Spud's "Toot"

Spud talks a lot these days, and listening to her blabber is always a joy!

Since she was a baby, she’s always been tickled by funny noises which we make, particularly the ones which Silver Bullet comes up with. Given Silver Bullet’s knack for coming up with funny-sounding sounds, you can imagine the exposure of “funny sounds” she has been exposed to since!

One of our favourite games is to point at her stomach, belly button , cheeks and nose (sometimes on the forehead), and after naming that certain body parts, we would go “toot”.

And now, she is just imitating us- with sounds, gesture and all; as each time she points to her own body parts, she also goes “toot”. And then flashes us her brilliant smile. (which at some point, we wonder if we had taught her the right thing as it first started out as an amusement)

Which leads me to this story:

After a massive crying fit which started way before she received her jab (she was not too happy being man-handled by the nurses and her pediatrician), I took her to the kids play area at the hospital to calm her down.

She finally calmed down after 10 minutes melt-down, and had independently amused herself on one of the slides. I was just nearby watching her, and not long after, another girl a few years older than her, joined in.

Probably happy to see a friend, she immediately walked over to the girl and smiled. Along with that smile, came that little hand, and with that little hand, out came the index finger ever so slowly going towards the girl’s forehead and as that fingertip touched the girls forehead, Spud immediately went “Toot!”

Now, I did not see that coming! You should have seen the horror look on my face… and at that point, I really did not know if I should laugh or cry!

It was a good thing that I was close by to “remedy” the situation. Hard as it was to suppress my laughter right there and there, I immediately removed Spud’s hand off the girl’s and told Spud gently that she should not do that to a friend. I promptly apologised to the girl…although I am not sure what she had made of it.

As it was almost time to go, I hurried Spud along to meet Silver Bullet at the cashier. It was hard for me to keep a straight face as I related the story to him. He obviously burst out laughing, but right there and there, we both realised that very soon, all those funny sounds and gestures we do out of amusements at the initial stages may not be so funny anymore in the near future.

Oh! Toot.