Life with Bella - Age 2

“Mom, mommy. Mommmmy” I make out a soft whisper through my ear-plugged ear. “Mommy, I wanna watch TV.” A few seconds of silence pass and I silently pray that she’s somehow fallen asleep again.

“Mommy, I wanna watch TV.” No such luck.

I slowly shift around towards the clock to confirm the dreaded time. 6:15 AM, which means that it’s some time between 5:50 and 6:10 because the clock is fast-forwarded to an unconfirmed time, a trick I learned in school to allow me more time in the morning.

I continue to ignore her but Bella is persistent. I fumble for the remote, and with my eyes closed I turn the TV on to the Disney Channel. Thank goodness for The Wiggles. But wait. The Wiggles aren’t on until 7:00 AM. Then Caillou is on at 7:30 AM with Sesame Street at 8. I could recite the entire early morning cartoon lineup here, but that’s not really the point. Higgley Town Heroes at 6 am would have to do.

Time drifts on and after what seems like 20 seconds, I hear Bella whisper again, “Mommy, I wanna go downstairs.” Again, I try to ignore her and glance at the clock. 7:10 AM. Whoa, my brain slowly registers that she’s been sitting patiently next to me watching TV for nearly an hour. “Mommy I wanna go downstairs.”

“Ok, Bella. Let’s go downstairs.” I see it only as fair to comply with her demands knowing that she patiently waited (albeit, perfectly entertained by Disney and Friends) for me to finish my final REM cycle.

“Yeah!” she hops out of our bed and squeals in delight. Ever since she intruded on our bedroom space months earlier, she somehow created the notion that she can’t leave our bed without our permission (poor Jin is in exile in the guest room due to his sickness-related snoring tendency).

We get downstairs and thus begin another day filled with never-ending demands and requests from this little two-year-old named Bella. “I want pancakes, Mommy.”

Fine. We’ll make pancakes.

“I wanna stir it, Mommy.”

“Ok, you can stir it. Go get your stool so you can reach the countertops.”

“Can’t do it,” she whines, as she pretends to unsuccessfully pull the step stool from the bathroom. “How ‘bout Mommy do it?” she sweetly asks with a mischievous grin on her face.

Twenty minutes later the pancakes are ready and the syrup is on the table. “I want oatmeal, Mommy.”

“You haven’t even had your pancakes yet. How can you eat oatmeal, too?”

“But I want oatmeal.”

“No oatmeal,” I say, as I launch into the starving-children-in-Africa speech, dumbed-down to a two-year-olds’ level. She looks up at me curiously, looking intently at me as if she’s really trying to understand the significance of my message.

“I want princess cereal.” Or perhaps she’s just scanning her own memory databank to request every single breakfast food before 9 AM.

“No oatmeal, no cereal. We’re having pancakes.” And soon she is stuffing her mouth with sweet syrup and blueberry pancakes as memories of oatmeal and cereal fade quickly from her consciousness.

The rest of the morning is filled with Bella-requested activities (surprise, surprise). First, we play play-doh. This occupies her for approximately 20-30 minutes but only if you play along with her. If you dare get up to attempt doing chores, “Can you play play-doh with me, Mommy? How ‘bout Mommy go next to you?” (Which is her grammatically incorrect way of saying, “sit your butt down next to me and don’t you even think of getting up again!”).

After play-doh, we color in one of her many coloring books. And again, she requests that you sit and color right along next to her.

Every now and then, I am able to sneak away and do what I want; check my email, or put the dishes away. Sometimes I’ll catch her talking to herself through two stuffed-animals: “Hi, what’s you’re name? My name is Kitten. Ok, let’s go play. Ok.” I wish we had hidden cameras to capture the moment.

By mid-afternoon, Jin and I decide to venture outdoors on this fine March day. We decide to go to the Mall. “Yeah! We’re going to Hello Kitty store!” Bella exclaims, knowing that going to the Mall means getting two things: Hello Kitty pencil and Surf City Squeeze smoothie. So, we pack in the SUV and arrive at the jam-packed mall parking lot. But with my parking-goddess prowess, I am able to spot an empty space right in the first row. Score! As Jin unfolds the stroller, Bella climbs out of the car and announces that she wants to walk. We bring the stroller along just in case.

The mall is swarming with prepubescent teenagers hanging out doing, what my father likes to say, “nothing good; just hanging around, getting into trouble”. Our first stop, the Sanrio store.

Usually when we go to the Sanrio store we don’t really buy anything. It’s more the magical array of Japanese-inspired accessories painted with adorable Sanrio characters that enchant us. I mean, who really needs a Hello Kitty telephone, a My Melody teacup set, or Cinnamaroll chopsticks? No one. But they’re as cute as can be! Even Jin is the first to admit that he (and I quote) “doesn’t mind spending more time in this store”. Today we leave Sanrio empty-handed; Bella has absorbed enough Hello Kitty through her eyes for at least a week. Next stop, Surf City Squeeze.

We all get smoothies, strawberry-banana for Jin and Bella, and I take a risk from the usual and order a pineapple-mango. Delicious! After one sip of her smoothie, Bella turns around and spots the Pretzel store with its enticing aroma. “I wanna pretzel, Daddy.” As if the smoothie weren’t enough, we order her a pretzel – because every day is Bella-Day – and continue our stroll through prepubescent pimple-land.

Within minutes she’s gobbled up her pretzel and gulped down her smoothie, which is surprising since she usually doesn’t eat much even for her pint-sized frame. “I wanna go to the bookstore.” The bookstore it is!

Since Bella was young (relative to her current age), she’s always loved the bookstore. So much so, that Jin and I could use the bookstore as incentive for good behavior: “No more whining or else we’re not going to the bookstore.” And when we pulled up to the Borders Bookstore parking lot, she would always exclaim with delight, “Yeah!! Bookstore!” As an Asian mother, I couldn’t be more proud. A child who loved books and reading? Who could ask for more?

Invariably, we spend nearly the entire rest of the afternoon at the bookstore in the mall. Bella hands me book after book asking me to read to her. She even hands me a book in Spanish and surprisingly, I’m able to read and translate it to English. By the time we finish our stack of books, it’s nearly dinner so we grab a quick bite to eat at the cheesy in-mall Chinese restaurant and head home to prepare for bed.

Now at home, Jin runs the water for the bath and patiently tries to coerce Bella to come upstairs to clean up. She finally complies and struts upstairs. Soon I hear them upstairs laughing and giggling in the bath. It’s nearly 8 PM.

After the bath, I ask Bella to pick out two books from her room to read before bedtime. She picks out “Ladybug’s Birthday” and “Where’s My Mommy?” Feeling extra lucky, I daringly ask, “Do you want to sleep in your room or mommy and daddy’s room?” I’m not sure why I even bother asking.

Bella looks at me as if I’m crazy, “Mommy’s room!” she snaps, as if I had offended her. Defeated, I turn off the lights and walk back to our room. “Hey, what happened to my eyes?” she asks giggling as the room goes dark.

We snuggle into the covers and gather all her stuffed-animals, as if an extra whole body didn’t take up enough room in the already-cramped family bed. I read both books in an animated fashion, making Bella squeal with delight. Finally, the stories are over and I turn off the lights. I lay down beside her and kiss her forehead. We snuggle briefly and Bella begins to whisper, “Mommy, thank you to the Hello Kitty Store.” I’m silent for a second as I realize she’s thanking me for taking her to the Sanrio store. “and thank you to the smoothie, and thank you to the bookstore.”

My heart melts as I squeeze this little being in my arms. “Honey, you’re very welcome for everything. And thank you for YOU, my little princess.” Her eyes close and I watch her angelic face as she drifts off to Slumber Land. Until morning, my little sunshine, I think to myself. Goodnight.