have a boyfriend daddy”.

Here is the following exchange:

JWP: Don’t Say that (stern look)
LRMP: I have a boyfriend (big smile)
JWP: Don’t say that (less stern look)
LRMP: I have a boyfriend (big smile)
JWP: Don’t say that (smile)
LRMP: I gonna keep saying that daddy.

She was pretty darn cute at this point so we kept the game up for a few minutes and in the end I still don’t know exactly what they were talking about.