Paradox Blog

Playing with her doll house and toy kitchen while I unpacked our take-out lunch, my daughter asked me what's for lunch, I said "chicken and salads". I served her a few pieces of the roasted chicken meat and salad greens on her own plate. She soon finished the chicken and came back for more. She said sweetly and politely "Mommy, can I have more 'kitchen' please". I looked at her puzzled for a moment before I realized she has mixed up the words "chicken" and "kitchen". I served her more chicken and replied "Here, more 'chicken' for Samantha" putting some emphasis on the word "chicken". She finished her chicken again and asked "Can I have more 'kit-', uh, 'chicken'?" She then proceeded repeating the words to herself "Chicken, kitchen, chicken, kitchen" and laughed.

Among the few vegetables that my daughter would eat is broccoli. Carrots are for the rabbits. Leafy greens too stringy. Potatoes and yams too starchy. But broccoli are little trees that she would gladly eat.

Why are there chocolate candies for every holiday. My daughter got a bunch of chocolate eggs for Easter. I gave her one egg at a time when she asked and put the rest away. She usually would only ask for her chocolate treats the very day she got them and she does not keep count yet. Those chocolates in one corner of my pantry became a test on my will power. Every day after 4 P.M. when the stress eating period kicked in, I kept remembering there were chocolates in my pantry. I told myself I would only eat one and I took one egg from the jar where I stored them. If you are a chocoholic like me you know we could never stop at one. So one after another before you know it half of my daughter's bounty was gone. The next day I ate half of the remaining eggs, the day after that half of what's left until there was only one egg left. Out of guilt, I left that one in the jar in case my daughter suddenly remembered her Easter eggs.

Did I tell you the time my daughter spent half an hour in the bathroom at the house of someone hosting a party? This was not long after we started potty-training her. Just an hour after we arrived at the party, my daughter exclaimed she wanted to go home. Feeling we should stayed a bit longer, we tried to persuade her to stay and play. The hostess joined in and asked her "Don't go home just yet, go play with Michelle (the host family's daughter)". Her suggestion was effective. Our daughter went away to join other kids at the party. Five minutes later, she was back at our feet. "I wanna wee-wee" said she, knowing this was the big thing and getting the full attention of both of us. Her father accompanied her to the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, her father came back and said she had asked for me. I went to the bathroom, she was on the stall, looking tired, I tried to persuade her to try again later but she insisted that she had to go, so we stayed on. I could tell she was a bit sleepy, so I finally suggested that we go home and try wee-wee there. She tearfully replied that the hostess said she could not go home. Apparently she had interpreted the hostess' persuasion as command. It took a while to convince her it was OK to go and that mommy and daddy would gladly take her home even though the hostess did not want us to go.

My daughter had adopted Blue, a dog character of a Children's cable show. She is Blue's mommy and she is seriously into play-acting as Blue's mommy. Most people are not impressed to learn that she is pretending to be a mommy, dismissing it as a girl's thing. Being her mom, I am very much flattered that she would want to be a mommy. She may not know many role models yet but she could have chosen to be a dog (one of her cousins did) or a TV character. Instead, she chose to be a mommy. What better validation can one get.