Her First Crush

I was fixing Riley's hair and wasn't paying attention to Paige.  She was going on and on about something she wanted to tell me.  It was a little bit irritating, truth be told.  Finally, Riley's little tuft of hair was fixed, so I turned to Paige and said, "Okay, now tell me. What is it?"

She smiled and said, "Mama, may crush daw ako kay Zack."

She was smiling sheepishly, shyly...

And I knew then that that was a big moment... a huge one. A freakingly huge one.  I didn't want to screw it up, so I pasted a huge smile on my face.  And I prompted her to tell me more, "Crush ka man ni Zack bi?"

She's 6 years old and she's in second grade!  And I didn't know what to say.  I didn't know how to handle it, but I knew that I SHOULD NOT FREAK OUT. So, I didn't.  I prayed that the smile wouldn't slip from my face.  Inside, however, I was screaming, "OH MY GOD! She's my baby!!!"  But then I thought, "What the heck. It's not like she's telling me she fornicated, was impregnated by some trucker and she's running off to get married. So, I took it all in a stride and dropped down on my knees and proceeded to ask her about Zack. I've always known she has a teeny weeny crush on the boy because she keeps talking about him - all the time.  But I didn't know that she understood what that meant.  Apparently, she does now.  And apparently, that boy has a crush on her too.  Paige proceeded to tell me he tells her he loves her everyday!  So, there goes another litany of "Oh My Gods" in my head.

But I think I handled it properly.  No teasing.  No freaking out.  She was happy.

End of story.

Uh.huh. Not yet.

Later this evening, we were skyping with her papa.  At one point, I said, "Paige, why don't you tell Papa what you told me earlier." 

She didn't want to.  This prompted Erbe's curiosity because he could see our daughter covering my mouth to prevent me from talking.  I was laughing.  Finally, she said, "Sige na daw."

So, I told him what she told me, "Paige told me that she has a crush on Zack."

He didn't understand at first, so I had to repeat the sentence a couple of times.

Silence.

And then he said, "Aaaaay! Bawal ka na dian magrani sa Zack na yan!"

Paige's face fell.

But Erbe was oblivious to it, he continued forbidding her to ever come near "that boy" again.  He threw in a couple of threats to the little boy's health, "Tiukon ko yan Zack na yan!"

It was so freaking funny. I told him that yes, the little boy likes Paige too.  This prompted another bout of forbidding and threats. It was so funny but apparently Paige didn't think so.  Her face was crestfallen.  It was so sad, so I shushed Erbe and told him that he was handling it very, very badly.  He sighed and then said, "haay. ika na lang ba ang bahala."

Freaking hilarious.  You'd think she's 16 and she has a serious relationship.  He even kept saying, "MU pa pati kamo!"

I was laughing like a lunatic.  God.

So, yeah, score 1 for mother.

and a ze-boo-hoo-ro for the father. :D