The Naughty and the Nice

“Mom, is this one of my Christmas presents?” an excited voice sounded like it came from the wrong room. I rushed and covered the clearly visible large box as best as I could, cursing myself for buying early. But then, who told her to go snooping around in MY closet? BTW, the use of ‘my’ twice in quick succession doesn't read very well and I apologize, realizing as soon as I type that I added one more of it! A proletarian writer should atleast know what not to inscribe. Well…

Ordinarily you would expect 3 year olds to be nosy and inquisitive of things hidden beneath scattered handbags and crumpled sweaters, the ones who still believe in the existence of Mr. Santa and his goodies. But ever since my second baby was born, the first one decided to learn things all over again. So now we have the 3 year old watching Scooby Dooby Doo and the 7 year old sticking alphabets on the magnetic easel.

Now that we all know who was not minding her own business and meddling with stuff in Mommy’s closet, I can go ahead and make my point.

Since she already had seen it, I went ahead and confirmed with a strict ‘not to tell your baby sister’. She agreed and sat down to make a list to leave under the Christmas tree with her sister, the hidden presents probably reminded her she still hadn't made any demands for the year.

It touched my heart when I went through the list. She had listed the game I already got as the first thing she wanted this year. Now, I know it wasn't her choice, she never asked for it and  it wasn't something that would have come to her mind anyways, but because I got it for her, she accepted it (she could have not had this one on her list, I would have given it to her anyways) and was nice enough to portray that she would have wanted the very thing for Christmas, amongst other presents, of course.

And so I thanked God, that it was this one who discovered one of her gifts accidentally and not my other daughter. Because, things work a little different with her. She would have voiced her preferences louder, made a fuss about wanting all her sister’s presents too and ultimately would have taken this one too but without one bit of appreciation. Yea, she’s one girl who knows what she wants and gets it too.

Does it look like I prefer the personality of one over the other? Because honestly, I don’t! And I' ll tell you why. I adore my first born for being kind and grateful but am equally nuts about the baby for being so demanding.

You see every mother has an easy kid and a child that’s hard to please: a nice one and a troublemaker (if she has two at all).  She loves them both but knows them too.