Some time ago Miss B was nearly 4 had her first fling with a Indian Little Boy called Arnav from preschool. She would speak about him day and night. They both had been inside each other’s cars (Mine and his dad’s – apparently part of the courtship ritual) and she talked about when they would have a playdate. One day I started noticing she no longer spoke about him and asked subtly whether she had been playing with him. She told me they had a fight because she liked Emily’s drawing better than his and he said he would not invite her for his birthday anymore. And they “broke up”… J Arnav eventually went to another school, but she some times mentions him. It was her first “love”.
After that, she would say for months and months that the only boys she liked was Papaya, Antonio and Mendoim. Just like we do after we break up on bad terms. I found it amusing, but was actually relieved!
More recently, she got infatuated with Cooper. She wanted to have a playdate with him so bad. She would talk about him all the time and finally decided to draw her house and write him her number (my cell) so that he could call her and invite her over for a playdate and even talked about a sleepover!!! The next morning she woke up and said: “Mom, Cooper did not call me last night!” I was thinking to myself: “Really??? Already suffering over a boy at this age?” I felt like telling her that she should not sit down and wait for any boy’s phone call, but the last thing I wanted was to exacerbate this boyfriend/girlfriend thing. Instead, I told her that Cooper’s mom might not have seen her phone or something.
After that night, she spoke about Cooper for a couple of days and it was the end of their “romance” apparently.
I was relieved to know that with no strings attached, she would be back to being the girly girl she was. I could not be more wrong…
We got invited to Gavin’s birthday party a month ago at his Grandma’s house. She opened the door for us and led us to the backyard where the rest of the kids and some of the family members were gathering. She then announced that Bianca had arrived and that Bianca was the one that had asked Gavin if he wanted to marry her when they are grown ups. I was mortified! They apparently thought it was very funny. As we were leaving, she actually went to ask Gavin’s mom and asked if she could set up a play date for them the next day! Me, mortified again…Gavin has been in her class since the beginning. He was actually the one whose mom came up to me last year and said that Bianca had hurt his feelings. She would not allow him to sit next to her because she wanted to sit by Emily and Madison. He was brokenhearted, but I guess he won her over.
Now, less than a month later she does not talk so much about Gavin. A couple of days ago, she began taking she wanted to have play dates with the new boy in the classroom - Rijul.
Clearly, I was not aware that boys and girls games would start as early as 4!! If anything, I hope that these funny “romantic” stories teach her to be resilient about her many broken heart stories to follow but also that they empower her to decide what’s best for her and to go after it. I don’t see the latter being a problem at this point, let’s just hope she is a little bit decisive…
P.S 4/9/2012: Since this post she has gotten more and more interested in Rijul. Last week she came home and spent a considerable amount of time drawing a picture for him with the map of her house instead of watching her cartoons as she does every night. She drew a couple of pictures with her house and herself and Rijul in the picture and even another one with hearts, oh My!!! Here we go again...
