what you doin'?

ah, the questions. i was wondering when they would start. i was really prepared for the phase of endless "why" (a good name for a children's book, right?). but, no, not my little mini-me. instead, she's begun with the less annoying "what you doin'?" line. it is still annoying to have it repeated twenty times when i'm trying to use the bathroom, but it's a lot more amusing than "why?" when used at the dinner table. example: a couple night ago, we were eating dinner and noe wanted fai to eat something from her plate. at first, he said no because he wanted her to eat it herself and stop looking for ways to get away with wasting her food. but she insisted...over and over and over again (another charming habit we've been introduced to...everything is repeated at least ten times). so, finally, he stuck it with his fork and shoved it in his mouth. he starts chewing and noe puts her hands on the table and looks at him with her eyes kind of squinted and mouth pursed in what i'm guessing is her attempt to mimic mommy's cross look or curious look (i'm not sure which...it could go either way, really) and says quite seriously, "daddy, what you doin'?" we, of course, laughed. it's so hard not to sometimes. now, she says it first thing when she enters a room, or when someone else enters the room she's in. that and "mommy, i pooping" are generally the first words i'm greeted with in the morning these days (she comes in my room and wakes me up regardless of whether it's actually time to get up or not...funny how that works). the pooping one, by the way, is usually followed almost immediately with "already pooped in diaper" and a demand for a sucker. she's still working on the concept of potty and reward. namely that you go to the POTTY to get the reward.

note: i was trying to figure out where she picked up the "what you doing" line, as i don't use it much. but as i wrote the first part of my blog post, fai yells from the other room, "honey, whatcha' doing?". ironic and not a little amusing.

so what are the poons doing this fine new year? well, the usual. fai is starting back to school. he has one more year to finish his MBA. we're still settling into our house. mali's birthday is coming up soon, so i'm preparing for a party. i'm going to sign noe up for gymnastics and put the girls back in the PAT program. i'm also hoping to start babysitting a couple more kids during the day. and, my resolution, i will be working harder to actually finish my book so that i can get rejected by the big publishing houses before finding one that's willing to pay me an obscene amount of money for it and i can become rich and worriless. that's about it. so...what are you doing?