Monday, October 5, 2009

Conversation with a 3 year old


Julia: "Mama, Georgee (her stuffed giraffe) has a tag!"
Me: "Yes.. (reading the tag).. and the tag says that Georgee came from China."
Julia: "Georgee came from China?"
Me: "Yes." ....(thinking quickly for words so I could extend the conversation) I asked, "do you know where you came from?"
Julia: ...."Chinatown?"
Me: " No", I replied smiling, "You came from the Philippines. Can you say Fi-li-peens?"
Julia: (in a slang accent) repeated, "Filipinss".
Me: "Yes, that's right. You came from the Philippines." (I silently congratulated myself for being quite quickwitted to have thought of using this opportunity to teach her of home country.)
Julia: (after a long silent pause)..."Mama, did you buy me too?"
(I nearly choked) Me: (laughing) "Do you have a tag in you?"
Julia: (looking around herself and me giving her time to search for a possible tag in her while absorbing her perspective).. "No, I don't have a tag..(she declared sadly)."
Me: "Ah! That means, I didn't buy you then!" (with a big smile)
Julia smiled and dropped the conversation, visibly satisfied and happy that I didn't buy her.

(I realized later that she could then have asked me where I got her then - now that she's sure that I definitely didn't buy her - and I could possibly have been in a worst predicament in this where-do-I-come-from conversation, as I wouldn't have known how to answer her next questions without digging a hole for myself..)


2 comments:

Photo Cache said...

a mother has to keep her wits about her whenever a toddler is around, is that the moral of the story?

cool conversation. thanks for sharing.

emilie said...

Thanks for the comments Din and Photo cache. ;)

I think the biggest lesson I learned with my conversations with Julia is that of - zen mindfulness and being in the present.