No Mei Mei! Don't Cry!

Glory has gotten over Aunty Aiyah.

From time to time, she does talk about her, but not in a sad way anymore. Now it's more like "Aunty Aiyah take airplane. Zoom! Yeaaaahhhh, Airplane!!!!"

When she scrolls through the pictures on my iPhone, she still does a double take when she sees Aunty Aiyah’s pictures, and flips back to search for them again, calling Aunty Aiyah fondly. 

But she’s no longer nasty toward Aunty Charisma. In fact, she’s grown quite fond of Aunty Charisma too. Some mornings she even cries to have Aunty Charisma accompany her to school.

So she’s more or less back to her usual self.

She can speak in complete sentences now – sometimes not very grammatical, but generally the sentence structure is there. Munch and I would be so impressed and stare at each other, counting under our breath as she strings together “long” sentences with 6 words, with adjectives, nouns, verbs etc all in the right place.

She puts her speaking prowess to good use too – making known her preferences, negotiating for extra eggs/ biscuits/ stories, and also bossing Celeste around.

“No MeiMei. This is Glory’s towel. Don’t touch Glory’s towel.”

Celeste doesn’t mind it, usually. She adores Glory and is thrilled whenever Glory pays any attention to her. Even though 90% of the sentences begin with “NO MEI MEI!” Celeste would still look at Glory lovingly, the affection and adulation pouring out of her dreamy eyes.

Except when Glory shouts at her. Which is quite often. It REALLY scares Celeste, coz Glory has developed a very loud, bossy, assertive, childcare-centre-tough-kid kind of shout. It literally makes Celeste jump.

Celeste has since learnt that acting cute, sweet, innocent etc gets her nowhere with stopping jiejie’s shouting, so she goes for the oldest trick in the book…WAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

To which Glory would also cry along (coz it means mummy’s gonna come running and tell her off for shouting at meimei), or desperately command Celeste “No, Celeste, don’t cry. No no no Mei Mei!”

Sigh. Hardly the i-brush-your-hair-you-brush-mine relationship I expected the sisters to have.

But I find that when I persist and MAKE them play together and share toys, things do get better after awhile.

Like today, when we brought them down for a ride on the bike.

There’s just ONE bike, and it belongs to Glory. When we put Celeste on it, Glory was so possessive at first, we were on our toes, ready to pull her away should she decide to remove Celeste forcibly on her own.

But when we gave her the big-sisterly duty of bringing Celeste around the blocks searching for a black cat that fled into a drain, she was such a terrific Jie Jie! She held on to one handlebar of the bike, walked responsibly next to Celeste, and explained to her what the expedition was about, giving a rundown of when and where the cat was last seen etc. 

When the expedition proved long and futile, she tried to entertain Celeste by singing songs that Teacher NiNi (Wini) taught her.

But when the expedition grew REALLY long and tiring, Glory announced that she didn’t want to bring MeiMei around anymore.

Which devastated Celeste.

Celeste tried act sweet/cute/innocent to persuade Glory to continue walking with her by gently holding Glory’s arm…. BIG MISTAKE!

It's so hard to say goodbye...

A heartbreaking sight...
As Aunty walked into the departure gate, Glory seemed to understand the significance of it.
"Aunty Aiyah!" she called, voice breaking with emotions.
Aunty waved, wiping her tears away.
"Aunty Aiyah! Aunty Aiyah!" Glory cried, pointing for me to follow Aunty through the gate as well. Tears were flowing down her cheeks by now, but she wasn't bawling. Persistently she continued calling for Aunty - Aunty always answered, didn't she?
But not this time, she couldn't. The glass wall between Glory and Florencia was insurmountable this time, not like the safety-gate at the door of her room. And it was permanent, not like the games of hide-and-seek or Peekaboos.

 I explained that we couldn't enter, as we weren't taking a plane.
"Aunty take airplane," Glory recited. "Go to Fee Peen Peen. Aunty go home."
We've been trying to prepare her, so we told her Aunty was taking airplane to Philippines, Aunty was going home, Aunty wants to see her own Babies.

My heart broke for Glory... i don't know how much of Goodbye she understood, much less Goodbye Forever. Aunty came into our home when Glory was 7 months old - still toothless, still unable to sit, unable to speak. Aunty took care of Glory when we were at work, Aunty came along for her healthchecks and jabs, Aunty fed her medicine, and bathed her. Aunty propped her up like a tripod to practice sitting, Aunty practiced walking with her when Mummy was too pregnant to, Aunty made milk for her and cooked for her. Aunty was so much a part of her daily routine, I don't think she can even remember life without Aunty.

As we left the airport, Glory was momentarily distracted by Ronald McDonald, birds and clouds, but she was silent the entire ride back home. As we reached home, she seemed to expect Aunty to be back at home. "Aunty Aiyah" she called, as if Aunty would open the door and greet her. When we said Aunty's going home, did she think Aunty was going back to our home?

Sigh.
Poor kid.

She hasn't gotten used to New Aunty yet.
I hope she does.
We're taking her to the zoo tomorrow to cheer her up, and also to get her better acquainted with New Aunty.

The painful thing is that even if she does grow to love New Aunty as well, one day she'll still have to say goodbye.

:(

You're the red that turns my blue purple!

Perhaps it's the newly loaded timetable, and the unpleasant issues surrounding it.
Perhaps it's the issue with Flor - having to send her back, and the discomfiture it necessarily entails.
Perhaps it's the worry about how the new helper would be like, and how Glory will take the changes.
Perhaps it's the tiredness of the past week - long workdays and nights.
Perhaps it's the doubts i started having about Glory's school - she seems increasingly neglected there, with the falls, increased whining, and soiled diapers that went unnoticed.
Perhaps it's Celeste's slight fever, and the general warning that HFMD may be coming around.

Whatever it is, or maybe it's a combination of everything, the blues are here.
With a vengeance.
Even a whole bottle of pineapple tarts couldn't help it.

I'm just trying to get through the day...
* * *
Thinking of my babies makes it better though.

Glory's such a laugh.
Yesterday, she put my breast-feeding bib over herself, and told Celeste, "Meimei, hide here!" indicating for Celeste to go under the bib.
Apparently, all the while i was breastfeeding Celeste, Glory thought we were playing Hide-and-Seek.

Celeste couldn't oblige, obviously, so Glory continued calling Celeste.
"MeiMei, meimei"
Of course, Celeste did not answer.
Exasperated, Glory exclaimed, "MEI MEI!!! JIEJIE CALLING YOU!"

She's a bossy one, this jiejie.
* * *
Celeste is a bliss to cuddle! She's so affectionate too, stroking our faces, talking and gurgling and cooing to us. In the mornings, after her morning milk, she would roll over onto her tummy, study my sleepy face and occasionally lean her head on my body. She would break into a sweet smile when i open my eyes and our eyes meet.
It's so sweet the way she makes herself comfortable on your body. She'll somehow suss out the most comfortable spots and drape herself all over you, resting her head delicately and trustingly... and all you could think is "Awwwww... i love this baby." and you just want to hug her and protect her all the days of her life.

And her first two teeth are starting to show!
* * *
Yups, absolutely delightful, my babies.
They are the reds that turn my blue purple,
or the yellows that turn my blue green.
Or the whites that turn my blue into a pretty sky.

You get the drift.