like a monkey

it took my oldest nephew, nels, a while to show affection. for the longest time if you asked him for a kiss he would give you his cheek to kiss. then somehow one of my family members tricked him into kissing someone on the nose. so then you could ask, "nels, can i have a kiss on the nose?" and he would do it. last weekend i managed to get him to give kisses on the lips. 

we watch a fair amount of youtube videos with nels and one that i've thrown into the rotation recently is island in the sun by weezer. i don't really like the song that much but the video is ridiculously cute.

nels requests to watch it now by saying, "wanna watch the baby animals!" anyway, on saturday after our second or third viewing in a row i said, "can you kiss like the monkey?" and he did it. later that day i asked him to kiss mommy like the monkey. i think my sister nearly died because it was just so damn cute. 

he has a few other "tricks" as i call them but none are quite as cute. a close second would be his impression of curious george, which is another one that i helped him develop. my dad and i were watching curious george with him one morning when george scratched the top of his head and made a confused noise. i asked nels if he could do that, and he did. now if you ask him what george does nels says, "he say, "hmmmmm?"" while gently scratching the top of his head. it's hilarious!