Free Association and Beepers

The above image is totally unrelated to this post :) For some inexplicable reason, P spent an entire Saturday wandering around the flat wearing his sunglasses and backpack. E and I have yet to figure out what that was all about... But back to beepers...

P invented a free association game one day during a long sub commute. The basic concept is that I tap a finger and he makes a noise or says a word. I touch another finger and he makes a different noise/word. He Loves it. And he especially loves throwing in surprise words. He'll be all noises and nonsense syllables for a while and then pop out an "Aunt Alicia." If Alicia smiles, well then, none of the fingers are hers anymore. Until a few rounds later when All of the fingers will be designated "Aunt Alicia," save one finger, for "Seth" :) There's a seeming method to his madness and it engages him for long periods, so we play it often. What was originally a finger based game has morphed into a nose/toes/fingers/whatever game.

Along with his nonsensical noise making nose comes a solid "beep." We've beeped his nose for years without it ever being a big deal. But once, after a face plant, I asked him if his Beeper still worked. Despite the tears in his eyes, he smiled greatly and pushed his little red nose and uttered a happy "Beeep!" Its importance was then cast in the face-planted concrete. Like all things at this age, his beeps are evolving. And migrating. Not only does his nose make noises, now so does his belly button. And they both have batteries and on/off switches too. There's even a special "low battery beep."

This seemed like an innocent family game... until this week at acrobatics class. As our instructor told us to pretend swim all the way across the room and touch our belly buttons to the wall, I knew it might get interesting. P raced across and belly bumped the bricks. Not sure he'd satisfied his instructions, he pulled up his shirt and pushed his pudge against the wall for good measure :) Then, said the instructor, turn and put your backs against the wall.

P's back briefly touched the wall along with everyone else's and then he was off, skipping into the center of the room. "Hey," he said to Allison, interrupting our instructor that he luuuuvs, "do you want to know what my belly button can do?" As he sings this, he is skipping and simultaneously pulling his shirt up, revealing an outie so out, that it could hold a stack of coins. "BEEEEEEP!" he screams.

Sure, sure, this all sounds slow-mo, like I should have been able to stop it, but it was like moving through taffy, really. I only made it to the "P" before I was laughing so hard I could hardly do my handstand and he'd already hopped back to the wall...


The below video is a poor example of this game... but its all I've got :) Its generally played when we are out and about but featured heavily when he was last sick and more still than usual. You might be able to catch the funny pronunciations due to the voluminous mucus...