Who is Victoria?

I've been meaning to write this post quite sometime back, as a run up to Victoria's birthday in April, but looks like work got the better of me, or maybe it's just the laziness in me.

Just an insight into who this 4yo girl is. A mother's notes.

On first impression, Victoria seem to be very reserved, shy and maybe some might say, unfriendly. She takes a little longer time to warm up than most kids, because she's very cautious of new faces, and surveys her surrounding before deciding to open up or stay reserved. But once she opens up, her teachers and friends agree that Victoria is one cheeky, jovial and playful girl. To us who are even closer to her, she's more than cheeky. She can be tomboyish by climbing grills, body wrestling with Daddy, being a bridge between two sofas, jumping on beds and screaming at super high pitch just to irritate us.

Victoria likes to tell her own jokes, and they may be funny or may not be. She's at this stage where she cannot fully differentiate a joke from a lie. So, many times I have to ask her, "Are you telling the truth, or is this a joke?" Sometimes she told a "joke" which was not funny, and forgot to tell the person that it was a joke. It ended up like a lie, and got many of us confused and upset. A few times, this girl told me that she wants to be a clown. Oh my... I hope, and seriously hope she's only joking. Btw, this girl says she wants to leave her hair very very long until it touches the floor and sweeps the floor.

Victoria is definitely playful at home. Very. And she's sensitive to our feelings too. She can sense our emotions, and if one is not feeling happy, she will ask, "Are you happy? Then why do you have a black face?" or she may be the most obedient girl in the world, finishing her food fast, and taking her plate to the kitchen, finishing her water, loving her brother, etc and then say, "I do this because I want you to be happy."

At her age, I think she can be quite scheming or rather, an opportunist. Remember the dragonfruit incident, where she quickly wallop the remaining dragonfruit when she heard me telling William that I will give him more? Then she started laughing with all the red juice in between her mouth, and some oozing out... how to scold when she looks so adorable?

Here are a few things Victoria likes.

Socks. These are Victoria's Number ONE favourite item. Anywhere we go, we must bring her socks. There are two categories of them. Those which are older and worn out are for home wear, and those that are newer are obviously for kai kai. She likes the longer ones, so she can pull them high up her knee and she prefers animal designs. However, she likes to wear the nice ones for home, when she sleeps. I have long time barred her from accessing her socks herself because she will take and wear them all the time, and I end up getting angry at that. So I put them on the top shelf of the wardrobe. Then lately I brought them down since she has started to "behave". Now she would pick two socks, one brand new and one old socks, and ask me to hold them in my palm and do the "magic show" for her ie I will hide the socks in my hands under my lap or behind my back, and she will choose the hand which she thinks holds the new socks.

A few days back she picked the hand with the new socks. I asked her if she was sure, and then without her looking, I exchanged the socks from one hand to the other. I doubt she knew but when she got the old socks, she started to threw her temper, and threw the socks away. Yikes, I think she knew.

Last night I told her during our "magic show" that whichever socks she get, she should accept it and not throw her temper. Victoria did this. She picked the hand with the new socks, and then looked me in the eye, reallly reallly closely, and tried to read my response and facial expression by asking, "I know this hand has the new socks.... right? Haha... you are holding the new socks" and mind you, she's not really sure, she's just trying to get a response from me. But guess who out did her? Mummy! I looked her back in the eye and gave her the most convincing reply, "Are you sure? No regrets ok.." and she ended up changing her mind, and chose the hand with the old socks!

Storybooks. Vic can ask and listen to the same story every night for a month and not feel bored! Even I feel bored from reading the same story and now I tell her, if you want Little Red Riding Hood again, then YOU tell me the story instead.

Long pants, long sleeves. How to describe her? Conservative. We used to wrap her up when she was a baby, fearing that she might catch cold. I guess that plays a part in her fashion sense now because she rather choose her long pants and long sleeve than a dress. Sigh, so much for dressing a little princess. At her age, or even last year, she's already know how to choose her own clothes, insisting on what to wear, and what not, and even her shoes. So I teach her a bit of basics lar, which is also to convince her to follow my way. One of them is, if you wear long pants or long skirts (not like she has any on the latter) she must pair it with sleeveless or short sleeve blouse. So she'd pick sleeveless then tell me to bring her jacket in case she's cold. And she quickly added that she will have long sleeve and long pants!

Some nights when Daddy sternly tell her to close her eyes and sleep, she will pretend to sleep. Then when I lie beside her and kiss her good night, I hear a little chuckle and then the little girl burst out laughing! What a pretender!

I think Vic is very maternal. She mimics the maid by putting her big Elmo to sleep, sometimes using a nappy as the sarong around her body. She enjoys doing everything that the maid and I do. Those days she used to play with the broom until I stopped her. Now she takes my Roboclean and "connect" it to me as if I'm the vaccumm machine, and she will hold the hose and pretend to vaccumm everywhere. Sound effects courtesy of Mummy. ; )

Last but not least, my Victoria is exactly what my first gynae said she will be. A little helper. And she loves doing just that, from making milk for her brother, to washing the vegetables, to pushing the stroller, to feeding William milk, wearing socks for him, etc.. even offering to brush my teeth!