Annabelle plays favorites

Our darling 9 year old daughter dropped a bombshell on us the other day.  Kim took Levi and Annabelle to the Asian market to buy some of the staples (noodles.)  As they strolled the aisles, Levi asked Kim to buy him some Chinese candies.  Kim declined.  Levi noticed that every item Annabelle requested was promptly put into the shopping basket.  He joked, “Oh sure, Mom, buy her everything she wants.  Annabelle’s your favorite.”

That’s when Annabelle broke the news.  She said (in English that’s getting better every day!), “When we were in China, Mommy was my favorite.  Now that we’re in America, Daddy is my favorite!”

Kim laughed, and dug a little deeper.  It’s not that she likes me better than she likes Kim.  She actually rated us both equal on the “thumbs up” scale.  It turns out that Annabelle was a little afraid of me when we were in China, and now she isn’t afraid at all.  I figured that it was because she hadn’t been around very many men at her orphanage.  When I asked her about it, she said that wasn’t the reason.

She traced a line under her lower lip and said, “I didn’t like this.”  I have a little strip of beard/hair/soul patch growing there.  Who knew that a simple thing like that could be so threatening?  I guess I was unaware of the scale.

Just think of all the trouble I could have avoided if I had seen that scale before our trip to China!

With Mother’s Day justa round the corner, Annabelle has been all excited about celebrating Kim.  She’s written several notes to Kim already, and even brought her wall calendar down from her room to show me that Mother’s Day is Sunday.

Life is good at the Sublett ranch, where there are no favorites, just a whole lotta love.