Meimei and the Beasts

Meimei's nursery school class went on a field trip today, Meimei's first. She had little to say about the animals (beyond the reptiles) but much to say about the bus ride and her classmates. Her new friend is Rachel. She tells me Rachel's father has a big beak and sharp, scary claws and so she will not go to her new friend's house for a play date. Right now she is jumping on the bed pretending Rachel's beastly dad is chasing her and roaring.

Now, normally, I would say this is just her wild childish imagination, but Meimei tells me she met the sharp-clawed dad when he picked up his daughter after the field trip.

Meimei's Wish

I heard a whisper from somewhere in the sprawling bed.

"I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish."

It was Meimei, lying with her head pointing toward the foot of the bed.

"I wish, I wish, I wish, that my Mama would kiss me on the head."

If only all our wishes were so easily granted.

That Time of Year

Around Jiejie's birthday in March, she starts to have little periods of sadness, tears, maybe anger, frustration, sometimes creeping toward the borders of rage and fear. This continues on and off until May or June, the time of year we returned from China with her in 2004.

The other night, she started talking about wanting a kitten. It was bedtime, the lights were going out, and her insistent whining about a cat might have been one of the endless ploys to delay sleep. Her father told her it was out of the question because of his allergies, and she began to cry. "We'll never get a kitten. Never." Her tears and squeals of anger drove Daddy and Meimei downstairs to a sofa.

"I want a Siamese. Two. One named Milky and one named Way." I listened to her tearful pleas, interwoven with plans for caring for kittens and teaching them tricks and buying them some of that cat milk that comes in little juice box-type containers, and how do they get that milk out of the mother cats, anyway? Before bed she had been reading a book of children's poems about cats. Perhaps that was the inspiration.

Then she began to talk about the homeless cats, the ones who needed families. And perhaps it was just cats she was thinking of, but her words reminded me of ho she used to like to reenact the time we went to the animal shelter almost three years ago to get our youngest cat, Luna, presumably a Father's Day gift for allergic Daddy, and how for months afterward she had climbed behind the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, meowing for food and for a Mommy to take her home and pet her.

Long after her tears had dried, she kept wailing in my arms as the night disappeared and the school day loomed closer. I made all sorts of promises about going to the animal shelter to visit and pet some kittens who needed homes.

The morning dawned warm and sunny. I heard nothing more about the homeless cats.

Easter Bunny

For some reason, on Easter, Meimei found this old Halloween costume, chosen when she was 2 so she could be Max of Max and Ruby and not worn that year or the next because it was "scary." it's a perfect fit.

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Jiejie's class is putting on a play. A 20-minute adaptation of our old favorite bedtime story "Tikki Tikki Tembo." Everyone is the first grade has a part. Jiejie, who hardly speaks above a whisper in class, is playing the mother of the little boy with a long name and a propensity for falling into wells. Jiejie has one line.

She's a little nervous. Well, a lot nervous. She wants very much for me to come and see her, and I managed to arrange it, but I had to promise not to take any photos or video.

"I wish I was playing the well," she said wistfully. "All she has to do is stand there and look pretty."