The Great Tse-Tse Capers: Part I

Yesterday while I was making lunch and the boys were playing in the living room I couldn't help but notice things had gotten a little... quiet. 

And as you all know quiet + toddlers = trouble. Really it does, and very nearly every time.

I warily went to investigate and it's not so much that I was relieved at what I found, but in the big scheme of things a pillaged box of kleenex is pretty small potatoes.

And truth be told, I enjoy these moments. 

– It wasn't me, everyone!

– Oh, who I kidding? It totally me!

*stuff stuff stuff* *giggle*

Hey... 'dat look like fun, brother! I think I take some notes.

– So I can do 'dis.

– And whatever 'dis is.

• • • • • • •

"Whatever 'dis is" turned into 15 minutes of making clouds and snow and seagulls and just about anything else a 2 year old imagination could dream up to make out of Kleenex.

Watching them play with those ill-gotten tissues was a delight, but also a timely reminder of some posting that I've been meaning to get to – namely the often-mentioned-but-never-blogged-about "Great Tse-Tse Capers". 

Last December I never would have imagined that this humble box: 

Combined with this very hallway: 

... would be the impetus for not only the first of many "Great Tse-Tse Capers", but also the birthplace of my boys' first twin-speak word: "tse-tse"*.

And although I have referred to (and will continue to do so) incidences of tse-tse's as "The Great Tse-Tse Capers", not all tse-tse's are, in fact, capers. I was however already calling them that before I decoded what a "tse-tse" really is and truth be told 95% of the tse-tse's that happen at the OP are capers of one sort or another. I don't see that changing any time soon so the title stands, but truly a tse-tse is as follows:

Tse-tse 

– noun 

1. any mutual undertaking where hilarity is the end result. 

• • • • • • • 

– I is thinking 'bout making up a word right now.

– Funny you mention 'dat. I is thinking same thing.

– I think I call 'dis one "tse-tse".

– Is like you reading my mind brother. Oh wait... you is!

• • • • • • •

Of course, this post would be nearly meaningless without a video, so I posted one on our YouTube™ channel.

Special highlights include liberal use of the term "tse-tse!" (of course), as well as Seth sampling the flavors of this particular tse-tse at the 2:05 mark (at which point it's clear that intentional hilarity is not necessarily the exclusive domain of the tse-tse purveyors if you catch my drift). 

- L. 

*I hadn't a clue what was going on at the time, or that "tse-tse" would become such a big part of our vernacular at the OP. To be honest, I wasn't really even paying much attention to what they were saying at the time since it just sounded like toddler gibberish. It was only long after the fact that it became clear that "tse-tse" was a real (albeit made-up) word with meaning.

PS. This and this were likely the early iterations of this particular caper, but my boys were still working hard on saying "UP!" at the time (former) or things like "book", "apple" and "baby" (latter). In all fairness, they probably needed to get a few legit words under their belts before they branched out on their own.