Butts and Goodnight Kisses

Zuzu: 3.50 yrs old
Bear: 1.39 yrs old

This morning, Zuzu came in whining because her little baby doll didn't have any toes. This baby doll does actually have toes, but her head was turned all the way around to face the back, so the toes were pointing the opposite way and this distressed Zuzu. I took off the doll's dress to show her. "See? There's her butt," I said, and turned the head around to face front. Zuzu chortled. For the next minute she ran around crying "butt!" over and over again and laughing.

I was putting Bear to bed, and Zuzu gave him a goodnight kiss as usual. We looked around for Daddy and realized he was downstairs. I decided to put Bear to bed without a kiss from Daddy. I didn't realize as I did so that Zuzu was going downstairs to fetch him. They came up just as I was coming out of Bear's room. When Zuzu saw me without Bear, she burst into tears. Actual tears! Because Daddy hadn't kissed Bear! I scooped her up and told her she was wonderful, and Daddy promptly went into Bear's room and kissed him. This made Zuzu feel better, but confused Bear, who had a hard time going to sleep afterward.

After the goodnight kiss from Daddy, Bear had several bouts of crying. Mostly he'd get quiet on his own and then start up again a few minutes later. But at one point his cries took on the sound of ultimate suffering such as Westley experienced in the Pit of Despair. Great throaty screams. Loud and full of the tragedy of loss. And then, a series of sweet little "uh-oh!"s. I knew without a doubt what had happened: his Nuk was on the floor. I walked in; he was standing up in the crib. I knew he'd be right above where he'd dropped it, as close as possible to it, marking the spot for me; I reached down and found it immediately without a light. He sucked on it hungrily when it was back in his mouth, and when I lay him down he was sleepy and content. We haven't heard a peep from him since.