What Came Before

It is interesting the things we find out as the communication happens with the girls.

I am not a mum that wants my little girls painted with makeup and nail polish - at least not until they are a 'reasonable' age. But I do like earrings. I know that there will people on both sides of this fence. *smile*

Yesterday, out of curiosity, I asked Mesai if she wanted her ears pierced. Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't planning on running out and piercing her ears right away. I just wanted to hear her thoughts. You have to imagine this conversation. I am dealing with a child that speaks with mostly verbs and nouns. No adjectives or adverbs, and certainly no grammar. *smile*

So, because of this lack of clear understanding, my mimes and sign language and words got the wrong message across. Mesai thought I was asking her if she had earrings before. And yes, she did!

Wow, you should have seen the buzz in the kitchen after that. Everybody clustered around her to see the holes in her ears. They are no longer there, but there are little tiny scars. Next inspection was Gadisae. Yep, she had her ears pierced, too!

So then since we were on a new page, we began asking questions regarding her ears.

Who pierced them? Her mother.

How? With a 'stake' *grin*. I pretended to use a needle, like as in a shot, and she agreed that was what her mum used.

Did it hurt? Yes!

Did she cry? Yes.

What were her earrings like? They dangled and were about a half inch long.

So, now, the original question was: Do you want your ears pierced? Now that I knew she had previously had them pierced it was a question of do you want to do this again?

Yes, she does, and yes, she does, even though it hurt last time. Upon discussion as to when she wants them done, she had no idea of the concept of when.

'So do you want earrings 'when you are eight?' (giving her a wide age range).

'Three or four.'

'You are past three or four. You are five.' We laugh.

Okay, so let's try another angle, since the concept 'when' isn't understood.

'Before the snow or after the snow? '

'After? What is that?' Note to self: discuss 'after'.

'Little time or long time?'

'Little'. Big smile.

Okay, so now that we have that cleared up, we will wait til after Christmas and then reapproach the topic. It is kind of neat to be able to give back to her something that was hers before.

While we were on the topic we learned that she had long hair that was in braids. Her grandmother braided her hair. And Gadisae, with the wispy little fuzz, only had a little afro - no braids. I asked Mesai to show me what she does with her hair and she took my hair and immediately began to braid it. I suspect I will have to give her the beads and see what she can do. *smile*
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