Tummy Cakes

Maria has been having lots of "tummy cakes" lately. When she's full, or thinks she's full (maybe she  is full, I mean really, what do I know?!) she claims to have a tummy ache. She's smart because she knows that if she says she's done when there is still food on her plate, or cereal in her bowl, I will try to convince her to eat more but if her stomach is hurting I can't argue with her especially since she calls these "pains," "tummy cakes" which to me has so much more meaning than just a grammar error.

First and foremost one does not simply correct a three year old when they say cute things like "tummy cakes," so please don't try. Us parents, us parents of toddlers, we live for "tummy cakes" and other little cute things. At this age we're dealing with so many tantrums and failed negotiations that when we get a cute moment out of them we hoard it. Hoarding cute moments is a respectable practice in the parenting community, akin to having secret stashes of chocolate. Hello guilty indulgence!

Yup "tummy cakes"and Ritter Sport, that's kind of what I live for these days. You?

Since I only get to spend a few precious hours with Maria I try to soak up her awesomeness as much as I can. Lets' just skip the part where I apologize for being biased; I am talking about my daughter so the fact that I'm a little obsessed with her is a given. Moving on. Maria is a hoot! If you come over to my house for dinner she will tell you jokes. Her favorite, "Why did the pencil cross the road? To get to pencil-vania" followed by "Why did the pencil cross the park? To get to the other slide." I mean really, she still doesn't have all her baby teeth in but she has a repertoire of jokes.

And then there's the fact that she's bilingual and 3 which actually means she's monolingual in a language that mixes Portuguese and English but when asked what she speaks she'll tell you it's Spanish. The only people who fully understands her language is me, Christian, and Enzo but mostly just Enzo and thankfully Enzo has some language hiccups of his own so he doesn't ruin everything by trying to correct her.

I'll leave the parenting part where I try to discipline her about not wasting food and being responsible for what's on her plate for another day. Today I have a tummy cake I need to take care of.