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Monday, September 15, 2008

Another Game Bites The Dust

Gabi figured something out over the weekend that nearly broke her daddy's heart.

Ever since she started tottling around with things in her arms, he's played a game with her that involves stealing whatever is in her hands and pretending to eat it. He turns sideways and tilts his head back. All she sees is his open mouth, and the item going down the hatch and disappearing.

This is incredibly distressing to her. As you can well imagine! A toy eating daddy is not the most ideal playmate. But Gilberto gets such a kick out of the whole thing.

When she was little, Gabi would push on his tummy, and after a few pushes he would pretend, with giant wretches, to throw it back up. Usually by distracting her and then throwing the toy up into the air like it had just shot out of his mouth.

It's always quite the show. A really lovely thing to see. It's amazing how watching someone just pretending to throw up can start the commiserate dry heaving.

(Are all daddies this disgusting? Or are we just lucky?)

Gabi would then grab her upchucked toy and run to hide, happy to have thwarted the big bad toy eating daddy yet again.

And she was a believer in her daddy's toy swallowing abilities all the way up until Saturday.

I can't remember exactly what it was he grabbed, but it was something soft, like a stuffed animal. She ran to it after it'd been upchucked, then stood there in confusion for a minute, inspecting the toy.

Gabi: Hey! This doesn't have any gross spit on it!

Gilberto: Oh. Um. Well, that's because it got cleaned up when it was sailing through the air.

Gabi: You DIDN'T swallow it! Or it would be wet with yucky tummy goo! Daddy, you were just PRETENDING!

She had such an accusing tone! It was like, for the very first time, she was seeing it with total clarity. The way an adult would see it.

You should've seen Gilberto's face. The poor guy looked like he was going to cry! Besides his baby growing up and developing awesome deduction skills, this was also his most favorite means of torture, and in just a few seconds it had been ripped away from him.

Gilberto: Laural? My technique was good, right? Did I do something wrong?

And me? I couldn't stop laughing long enough to answer. Which ended up with him laughing with me, so all was good in the end.

Gilberto did try it one more time, just to be sure that it was truly over. Gabi stood there with her hands on her hips and said indignantly, "Daddy, I KNOW you didn't swallow it. It's in your hand. Now give it to me RIGHT NOW!" And toy in hand, she marched off, totally disgusted that her dad would try to pull that over on her again.

So the swallowing/upchuck game has joined the ranks of several other games that Gabi has outgrown.

And I'd be excited over not having to listen to Gabi screech all the time about her daddy stealing and eating her toys, but that man is resourceful. Last night he was already scheming about new ways to aggravate and annoy.

I don't ever see this stopping. He's going to be the dad that plays tricks on his teenage daughter and humiliates her in front of all her friends on an ongoing basis.

I'm torn between teaming up with her to thwart him, and sitting back to watch all the entertainment unfold.

23 comments:

  1. I say watch the entertainment. You gotta get your kicks where you can. LOL

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  2. Ha! definitely watch the entertainment :) That sounds like it would have been hysterical to see. Poor Gilberto, though... I'm sure he was crushed that his baby girl is getting older...

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  3. I totally agree! Watch the entertainment ensue! This SO reminds me of stuff MY Dad used to do to me... and quite honestly, it is one of the things I miss the most. My Dad always was teasing, torturing, and picking on me, and because of that, I knew he loved me. :) Thanks for the smile.

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  4. Definitely sit back and enjoy! It sounds like the relationship between the two of them is pretty amusing.
    I grew up with a Dad like that myself...wouldn't change a thing.

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  5. this is great honey!! why is it that daddy's love to tease and annoy?? my dad this to me always and i already see my hubby doing it with beans??

    must be a boy thing :)

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  6. Yes, sit back and enjoy the fun! After all, it is just the way that daddies operate. They have their own way of communicating love and giving attention.
    I remember my dad convincing us as kids that he could make the traffic lights change color. We soon figured out that he was just watching the opposing light for the yellow and then counting to three and saying, "Wallah" like he had made it change.

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  7. Bless his heart...it's tough on daddies when their little girls start growing up...

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  8. Ah, sunrise, sunset..."When did my little girl learn I wasn't really VOM-iting..." :)

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  9. Yep, I can't wait to humiliate my boys in front of their dates. We have somme great videos already.

    Gabi's growing up and now not throwing up, huh? Funny post~

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  10. This. Post. Was. Hilarious. Poor Gilberto...I'm sure he'll think of something else to mystify his baby girl.
    Smiles,
    J

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  11. I thought the teasing thing was a Brazilian thing, since my in-laws do it to the cousins and now my son all the time - but now that I think about it it was only the uncles!

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  12. I love that he plays with her that way. Such sweet sorrow it is, daddy's girl is growing up. I'd sit and watch as well. Enjoy all the fun!

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  13. Dads parent so much different than moms don't they :)

    Stand back and watch....it will brighten your day!

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  14. My kids' favorite game is to have their Dad chase them around the couch and scare them. I don't know why, but they love it, it cracks them up every time. I love to watch them laugh, but there is no way I'm crawling all over the floor.

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  15. I would just sit back and enjoy the comedy. I love watching daddies and daughters. It is such a special relationship:-)

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  16. Ohhhh man! One time when I was babysitting a friends toddler my hubby started playing with him...making the little boy laugh and laugh. My hubby was chucking a pillow at him and making him fall to his butt...laughing his butt off. Well, the little boy took a step on the tile right when the pillow was launched and he fell, busted his lip open WIDE and from that point on he's NEVER rough with kids. We have a girl, so he's super protective of not being rough or making her upset. lol

    Great post!

    Oh and thanks for the advice!!! Being sick at the same time as baby is SUCH a challenge. She's taking a nap now...so should I! lol

    ~melody~

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  17. Sounds like they have a great relationship. But she's getting bigger and cleverer and got it figured out.

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  18. I can hardly stop giggling! Hot Rod does exactly the same thing with the girls. They (Daddy included) enjoy the heck out of it.

    Another thing he loves to do is hide and jump out to scare them. Oh, and he tries to make them think he can do magic - THAT is a funny sight!!

    It's so great when Daddies get so involved with their kiddos. Hubs and I both have great Dads.

    BTW - we don't know about the roof yet, thanks for asking. Hopefully, it won't be bad...

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  19. look at it this way, she will NEVER run out of stories to tell her friends about her "crazy dad" hahaha i was literally laughing out loud as i read this. my dad is the SAME way, so i don't know if it's luck, or they're all like that, but I am still telling about the crazy/gross tricks he used to do to me and i am still laughing about it :)

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  20. So funny! We've played a version of this game quite a bit around our place too! It is kind of sad when they figure it out...

    I like your second idea at the end there - watching the craziness ensue!

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  21. Ahh, the entertainment. Thanks for stopping by!

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  22. It's so exciting when they start to make realizations like that on their own, but so sad too because you are slapped in the face with the harsh reality that they are growing up.

    At least she never tried to do Daddy's "trick" herself!

    Don't worry, he'll come up with something new for sure!

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  23. Parenting is full of a lot of joys and heartbreaks, isn't it? I'm so sad that Samantha just outgrew her first set of clothes, I can't imagine how I will feel when she does something like you described with Gabi and Gilberto. It's like the end of an era. But I guess when one door closes...

    :)

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