Beth and Her Friends

About Pierced Ears...

The other night at dinner, Beth started examining my earlobes and asking why I have earholes. I explained I'd had them pierced when I was 3, so that I could wear earrings. She started talking about her classmate Jonelle, who wears earrings to school. And said she'd like to have her ears pierced too. Since I'd had mine done before I was her age, I've no objections, but her daddy would hear none of it. That was when she started to bawl. Maybe she can have them done in Melbourne...

With Gabriel...

We were with friends last Friday night talking about the big move. They have a lovely little boy, Gabriel, who's 3 months younger than Beth. When we got there, G was jumping up and down with excitement and showing one display of hospitality after another: taking out toys and snacks to share with Beth, footstools for me and hubby to rest our feet on (so sweet!), and keeping up a constant stream of chatter. Beth in the meantime, had been about to fall asleep and was trying to cover her ears to keep out the noise. She was definitely in no mood to socialize.

At the point where G started to offer a choc muffin, Beth seemed to give up on the idea of her power nap, sat up and started to interact with G. They eventually left the adults to go off to the playroom by themselves; you could see G was so thrilled! My friend Yvonne (G's mum) went to check on them a while later and reported back that G had spilled Mamee all over the bed and Beth was busy scolding: "I told you not to open it here!" and other such dialogue. The 2 of them got on like a house on fire and it's such a pity that we're leaving this circle of comfort soon. But not before we all sit down to dinner next Friday. I'm looking forward to see how the kids get on next week!

With Matthias...

M is 8 months old and absolutely adorable. He has huge round eyes and the sweetest smile - best of all, he's smiling most of the time! It's not hard to make him gurgle and laugh. His dad sings tenor in our church choir and so M sits in every Sun morning with his mum in the choir room to watch (and sometimes he joins in!). Our families belong to the same cell group.

Beth loves to go up to M in his stroller and play with him. She's quite good with little ones and lets M pull her fair (although I was a bit startled myself when he pulled out a tiny fistful last Sun), touch her face etc. She takes it upon herself to watch him like a hawk when his mum steps out for a while, and can tell me what it is M wants when he whines ("He wants his Mummy." "He wants to come out.") I am really pleased that she enjoys hanging out with kids of all ages. She and her new sibling should get on just fine, as she's quite the nurturing, protective sort.

With Bryan....

B is 3 and a typically rambunctious little boy. He is taller and bigger than most kids his age and as loud and intimidating as a frisky 3 year-old can get. Last Sun, he confronted Beth in the church sanctuary with a paper plane in each hand, and tried to block her path as she made to walk in the opposite direction. I watched to see how it would end.

To my pleasant surprise, Beth did not whine or burst into tears. Instead, she fixed him with a stony glare of displeasure (which she has mastered to perfection and occasionally uses on Mummy and Daddy) and an arms-akimbo posture, and continued trying to get past. B gallantly attempted a few more blocks and eventually gave up. I think he was just trying to engage her playfully but you can tell she's not a typical girly sort, which is good. It means she can fend for herself at school without having to run crying to the teacher all the time.

The First Kiss

The other day, we were watching Singapore Idol and Beth and I got to talking about boys and girls. She likes the baby-faced boys. In April, it was Campus Superstar winner Ng Zhiyang, whom she wanted to marry. In the current SI competition, she's rooting for Joakim Gomez ("the performing monkey"). Then she announced that her classmate Gerald (who has a baby face) kissed her. And that she didn't like it.

"Cannot anyhow kiss people - cannot!" she asserted self-righteously, shaking her head at the same time. "You can only kiss your own Mummy and Daddy." And proceeded to wrap herself round me and kiss me. Awshucks.

When I asked her how she felt when G kissed her - happy? angry? surprised? -she replied sheepishly, "Happy." :)
And disclosed that she'd kissed G right back!

Looks like I'll have to gear up for my daughter's busy social life much earlier than I anticipated!