This morning I was sitting on the couch flipping through an old magazine. My daughter was playing a game just a few feet away. I asked her to come join me on the sofa.
She hopped up on the sofa next to me, then plopped her body onto my lap. I held onto her hands while she bent her body back. Her shirt slipped a bit, exposing the bottom part of her belly. I let go of her hands and started to tap my hands gently against her belly as if it were a bongo drum. I started to play the beat of her favorite song with my hands on her little tummy.
“Why are you hitting my belly, Mommy?” She asked.
“I’m not hitting it, I’m playing a song on it. Can you guess which song I’m playing?”
“Oh! A Game! Okay, let me guess!”
She smiled and closed her eyes. I could tell by the look on her face that she was trying so hard to figure out the beat.
“I give up! Just tell me!”
“Silly girl, I was playing Call Me Maybe! That’s your favorite song, you should have known that!”
“Oh, MAN!” She said, as she smacked her forehead.
Then, in an unexpected move, she lifted up my shirt and shouted excitedly “MY TURN!”
“No, no…” I replied and I quickly pulled my shirt back down. “Why don’t you just do it on your own tummy?”
“Why not on YOUR tummy?” She asked.
And then, before I could respond, she answered her own question.
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. I know why.” She said
, very matter-of-factly. “Because your belly is way too jiggly and it would sound kind of weird.”
…..
That was the first and the last time we will ever play THAT game in this house.
