Bedtime Antics

Little Bee was a true owl yesterday evening. She skipped her afternoon nap, and at bedtime, still refused to sleep. She was chatting non-stop like a little monkey as jie-jie was snoozing off to Sleepy Land. 

These days, she was suddenly confused by the concept of "me" and "you", a common mistake that had Big Bee in disorientation when she was a toddler too. So, on her bed, this conversation went on at bedtime in hushed tones, for fear of waking Big Bee up.

Little Bee: "Bao bao you". 

Me: "No, it is bao bao 'me'!" 

A long suspicious look...

And then, Little Bee: "NO, bao bao you!" in a more forceful tone and big round eyes.

Me: "Bao bao me!" and pointed to her nose, indicating "me" is Little Bee

Little Bee (breaking into a cheeky beam): "You, me, you, me, you, me!!" 

I gawked at her, speechless. 

Little Bee then told me "I want read book!" I nearly fainted. Telling her no resulted in a long, hurt look with big watery eyes, followed by a torrential pouring of tears and loud wailing of disappointment. 

Afraid of waking Big Bee up from her sweet slumber, I quickly hoisted up a highly distressed Little Bee to the living room. It is really hard to enforce discipline at bedtime, not minding her loud cries, when you have 2 kids sleeping in one room. Now, Little Bee will think she had won the battle by crying, and this will be her tactic moving forward, I am certain of that! 

Her cries and tears came to an immediate halt right outside the bedroom door. Hmmmm....

Then, on the sofa, here was what I asked her:

Me: "What book do you want to read?"

Little Bee: "Farm book. Cow!" (Last week, I was reading an assortment of farm and zoo books to her because her homeschooling theme was on farm and zoo animals, and she loved them)

Me: "Oh, they are in jie-jie's room and jie-jie is sleeping now, so we cannot take them!"

Little Bee frowned and shot me a helpless look with a lost-sounding "huh??"

Little Bee: "I want fat stomach book!"

My turn to show her a hapless, lost look. "Huh? Fat stomach book?"

Little Bee (large grin on her face now, rubbing her stomach and indicating a big bulge): "Yeah, fat stomach Mama!"

Realisation dawned on me. 

Me: "Ohhhhh, you want the book with Mummy having a baby inside?"

Little Bee: "YEAH!!!!" 

We had been reading this book (see below) last week and it created a deep impression on Little Bee when I told her about how a baby lives inside Mummy's stomach, and how she and jie-jie used to live inside my stomach too. So, whenever I read the book and asked her, "What's inside Mummy's stomach in the book?", she will reply, "Baby!!!" And I will ask her, "Did Little Bee used to live inside Mummy's stomach too?" And she will pat my stomach and replied, "Yeah! Little Bee (sic) sleeping there!"

No - I am not pregnant again! :)

I bought this book to prepare Big Bee for a little sibling when she was 4 years old, in a bid to explain to her why Mummy's stomach was inflating that time. She loved it then. 

This is a delightful book in a perfect size for bedtime reading with attractive illustrations of everyday situations that will appeal to little readers and the appropriate amount of words.