You Crack Me Up, Dad

 This is a post dedicated to Lola's recent various funny activities:

She doesn't want to nap anymore and will try anything possible to get out of it.  What used to be a really painful bedtime routine got a little bit better as long as we went through all of the steps (wash hands, change clothes, draw curtains, drink water, read "2, no 7, no 3, no 5, ok, 4" stories, Lola gives me a running hug while I count to 20, etc.)

She loves chocolate and bread and cake and any kinds of sweets.  When I take her shopping for sweets, admittedly a pretty special treat in itself, she tries her best to maximize the opportunities.  For example, the next day, she asks me if we can go buy more sweets again.  I say no, because we just went the day before.  She'll turn to me wide eyed, blinking deliberately, and innocently proclaim, "but we're buying candy for [insert other person's name here]!"

After reading the  Oxford Learning series, she's taken to calling me "Mom" and Michael "Dad" in a particular, slightly British accent.  She'll say "You crack me up, Dad!" and "You stress me out, Mom!"  She's also really good at imitating nearly anything or anyone.  She has an impeccable Filipina accent when she speaks English, which she turns on only when she's speaking to her aunties.  She calls it Tagalog, but really it's just English with a Filipina accent.  However, she does actually speak and understand Tagalog also - her renditions of popular children's songs are impeccable.  Her Mandarin constantly draws amazed stares and commentary.

Lola will also come up with lots of activities or suggestions, to get her dad to stay out of her way, under the guise of playing.  One of our favorites has been when she suggested he play hide and seek with her, then she abandoned him while he was counting so that she could go play something else.  What a clever, cheeky little thing!