"Oh yes, I'm the great pretender."

We came home late from Samira's house. Taufik was tiredd and grumpy. It was going to be a battle of wills getting him to have his bath and into bed. I announced firmly that "It's time to have a bath Taufik." "No mommy!" he said to me. "Either that or you'll have to stay in the bedroom until you're ready to have a bath." I responded. He was growing mad. I could see the flare of defiance in his eyes, but he toddled off to the bathroom anyway.

As I switched on the bathroom light he said to me, "I no love mommy. I love Far." His voice was quivering, he had started blinking trying to squeeze out a tear or two. The little pretender.

We finished bathing without much struggle and with only one condition from Taufik, "No wash hair, Mommy." he commanded. Deal, I thought.

On the way to the bedroom, squeaky clean and smothered in my big towel, he dawdled at the telephone. "I want phone Far." he said to me. I knew what that meant, it meant he wanted to bawl into the phone to complain to Far of my dictatorial manner. I thought a distraction would be good. I drew his attention to his aquarium and the bright orange fishes we bought yesterday. I changed the light to the new ultra violet light so that the colours on the fishes would shimmer brightly. We enjoyed a quiet moment of gazing at the fishes. "Mommy, I want phone Far." he said it quite calmly and so I thougth why not.

As I dialed, he started squishing his face, blinking his eyes rapidly, "I want Far." he kept saying, his voice quivering more and more as he worked up his emotions. He wasnt sad at all, but he was imitating all the posture and expressions of great sadness. He started what was supposed to be snivelling but was instead a poor copy of the original thing.

The call connected and Kim was on the line, Taufik started crying then, and as I passed the phone to him, his crying became genuine. Voila! True emotions at last. He managed to work himself up to such a frenzy that now the grief was real.

I smiled, and was laughing inside. But now that he was genuinely upset (and I am sure he had already forgotten why he was upset) I hugged my little poom poom ("No Mommy, I'm-a-Peem Peem.) while he bawled on the phone.

He is the most adorable pretender ever.