Asshat?

The silence has broken. Tate is home and we're back to insanity. No more just sitting on the floor watching Nora coo and giggle and be so proud of herself for rolling over. The tornado has returned.
I drove to Wausau to meet my aunt Trisha and pick up Tate. The babysitter came to watch Nora, and I swear that as soon as that little baby saw the sitter, her little lip stuck right out and started quivering. Now, Tate had stranger anxiety early, but not at freakin' 3 1/2 months. I'm hoping she was just PMSing or something.
Anyway, Tate was asleep when they got there, and was NOT happy about being roused awake, especially since it was me doing the rousing. He opened his eyes, looked at me, panicked, and cried "Tisha? Tisha!!". Gee, thanks, kid. I'm glad to see you too. After a bit, he grudgingly let me hold him and kiss his little cheeks.
The ride home wasn't too bad, except Tate likes to point out the window at some vague spot in the distance and ask "What's that?" Only it toddler-ese, "what's that" sounds a lot like "asshat". So after about 20 minutes of playing "Asshat?", this is the gist of our conversation:

Tate: "Asshat?"
Me: "Uh, a tree"
Tate: "Tree. Asshat?"
Me: "A...porcupine?"
Tate "Cupine. Asshat?"
Me: "I don't know! I can't see what you're pointing at!"
Tate: "ASSHAT???? ASSHAT??"
Me: "RODNEY DANGERFIELD RUNNING NAKED IN A FIELD OF CLOVER!"
Tate: "...."

Wow. The kid was rendered speechless. But thanks to the big bag of Combos I gave him, he was a happy camper for the rest of the trip. He even shared with Mommy. Of course, he had to put the Combo in his mouth and suck the salt off before handing it over. Nice.
We got home and Tate decided instead of coming in to see Daddy and Baby he'd rather go watch the neighbor mow his lawn. I mean, it is pretty intriguing, but you'd think after not seeing dad for 5 days, he'd be all over that. Not so much.
He finally agreed to come inside and made a beeline for Nora and hugged and kissed her. I just about melted. Then he pinched her leg.
And life returns to normal.