Where's my man?

There's a game we played in China when we were little. You talk while you act. It goes like this:
You put something like a cap on your thumb and show it to the audience. --"Today my man is home" Then you put this hand under the other arm for a second while hiding this cap into the palm. --"tomorrow my man is not home" Next you put the cap back onto the original thumb by letting your hand going and coming from the back of your neck.--"The day after tomorrow, my man is back again".
If the audience happens to be young kids, sometimes this game seems like a magic play. Lei has been playing this to Yaya a lot of times, but she is still too young to understand the fun part about it. So one night, when I was in the playroom with the kids, I found a red cap which happened to go very well with my thumb. I tried again, to show Yaya the same thing. Obviously she is still not old enough to be amuzed, but she wanted the cap so that she can try imitating mommy. She put it onto her thumb, but unfortunately the cap dropped somewhere under the sofa while she was trying to hide it under her arm. Yaya, bent down right away, trying to look for it. A neighbor happened to come in at the very moment. "What are you looking for? Yaya" "My man..." You know, the neighbor looked at me so curiously and then we laughed into tears. Yes, "my man" really, seems to be a way too early thing for my little girl.