Bambina Bon Mots, Part 876

Bambina has been on fire lately.

Yesterday we were discussing baby names. We'd had some drama in the AM because our social worker called to finalize our home study before sending it to Homeland Security (so we can get FBI fingerprints and then, finally, our approval to bring Baby Sister home). She kept talking with me during the call even though I made it clear that "Mama is on the phone." (This is my pet peeve, talking to an adult and constantly having the sentence interrupted by a kid in the background. Bambina attempts to do it every day [sometimes successfully], believe me; which means it's not a capital offense. But I just think that at some point you have to draw the line; and for us growing up, an adult on the phone was my opportunity to shut my cakehole or face the consequences). So the BBDD, working from home, banished her to the couch while I went into a room and closed the door (ie, you can be near Mama if you behave; if you don't know how to act appropriately, you have to go be alone till you do). So when I came out and saw the big tears rolling down the face I talked to her about how its important that the social worker finished that big pile of paper, just like we did for her, so that the second China calls, we can start packing our suitcases to go bring Baby Sister home, and wouldn't we be sad if China called and we couldn't go because we didn't finish our big pile of paper? She got it, because she has been waaay psyched to be a big sister for about a year now and keeps asking if Baby Sister has been born yet (Answer: We don't know, but let's wonder together! I'm sure she's in her Chinese mother's tummy already; do you think she's still in there or already out and with her nannies in the big room?) Anyway, this led to a discussion later in the afternoon about what we are going to name her. I offered her some of our ideas, all of which received a quick, "I don't like that." When I asked what her thoughts were she immediately said, "Petunia!" Oh. "Petunia like the flower?" "Yes!" Okay, what about a middle name, the one that will come before her Chinese name (we have a two-middle-name policy in my family, a tradition I never want to lose. So we do a first name/middle name/Chinese name/last name thing; also because we don't want the girls to lose their Chinese names as if they didn't exist as people until we named them or something). Her answer? In all earnestness, not as a joke: "Stinkyfeet." So, wherever you are in the universe, dear daughter, your big sister can't wait to meet you. And call you Petunia Stinkyfeet.

Pop told me yesterday that when he and Bambina were out recently, she asked him to stop singing along with the Wilburys CD in the car. "I don't like when you sing." He asked her, "since when have you not liked me singing along with the Wilburys?" (something they've done as long as Bambina has known about the Wilburys). Her answer: "Since July 1st!"

Our long-lost friend Mike D was in town for business, so we had him over for dinner. He brought Bambina a book about the Emperor's New Clothes. We read and read that story even though she didn't quite understand the thrust of it. What she did get was that the Emperor called one of his minions a "dunderhead." So now her insult of choice is, rather amusingly in public, "You are a dunderhead!" Which makes us look like we are not only raising a rude kid, but one skilled in the art of Shakespearean Insult.

And finally, Bambina and her cousin H did potty together while we were at my sister's house in DC, during which they apparently agreed that pottying together with another girl is okay. And maybe, by special dispensation, even two girls and one pre-approved boy. "But, Mama, if 89 people are watching, that's not going to work for me."

Me neither.