Because She is Her Mother's Daughter

One the things my mother always used to lecture me about was my stubborn streak. I was so stubborn as a child; even a mule would respect me. There were so many times that I would go on hunger strikes, just to show my stubbornness. I guess it’s true when my mom said to me, “Just you wait until you have kids of your own, then you’ll know what it feels like.”

Dania isn’t what I would call a stubborn child. I mean, she has her moments but she’s very easily bought over with soft-spoken words and signs of encouragements. Dina, on the other hand, is a totally different case. If she gets it in her head NOT to do something, no amount of sweet talk will get her to do it.

For instance like last night. As usual, hubby would bring the kids up to sleep around 9pm and sometimes he would fall asleep also. So most of the time, I’m downstairs watching TV by myself, until 11 or 12pm. I would normally take my bath right before I go to sleep coz it helps me sleep better. I can hear my mom tsking me for doing this (taking late night showers).

So last night, I must have made more noise than usual during my bath coz Dina woke up. I lay down beside her and tried to get her to go back to sleep. After several attempts, I just gave up and closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep. Usually Dina would fallow suit, seeing how there’s nobody for her to play and talk with but last night she felt awake enough to give herself a tour of the bedroom and proceeded playing with my handbag and all its contents.

I gave her 10 minutes before I whispered loudly, “Dina, come back to sleep.” I must have spooked her somewhat coz she scrambled back to her mattress and plopped herself face down into her pillow, hitting her sister in the face with her head. She gave a little groan then proceeded to stay in that position. I watched her for a couple of minutes then tried to move her into a more comfortable position. Everytime I did, she went back into the same position; face down into her pillow with half her body on top of her sister. This went on for quite a while, until I finally gave up and whispered to her, “Fine, sleep like that, you stubborn little girl.”

Of course, once I had crawled up into bed, Dina changed position into the more comfortable one I had tried to put her in earlier. As I watched her settle down and fall asleep, I heard my mom’s voice, “Just you wait!”