I Don't Know Whose Baby I Was

Over supper tonight, Shaling was a bit curious about my being my mom's baby and my mom being my grandma's baby. Then, she opened the door to a conversation I expected to have "some day", but figured it would come closer to her teenage years. Her grammar is still often mixed up, so it came out, "I don't know whose baby, me." She said it very matter-of-factly, with only a bit of curiosity. She didn't seem to want to grieve about it; she wasn't upset in anyway, so I wasn't quite sure what to say. I just nodded knowingly and told her that she was mine now.

She continued on, telling me that her mom died, so she got a new Chinese mom and new Chinese dad (some of the caregivers at the welfare center) and now she has an English mom and English dad. She further explained that she didn't know if she had a brother or a little sister, etc. All of this was unprompted.

Next, she told me she couldn't remember when she was a baby. She started counting backwards, "I remember 8, 7, 6, 5..." I gently told her that she was in the hospital when she was a baby. Via gesturing and sound effects, she asked if someone had hurt her. I told her no, that she was sick. She was quite dubious, explaining that she couldn't be sick because she's not short. I assured her that she's not sick now but that she was sick then and we don't know why.

I'm not quite sure how she digested all of it, but she was quick to ask if we could start her homework. Homework came a bit late today because she had a one-time cheerleading practice after school and a 5:00 trumpet lesson. The cheerleading practice is for a one-time performance at the high school football game this Friday night. I regret that I'll miss it due to a previously planned "girls getaway weekend". I'm hoping for video and pictures! On a school-related note, she had her highest spelling test score yet this year last week -- a 17 out of 20.