Kirsten

I was planning to write something else today but then this just happened.

This morning, while I was still in bed catching up on some sleep (ahem, rough couple of nights with a feverish baby), Kirsten quietly levelled up on her big sisterly powers. She went and washed Finn’s poopy bum all by herself. My 6-year-old cleaned my 2-year-old’s poopy bottom. I’m still letting that sink in, y’all. She discovered that Finn had pooped in his diaper and instead of holding her nose and yelling for one of us to sort it out, she took him by the hand, brought him to the toilet and got. it. done.

Big sister level 999.

I asked her why she didn’t wake me up to do it and she said “I know you’re tired so I just let you sleep.”

That she is knows how to do this is pretty remarkable but that she wanted to do it without being asked to…seriously, I have no words. I mean, most big sisters don’t mind holding the baby or singing to them for a few minutes. Giving up toys? Sharing snacks? Letting them drool all over your possessions? Okay. But even big sisterly duties have a line and scraping poop off your baby brother’s bottom is way across that line.

How did I manage to luck out with this girl? I can’t even.

//

This reminds me – a few nights back, I had Kirsten and Finn snuggled up in bed with me and Kirsten leaned over to kiss her brother on the cheek.

“Don’t kiss my cheek, jie jie!”

“Why not??”

“I only want momma, I don’t want you.”

Not cool. I had to tell Finn he couldn’t say things like that. “Hey, don’t say that, you want…”

Kirsten interrupted. “It’s ok, I still want you.”

“You know Finn doesn’t mean it right? He adores you.” I whispered to Kirsten.

“I know,” she whispered back. “Babies just like to talk nonsense. I know I’m his favourite sister.”

PS. **IF** I ever have another kid, it’s because I have this girl on my team.

**The IF represents a very small probability. Pretty much close to zero. Although another girl would be ridiculously cute. And awesome. Okay, my ovaries are out of control. I should stop now before the husband gets a cardiac arrest reading this.

Every single day, I’m thankful that I’ve got a little girl and that girl is Kirsten. She’s like an old soul who’s too cool for her current age. This kid is 5 but sometimes, she says and does things like a 10-year-old, and in a good way.

She’s the perfect combination of sugar and spice, sweet and spunky. She’s like the yin to all the yangs in this house, or is it the other way around? Either way, she’s got enough in her to balance out the 3 crazy boys.

***

One time, she sees the husband holding baby Theo with one hand while trying to pour chocolate milk for the bigger kids with the other hand.

Kirsten: Dad, you know what? I think you need 2 more arms.

Husband: Yes, I think so too. But 4 arms would look so weird, don’t you think?

Kirsten: Well, if everyone had 4 arms, then it wouldn’t be weird at all. It would be normal.

Husband: It’s like you have an adult brain in a 5-year-old body.

***

Kirsten: Hey mom, I’ve got a secret. //whispers I actually don’t really like angry birds but I know kor kor likes it when I play it with him.

Me: That’s so sweet of you, baby.

Kirsten: But don’t tell him that, later it will hurt his feelings.

Me: It’ll be our secret. I’m just going to tell it to the Internet, is that ok?

//thinks for a moment.

Kirsten: Is that your blog thing?

Me: Yeah, the blog thing.

Kirsten: Ok, sure. And please put a picture of my new water bottle.

Me: Way to be random, but sure.

***

Kirsten: Kor kor, I can’t believe I’m going to say this but…I think I like bananas more than potato chips.

//gives an audible gasp.

Kirsten: Ok, there I said it.

***

It was one of those afternoons where it was just me, Kirsten, Finn and Theo at home.

Kirsten: Mom, we can do this. You put Finn Finn to bed and you can leave baby Theo here with me.

Me: Are you sure? Ok, just holler if you need help, I’ll come running.

Kirsten: Don’t worry, just put the iPad here so I can watch Tangled.

I was fully expecting Theo to protest but I peeked at them several minutes later and they both just stayed in the same position I left them in, with Kirsten stroking his head and Theo babytalking back at her.

It sounds so braggy to say this but I have the raddest daughter in the whole world and I’m so glad she’s mine.

So hey, guess who went to have her ears pierced?

Good try, but not me – I’ve already got mine done some 20 over years ago. Never mind that I haven’t worn earrings for the past 20 years, the important thing here is that I could if I wanted to. My mom was a visionary because it’s a good skill to have, if you can call it a skill. The ability to put sharp objects through my earlobes. I’m sure it’ll come in handy someday.

Right, yeah, this sweet little girl is now the proud wearer of these dainty earrings. And yes, they had to be pink, it’s not up for discussion. The only question was whether she wanted them pink AND sparkly, and pay attention, y’all, when given a choice between boring or sparkly, the correct answer is sparkly. Always sparkly.

Seriously, how pleased does she look? I consider it my life’s greatest achievement that I produced a daughter who’s waaaay into pink and sparkly earrings.

It’s like a personal growth opportunity for me here, learning to appreciate the pink and sparkly things in life. Maybe one day, I might even sport a matching pair. One day, that is not today…let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

She teared up during her last vaccination so I was half expecting that there’d be some tears during the ear-piercing but she took it like a champ. Truett, who was there to provide moral support, was all nervy for her (and covering his own ears) but she just furrowed her brow and put on her game face. She looks so grown up here, I think I’m the one tearing up a little.

On a sort of related note, I had no idea how difficult it was to find a ear-piercing place around here. We went around asking the shops in the Tampines area and the only 2 we found were kind of dodgy.

One was a charming (and also dusty) little shop along Tampines central. There was a huge sign (it was so old the edges were turning yellow) that said something like “Safe and Hygienic ear piercing, no Hep B or other viruses” which unfortunately, didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence. In fact, it seemed exactly like the kind of place one would go to if one wanted to get Hep B or other viruses.

The other shop was less germy and I’d probably hit that joint if I was in search of a row of nose studs plus a belly ring. I wanted neither of those things.

My sister finally found a place in town that seemed least likely to cause a horrible infection. It was also the most extortionate but like I always say, there’a price to pay if you don’t want to get syphilis.