Door (“do-wa”). Dough. Door.

Today was a crazy day, for all three of us but for Amie most of all. I would divide it into four parts:

• Part one, in which we speak of doctors!

Amie returned to daycare after over a week of absence because of a cold. I picked her up in the middle of her lunch and we headed straight for a doctor’s appointment at 1. That took over an hour and was rather inconclusive.

At the Dr’s office she wrote on the blackboard with the chalk. She made one long vertical line and then several small horizontal lines next to it, taking care to make each start at the vertical line while muttering: “Here! And here! And here!” The result was a tall and very skinny E with too many little arms.

– Mama: “What is that, Amie?”

– Amie: “A huge airplane!” (Oh, those airplanes again!)

When I asked her to replicate it on a piece of paper, she didn’t seem to have a clue what I was talking about, and just drew her usual long, parallel-ish lines.

Then we rushed her to DH’s office where a colleague (also a Doctor, though of the “wrong” kind) wanted to do a little speech experiment with her. Due to her lack of nap and hunger, it didn’t fare so well. We promised to return after her next doctor’s appoinment, which was at 3.

This was an allergist and she got two sets of pricks. She was upset for a minute, then forgot all about it thanks to the sixties-looking psychedelic blue chair in the room. The tests were all negative – which apparently means nothing. Ha!

• Part two, in which we tell some more about the experiment

Then back to the speech experiment, which she now enjoyed.

– Even Steven (experimenter): “Can you say ‘a heed’?”

– Amie: “I’m not sure.”

– Even Steven: “How tall are you? Are you eight feet tall?”

– Amie: “Nooooo!” (as in: Are you crazy?!) “I’m a little girl. I’m a little bit big and a little bit small.”

• Part three, which concerns dinner 

She napped for an hour in the car on our way back – we took advantage by visiting the library and some shops on our way. But her whole routine was upset. So at dinner she didn’t want to eat. We set no less than SIX foods in front of her. Usually we don’t do this, but we felt sorry for having messed around with her so much.

1. Tortellini with pesto, lovingly prepared just with her in mind (Mama: “Mmm, smells good!”, Baba: “It’s not for you!”) She tasted one and spat it out. It’s usually her favorite.
2. Panda (soy) chocolate pudding. Also a favorite. She asked for it but hardly had a spoonful.
3. A muffin, asked for in the following manner: “I want a candle.” (It’s how we give her muffins: always with a candle for her to blow out.) “Put it on the muffin? It’s in that white bag, Mama.” Me: “Are you going to eat the muffin?” “Yah,” she nods her head, “I want the muffin for the candle.” I, the fool, gave her the muffin, candle and all. I pulled her back just in time before she thrust her face squarely into the flame. She blew out the candle. Didn’t touch the muffin.
4. Blueberry yoghurt. Okay, she ate some of that.
5. The whole wheat bagel with cream cheese left over from lunch, of which she finally ate quite a bit.

• Part five, in which the title of this post is hopefully explained

Then, it was time to go to sleep, but not before she and I had the following mind-blowing conversation.

– Amie: “I want to play with the yellow doorway.”

– Me: “The yellow doorway? Where is that?”

– Amie: “The door” (pronounced like “do-wa” – like “dinoso-wa”). She points in direction of rest of our apartment.

– Me: “We don’t have a yellow door.”

Amie looks at me strangely.

– Me: “Where is it?”

– Amie: “The door. Dough. Dough.”

– Me: “Dough? Yellow playdough?”

We used to have yellow playdough, but I threw it out half a year ago, after it had sat around outside the can for a while and failed to reconstitute.

– Amie: “Door. Yellow door.”

– Me: “Where is it, sweetie? The yellow door?”

– Amie: “Dough. Dough! Yellow dough!”

She was confused and getting a bit upset, but whether at herself of at me, I don’t know. Baba called from the other room: “Are you joking with her?”

– Mama: “You want to play with the yellow playdough?”

– Amie: “I want to play with the dough.”

I gave her the playdough (red) and it lasted less than a minute.

Life with a toddler is surreal!