Giving me the Finger

There’s this funny story about one of Sugar Daddy’s aunt. A very sweet lady, she got cut off one day in traffic. She was so upset she uncharacteristically gave the other driver the finger. “Are you serious?” we all asked incredulously. Turns out she passionately gave him the index digit instead of the middle one. Oh wait. Maybe it was the thumbs up. It’s been a while since I heard the story. And seen the actions that accompany it. Anyway, it’s a laugh riot, trust me.

Since the Doodles had her birthday, things have suddenly gotten a tad easier & way more fun. She’s so much more sure of herself & confident in her walking abilities. This in turn, has made her a lot happier & slightly less reliant on me. All of a sudden I can breathe. And pee. I even got to take a shower while she was napping yesterday. It’s not a wonderfully smelling bed of roses or anything yet – the nap situation is really, really weird (I think she’s transitioning from 2 naps to 1) & it’s kind of messing with my head. And what was once our semblance of a schedule. Oh wait. Not schedule. Let’s call it a routine. That sounds good & non-committal like.

Anyway, back to the fingers. It seems the Doodle Bug has figured out what her index finger is for (I know you were thinking I was going to tell you she was giving me the middle finger. Shame on you for thinking so poorly about an innocent baby!). She’s been picking up Cheerios & other assorted finger food for ages now & I’ve seen her dexterity getting better & better. But what’s really cool now is that she’s learned how to point.

And point she does.

She points at things she wants to see. She points at books she wants to read & she points to pictures on the pages in the books. Ask her where the little dog (who laughed to see so much fun) is & out comes the finger. Where’s the cat, the cow, the pig? Point, point, point. The girl really knows her farm animals. I’m not sure what that says about us but what the hey. It makes me feel so proud when I can ask her where the bee is & she’ll stick her cute little index digit right on the fat black & yellow bug & then to top it all off, she’ll make a funny buzz buzz noise with her tongue sticking out. Kind of a raspberry, kind of a word. It doesn’t seem to be a fluke either; she’s about 90% consistent with only doing it for the bee. Way to go baby!

She puts those index fingers to good work in other ways too. She gets so excited about her books with the animals in them that she’ll flip to the pages with her favorites (cow, dog) over & over again all the while reading to herself. The books that we have with paper pages (versus the board books) are now all dog-eared & torn (& taped) from her constant page turning. My photo albums are getting bent up & the plastic ripped. The toys with buttons to press are getting pressed (if I have to hear Tad’s rendition of Oh Where Has my Little Dog Gone one more time I think I’ll rip my ears out). The dog is getting poked in the eye. I am getting pinched on the boob & she is constantly pinching her chubby little knees so she can tickle herself.

All this is wonderful but there’s one more oh so special thing she has learned to do with her fantastic digits.

Pick her nose.