Friday, April 1, 2011

So much for the power of golden stars

It took a whole month for Mia/Zhuzhu to earn her 5 golden stars, just between you and me, some of those 5 days, we had few whimpers and whines.  At least she has tried to show some level of self control.  We cut her some slack.  Shh...

It was Feb. 13th, exactly one months after the first golden star arrived Zhuzhu's night table and one week prior to her 4th birthday, we carried her total of 5 hard-earned golden stars to go shopping for dresses.  Oh boy, we all must have gotten out the bed from a wrong side that morning, none of us seemed to be in any type of right mood, particularly Zhuzhu.  All in my ears were, I don't like it, it's too dark, it's too small, it's not pretty, it's ugly, it's too short, it's too long, it's grey, it's yellow, it's red, but I like pink, it's blue, but I like green. I don't like yellow, I don't like it here...

Between chasing after our two year old Niuniu who was busy on kicking and running after balls and trying not to induce Zhuzhu's tantrum, the Daddy and I quickly aborted the idea of getting a dress for her.  She was right anyways, those dresses were indeed not so impressive, it's Old Navy, what do you expect?

Honestly though, we both, the Daddy and I, have lost the ability to do actual shopping for clothes.  Who hasn't nowadays, when you have the whole wide world right in front of you at your desktop?

So, we decided to go home and let her choose her dress online.

However, next thing you know, a mistake was made.  I am not a smart quitter who knows the perfect moment to stop.  So, instead of getting the little ones in their car seats, I dragged the 3 long faces - the daddy who was annoyed and unhopeful, Niuniu who was hungry, and Zhuzhu who was, well, you know how she has been! - into the store next to the Old Navy.  Of course, we found a big mess, as the French Daddy always says about American clothing stores.  Ironically though, it had a children's corner in which many dresses were arranged nicely by age group and "beautiful" according to a 4 year old's standard.  Zhuzhu fell in love with those dresses immediately.  The next 30 min became pleasant and productive: she tried on many of them, one after another, without being asked to do so.  And since she liked them all, I decided to buy 5 dresses.

In my defense, going shopping takes a lot of planning, time, and gasoline.  I was hoping the little Zhuzhu knew a little maths by 4, you see.  She should have known that she now needed to earn additional 20 golden stars to pay for all these dresses.  So I made her to promise me not to cry for the next 20 days.

Let me tell you, I am not too far from being right, she give us exactly 3 additional crying-free weeks! 

Two weeks after her 4th birthday party, which was 3 weeks after we bought those dresses, Zhuzhu began to be used to her dresses and started to make fusses at whatever chances she could find. 

I should have sticked to one as we had agreed to.  Big mistake, I call myself an educator, shame on me!

The guilt is all mine.  So long, golden stars!



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