What can Daniel mean?

My nephew, Daniel, is a charming boy. He loves his Aunty Sally, of course, but he’s at the age that he doesn’t want to be kissed (not by aunts anyway). For that reason I always approach him as if I’m going to kiss him but  I give him enough time to pull a pillow up to his face or to run and hide. Yesterday he was on the sofa when I entered the lounge-room and went over to kiss him.

“Oh no!” Daniel pulled a face and grabbed a pillow, “I don’t want to be kissed by a fat panda!”

“A fat panda?” I asked. (So much for Dr Dukan’s diet and those four pounds off.) “What  a horrible thing to say to me, especially when I’m so slim now. What if I was sensitive?”

“I said a ‘pat panda'” he laughed.

We both laughed and he let me run my hand through his hair instead of kissing. I seem to remember that I didn’t like people coming up and kissing me when I was child…I have changed!