The little girl's cousin now starts her journey

[Reporter]

One afternoon, Cousin 4's mother sent me a video of Cousin 4, her little sister Ej Ej, and NiNi simultaneously clamoring for a same thing.

The video opens with NiNi standing on the scooter with a face crying while Ej Ej held tight onto the stem pole to lift herself from the floor:

"Eh-eh-eh-eh--waaahhh-waaahhh--auntie! Eh-eh-eh-eh..."

Then Cousin 4 was heard crying from the background (her mom's text indicating that
Cousin 4 was on her back on a harness):

"No! No! No! My chooder! Jive me my chooder! Myyyyy chooder! Wah-wah-wah-aahhh... Myyyyy chooder! Wah! Waaah! Myyyyy chooder!!!"

Her mom's hands reaching down to pick Ej Ej up and NiNi softening down to a halt--now standing calm with both hands on the handle bars, though not moving.

"Myyyy choooooooder! Aaah! ah-ah-aahhh! Myyyyyy chooooooder!" Cousin 4 continued.

[Reporter]

Cousin 4 (aka Pey-Pey) loves Micky Mouse and Minnie Mouse. So, I have
bought a pair over the weeken anticipating to give them to her at her next visit.

But both her mom and NiNi's mom texted me almost at the same time
today --synchronicity?--and said they would like to bring the girls over
this Friday for an all-day visit to free the mothers up for something.

I am not sure how I will give the Disney couple to Pey-Pey without giving
something to NiNi, too. I could give them each one but then that wouldn't
be a pair anymore when the little girls go to their separate  houses on Friday night.

Hm...

[Reporter]

Pey-Pey and NiNi both came over to my place for the entire day.

I put them to the drawing papers and they played there while I worked from my computer.

A quick knock on my door showed Pey-Pey peeking in and said "R, I don't feel well."

I didn't hear her well so I asked her to repeat it.

Then she added, "I wanna go to doctor."

I told her I would take her there as soon as I got a hold of her mom.

I texted her mom and was told the earliest her mom could get an appointment for us was Monday--3 days away.

Her mom was concerned why Pey-Pey got that feeling just as soon as Pey-Pey got to me.

I said I had no idea but that this wasn't the time to find the source or the blame and that we had to
take care of this issue right away today, not Monday.

I felt some guilt on her mom's part but I didn't want to even discuss that.
I just wanted Pey-Pey to get to the doctor today. Blame wasn't the issue here.

Her mom let me take her to the ER.

Something smelled pretty bad in the livingroom, so I opened the back door to vent.

"That smells so jood," said Pey-Pey.

"What? That smells good?" I asked.

"She means the fresh air smells good," my sister said.

"Oh, of course," I said.

"NiNi pooed, R," Pey-Pey said. "NiNi pooed in the toiyet."

My sister had to take care of that.

[Reporter]

The ER says it's otalgia Pey-Pey had. In fact, some drainage has  been exhibited on both ears.

The doctor did something that made Pey-Pey say a few minutes later that "I  feel well now, R."

While the doctor went out to write up his discharge papers, I walked Pey-Pey around the ER cubicles.

"Doctors and nurses work here," I said.

"Doctors and nurses," she repeated.

"Right. Everything here is a secret. So, no one tells
anyone outside what they see here."

"Secret?" she asked.

"Yes."

I didn't explain what that is. I don't think she knows what that is yet.

"Doctors and nurses have studied very hard like you. That's how they got to work here," I said.

"Ok."

A discharge order came in with instructions to pick up some medicine and when to administer them throughout the next seven days.

But before we left, a nurse came in with a syringe of pink squirts and said Pey-Pey had to take that by mouth. Pey-Pey refused to and the nurse asked me to hold Pey-Pey down for the nurse to put in two squirts into Pey-Pey's mouth.

"It tastes good, Baby Pey-Pey. Just candy," I said.

"No!!! No!!! Waahhh! Waahhh! Waahhh!! Haaaahh!" she screamed. Her noise obviously penetrated the entire ER area. But no one
said anything. I guess everyone was just too busy with their secrets.

I returned Pey-Pey and the discharge instructions to her mom. But I fear her mom won't pick up more of the medicines from the pharmacy. So, I will make sure they are picked up somehow for the week.

[Reporter]

Pey-Pey visited again today and I took her to the
Asian grocery store to get some herbs.

"Yook, R! Sheemai chuark!," she said as she
pointed to the semi just ahead of another car
in front of us.

"Right," I said.

"A white one," she said.

Then she showed me a toy donut on her car seat.

"Cheechen, R."

"What color is that?" I asked.

"Bown. Bown donut," she said in her high-pitched baby voice.

We picked up some toy purses in the store. She said she wanted
a "boo" one for her and the pink one for NiNi.

She shook it.

"Shomething inshide," she said.

"What's inside?"

"Just noov-noom, R. Just noov-noom."

Then there were toy eggs.  She picked "yell-yow."

She shook it like she just shook the purse.

"Just noov-noom, too, R. Just noov-noom."

At the traffic light, she saw oncoming cars speeding up the road.

"Char. Go up the hill," she said.

"Do you want us to go up the hill, too?" I asked.

"Yes."

When the light turned green and all traffic was gone, I
U-turned and went after those cars she just saw.

"We go up the hill," she said. "Fash!"

Asked if she feels better from the owie-owie, she said "I feel better now."

[Reporter]

We don't always get along, of course.

Pey-Pey was playing with some sticky nail polish tapes and has put them on the kitchen table. I took one and taped that onto her right thumb.

"Nooo!!" she said. "I don't yike it! You d-o to work, R. D-o to work!"

[Reporter]

Pey-Pey was watching "Five Little Panda Bears Jumping on the Bed," and I said "Oh, no, he hit his head."

"He bumps his head," she said.

I get to enjoy a lot of shows from this little girl that I didn't know existed before: Little Bunny Foo Foo, Little Baby Bum, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, The Wheels on the Bus, etc.

[Reporter]

Pey-Pey has misplaced a half-inch light-yellow cupcake head toy that she calls "mov mom." She won't let
go off the idea of looking for it. But the whole hour of searching turned out nothing anywhere in the house.

We checked all possible bags and even under the sofas and beds to no avail. I gave her some other toys
to make her dismiss it, but she wouldn't. She kept asking "where mov mom?"

She finally fell asleep around 11:00 p.m.

At 3:00 a.m. I woke up and couldn't let go off the idea, either. So, I decided to search all of her play
areas. I re-searched--the bedroom, the kitchen, the whole living room and under and over the sofas,
the TV area, the student desk, etc. None turned out anything.

Then I went to the basement and re-looked at everything, under and over the couch there. I removed
all cushion inserts and tipped the couch over, shook the only throw there violently.

Nothing.

I gave up and just picked up a towel to put over a kitchen toy near the laundry room before going back up. 
But, suddenly, I tipped the toy over and "mov mom" fell right onto the floor.

One time her mother said that Pey-Pey lost a cupcake toy and just wouldn't do anything else without it. Her
mother had to look everywhere until she found it, too.

I had suggested that her mother teach her how to organize things so that Pey-Pey would not have such a
hard time find her toys and stop saying "I yost it" and "I'll buy a new one." But her mother said
Pey-Pey is still too young to know how to do that yet. Her mother has already tried, but each time Pey-Pey
has her toys, they would be all over everywhere.

She should be happy when she gets up in the morning.

[Reporter]

Pey-Pey doesn't know who found her mov-mom for her. But she tells
me this morning that she has it again and that she wants to show it to me.

Then she shows it to me.

But she has not forgotten that she told me to go
away by telling me yesterday to go to work. She's
afraid I might be sad. "Are you sad, R?" she asks.

"No," I tell her. "I'm not sad. Don't worry."

"Happy face," she says.

"Right."

She laughs very hard.

[Reporter]

Pey-Pey has been a bit annoyed at me, because I keep putting ear drops into her ears after the doctor has instructed us to do that for seven days.

Whenever I get close to her, she tells me to go to work and then says "no!!!" each time I say something to her.

We were at the dining table and she way poking her foods with two sticks.

"What are you doing with those?" I asked.

"I hold them," she said.

"You hold want?"

"I hold the sticks! No!!!"

She didn't seem to know what they are.

"Oh, you are holding the chopsticks?"

She was silent.

"Can I have those chopsticks you are holding?"

"No!!! No, R!!! D-o chu wark!"

"Can I take the chopsticks with me?"

"No!!! Don't touch my chopsticks!"

Ok. She's got it.

[Reporter]

NiNi and Pey-Pey both love watching me leave the house. They would get onto the sofa by the window and waive at me.

Today, before I left, I told them I was going to work.

"Where your keys?" Pey-Pey asked. "White ones."

I pulled them out of my pocket.

"Your glasses...you put them like this," she said and ran her hands by her ears. "You be home soon, ok, R?"

[Reporter]

NiNi was picked up earlier by her dad. But Pey-Pey insisted to stay overnight. So, her mom said on the phone that that was okay.

Pey-Pey played with slimes and playdohs most of the day today or at least since 2:00 p.m. Then we stepped over the mat of alphabets that had each letter associated with an idea. "C" for carrots, for example.

"Letters," she said.

I told her those are also called alphabet letters. But she didn't repeat after me. So, I just said it once more and let that sink in for her.

"'L' for heart," she said.

I told her it was "love." But the mat makers drew some hearts over the word. So, I could understand her misunderstandi ng.

"'O' for onion," she said on.

Then "I want to go to mommy house" came suddenly.

I worried because I didn't want to  have to take her there at 8:00 p.m. now.

"We go tomorrow," I said.

"No!!!"

"When do you want to go?"

"Nowwwww!!!" she said and sad down onto the wooden floor, leaning against the wall in the hallway, looking displeased.

"Go ask Auntie."

She walked quickly in her toddler foot steps to the kitchen.

"Auntie, I want to go to mommy house," she said, almost in unison with a cry.

I followed her there and asked why.

"I miss mommy."

"Do you miss daddy?"

"Yes."

"Do you miss Ej Ej, too?" (Ej Ej is her few-month-old, still-crawling baby sister.)

"Yes... I miss them."

[Reporter]

Yesterday we looked at the moon. Pey-Pey said "moon ish hidang."

The moon was only partly showing. (We pointed at the moon without fear, like we did before.)

"Ish night time," she said.

Awhile ago, when Cousin 2 was a bit older than Pey-Pey was, Cousin 2 didn't know night from day but described night as "you know when the sun is not there and you can't see anymore."

Now, Pey-Pey asked to have both umbrellas flared up.

"Ish a shunny day! Ish shunny," she said.

Then she changed that to "ish raining; ish raining, R."

I wetted my hands with some water from the kitchen sink and asked if I could splash it.

"Yesh," she said.

I shook the water from my hands onto her umbrellas. "It's raining. It's raining," I said.

"No!! No, R. Don't spash!"

"But it's raining," I said.

"No!!!"

[Reporter]

She's playing with her Peppa Pig toys and putting them on two trolleys that she calls buses.

"All aboard," she says. "All aboard. Bye-bye. You want to chome? You chome, too."

I just listen to her talk to them.

Then I decide to take some other toys and ask her if we can ride on the bus, too. It's already full.

"Yesh. Chome! Ride togader," she says.

[Reporter]

As Pey-Pey is more and more able to verbalize her internal knowledge, I get the feeling that she has a very educated soul and may even be able to sense things.

The other day her mom picked up the phone and  started talking while we played away, Pey-Pey told me "mommy talking on der phone, wid shister."

NiNi has a tiny baby toy whose toes had been bitten off. I thought it was created that way. But Pey-Pey looked at those feet with the missing toes and said "Boo Boo bite it. Boo Boo bite it."

I later confrmed from NiNi's mom that their pet dog Boo Boo did bite off those toes and NiNi's dad couldn't fix them, so they just let those feet be. But she said Pey-Pey never knew of that from them or anyone else.