It’s The Book Of My Days, It’s The Book Of My Life

I love my little bambina… even though she insists on carrying around a smelly, discolored, threadbare piece of cloth that she calls a bib wherever she goes.

She also sucks her thumb… something she’s been doing since the time she was born. She’d grab the bib with her left hand and start sucking her right thumb. Always the right thumb. And always with the bib in the other hand. Back then, I could wash the bib whenever it got dirty. When she was about a year old, she began to differentiate between the clean and dirty bibs by smell, and started refusing to let it be washed. Each time she reached out for it she’d smell it first. If it ‘smelled’ clean, she’d actually ask for the dirty one.

She now has a big red boo-boo on her right thumb caused by her thumb-sucking habit. A couple of months ago, she asked me to ‘bannage’ her thumb (she probably bit down on it too hard!). So I did, curious to see what would happen when she decided she needed to suck it. When the time came, she asked me to remove the bandage. I politely refused, saying she needed to keep it on overnight. She looked at me, then looked at the thumb, tried putting it in her mouth, didn’t like sucking on the bandage very much, and so popped her left thumb in her mouth. She pulled a couple of faces, maybe the left thumb didn’t taste as good as the right, but she didn’t have a choice, so that was that.

Now, when she feels the urge coming on, she doesn’t hesitate to say, “Tana, give me my bib so I can suck my thumb!”

My little darling is quite the hypochondriac. True, she has been sneezing a little bit, and her nose has been running, but it doesn’t seem to be serious. Probably due to the weather. In any case, I’ve been giving her some medication since it started 3–4 days ago.

Every morning she wakes up, drinks her milk and asks for her medicine. She looks very disappointed when she gets only one teaspoonful, and asks for another. Then she pouts for a couple of seconds when the answer is ‘no’. In addition to the anti-histamine she gets her daily dose of calcium and cod liver oil, so she cheers up immediately.

The other day she asked for some tissue because she was ‘blessing’ (sneezing) and nose was ‘blowing’ (running)…!

Yesterday, Thaïs tried to climb up one of the chairs and swing off the back rest. She has been doing this for a few days now. I tried to caution her but, as usual, she assured me she knew what she was doing.

Me: Thaïs, be careful. You might fall.

Thaïs: No. Won’t fall. I’m careful-ing…!

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She’s only about two-and-a-half, but her vocabulary is almost as colorful as her father’s.

‘Shut Up’ has become a routine word now. She uses it when, after several minutes of pulling her leg, light finally dawns.

‘Swine’ and ‘Bloody Bassad’ are abuses reserved for uncouth drivers.

She says ‘Damn Shit’ out of frustration when she has reached the limits of her dexterity.

‘Bloody Bitch’ is occasionally used on her imaginary friend.

I’ve saved the best (or the worst) for last. The ‘F’ word. That’s used when she wants some attention. Or simply repeating what Mario has said.

What’s amazing is that she knows exactly when to abuse. I know we should probably be more strict and correct her more often… Later, when she grows up a bit and it doesn’t sound quite as cute.

• Both love the beach
• Both have loud voices
• Both lose their balance while pulling up their pants