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April 21, 2014 Overcast Monday
Xiao’en is one of my husband’s nieces. She is 5 years old. She has many good qualities to make her a lovely creature.
The most obvious feature of her is that she is very talkative. By talkative, she is of the pleasant type because she seldom repeats what she has already said and can always find a new and interesting topic to go on. You won’t feel lonely or bored with her company. Yesterday, she came to my home for a visit. As her mom was working that day and my husband and my son were away from home playing tennis, she kept me company for a few hours and we had many pleasant talks.
When I was preparing soup for supper, she stood beside me and kept me in conversation. First, she reported to me that she climbed the Baiyun Mountains this morning with one of big cousins together with his friends and had morning tea up there. I teased her by saying, “Oh, really? Why didn’t you invite me?” She said, “I couldn’t, because you were not invited by them. If I had invited you, they would have blamed you.” I was amused by such childish talk. Then I asked her, “Do you like climbing the mountain?” She said, “Yes.” I continued, “Why?” She said, “Because the mountain is made so beautiful.” I was amazed to hear such an answer because I had expected the answer to be “I don’t know”, or “There is delicious food up there”, which is usually an answer from a child as little as she is.
While we were taking a walk along the campus path, she also kept talking all the way. She was not happy about not being able to visit me the day before. I said I went to the hospital to see my father. Then she blamed me, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I said, “I didn’t know that you came over. You didn’t tell me.” Then she said, “Ok, next time I’ll let you know beforehand.” Suddenly she changed subject, “Do you like eating turtles?” I said, “I’m afraid of eating turtles. Do you?” She said, “Yes. My mom used to raise two turtles at her home—one was big and the other was small. They crawled like this (making a crawling gesture with her hands). (Stretching out her thumb and index finger) I fed them rice, and they ate well.” feeling excited. I was a bit shocked, “Weren’t afraid of being bitten by the turtle using your fingers to feed the turtles?” “I put the food in a bowl and let them eat by themselves.” she explained. I marveled at how smart she was.
I took her to the sports ground where there was an array of climbing rails. I encouraged her to climb, but she could only climb a few steps. Then I climbed up to the very top and sat there. She was very envious. She said, “When I grow up, I will be able to do that too.” I agreed, “Yes, you will. So, I will wait for you to grow up and see you climb up to the top.” To my surprise, she responded, “I will wait for YOU to grow up, too!” I laughed and corrected her, “No, dear, I can’t grow UP any more. I can only grow OLD.” To my greater surprise, she said, “You’re still so young, but you are older than me.” Hearing this I couldn’t help laughing even louder. What a dear!
Besides being talkative, she’s also caring. When she has something delicious to eat, she will think of keeping some for her mom and dad and even her friends at the kindergarten. Yesterday, I gave her a handful of peanuts. After she ate a few, she held up the rest of the peanuts one by one and said, “This is for mom, this is for dad, and this is for my friend.”
She is not greedy. Whenever I give her something, she will say, “One is enough.” or “Two is enough.” Yesterday I took to the supermarket and decided to buy her a few boxes of milk. She said, “Two is enough.” I said, “Since you like drinking milk, I will buy you five so that you can have milk every day from Monday till Friday.” But she insisted having only two. Finally, I gave in and bought her four. When she saw so many boxes of milk, she said, “My dad will blame me when he sees them.” I assured her, “No, he won’t. Don’t worry.” Then she accepted them happily.
She is grateful. Whenever someone has done something for her, she will say “Thank you”. For example, when receiving a cup of water, a fruit, or a toy, she would say “Thank you”. I wonder if this had anything to do with her name. As she was an adopted child, I hoped that she would become grateful to her adoptive parents when she grew up. So I gave this name Xiao’en to her, meaning knowing how to be grateful.
She’s independent. She likes doing her own things by herself, including eating, washing her hands, putting things away, putting on her clothes and shoes, etc. She often says, “Show me how to do it, next time I will know how to do it.” She also likes giving a helping hand, for example, picking vegetables and making jiaozi.
She is responsive. Whenever you call her, she will respond immediately.
Isn’t she lovely?