Timothy loves to give kisses.

But kisses do not always mean what you think.

In the movie The Godfather II, Michael Corleone gives his younger brother Fredo a kiss on the lips shortly before he has him killed.  That may be a little extreme, but the point is that some cultures use a kiss to deliver a message.

Which brings us to our house.

One night at bedtime, after Laura and I had helped him put on his pajamas, Timothy asked for his mom (baba), and then grabbed my hand and gave it a big smooch.

As I stood there, a little unsure about what to do, the annoyed look on Timothy’s face made it clear that the ‘kiss’ was of the ‘good bye’ type.  After a bit, he looked up at me, incredulously, as if to say, ‘Can I help you?  Are you waiting for a tip?  Don’t you have someplace to be?’

So while T is not exactly Michael Corleone, he’s at least a Godfather with a lower case ‘g’.

In medieval times, royalty would sometimes enter through their own separate entrance to the castle.  Maybe Timothy is nostalgic for the good old days, because he’s reviving that tradition.

He’s spent his first five years getting in the car on the right side (which is where his car seat is), but in the past few weeks he’s been insisting on using the left side of the car for his entrances and exits.  And while the rest of us enter the house through the side door, Timothy has started walking around the front of the house for a grand entrance through the (until now) rarely used front door.

I’m not sure what’s happening here, but given the godfather’s power plays and royal entrances, we just might be in the early stages of a family coup.

Grateful, we think,

The Lee’s