The Adventures of the Little Indian Girl

N came home from office and was playing with D in the living room while I was in the kitchen. They were playing with a new animal set that she picked out at the crafts' store. One set for her and three others for her friends' birthdays! This was her own birthday present! Anyway, I think N was playing with too many or too few of her toys, lord knows. But she was unhappy with his level of cooperation or lack there of. Only another 4 year old would understand.

And then we hear it, "Daddy, you are being such a pain!" N almost laughed out while nearly scolding her, because where we come from that would be completely unacceptable and has had a few our generation folks with a nice beating. But no, N is not that way. He was just shocked. His immediate question was if I taught her that?!

Gee, yes, that's what I do with my daughter all day. Maybe I can start a no-manners/be-rude school. Any takers?

So, I came into the living room and asked where she picked that up. She so calmly got up, as if we were obvious idiots for asking, went up and picked up her favorite book, Princess & the Peanut Allergy and turned to the page and pointed to the line where the phrase was used! Of course, we are idiots to not realizing because we have read that book over a dozen times in just the last 4 days! And she has had the book several times from the library. She remembers now where the books are kept in the shelves! Which is great! So proud, and yet she also remembers where the Dora books are kept and Arthur books are kept. sigh.

Anyway, back to our story. She reenacts the scene and I ask her how the girl who was at the receiving end felt. She immediately noted, "sad". So, as she talked through, she shared with dad, "Regina didn't use nice words with Paula and that made Paula sad. I didn't use nice words with you and that made you sad. Regina should say sorry and I should say sorry too, so you can be happy!" And she moved on to playing.

oh we are in trouble! ;) 

We are coming across so many people who feel sorry for us/D, when they find out that she doesn't walk on her own yet. Everyone feels obligated to tell us a story of how a friend of a friend or their cousin or someone they know or their first child started walking at 16 months.. just like that, to make us feel better or something. I know they are saying that to make us feel better because they start off with the anecdote with, "Oh don't worry!" 

My hubby has also begun to get annoyed and out of concern asked if I was starting to worry of if all these questions were getting to me, since I face more people with such questions than he does. And we realised this is just the beginning.

She is happy crawling everywhere. She walks holding on to things, pushing things. She is just not confident enough of herself to let go and walk... just yet.

Really, I am not worried at all. Not one bit. When she will be ready to walk, I will get all excited. But till then she is who she is. What's the rush?! And people actually don't believe me when I say this too. In the long span of life, will it matter if she starts to walk at 10 months or 18 months? Will it affect her university application or career prospects?