Real Mom

My boys are tennis players. They love it! Usually, I will take them and hang out around the courts with other parents and MK while they hit. This week I encountered a little seven year old girl who was relentless. She was full of energy. Poor Mason-Kate tried so hard to escape the little girl's lively antics but had little success. At one point the little girl disappeared and Mason-Kate got out of my arms to explore a few steps away from me. The little girl jumped out of nowhere, bent over, got right in MK's face and yelled "Bot-tum, bot-tum" (should you try to say this word at home, make sure you accent the "tum" with a loud shrilling sound). Mason-Kate was standing there like a deer in headlights, her eyes were big and she wasn't moving, she was scared. So I walked over, picked MK up and asked the little girl what in the world she was saying. She repeated the word and told me it meant "excuse me in French Chinese." Then she said that she was saying it because she wanted to see if MK could speak French Chinese. Having never heard of this particular language, I simply told the little one that Mason-Kate spoke English. Inside I was laughing because the little girl was quite entertaining and MK could not figure out what to make of her lively behavior. Well, not too long after the "French Chinese" encounter, the little girl reappeared. MK was off exploring, again, a few steps away. The little girl very quickly told me that I should have Mason-Kate right next to me. I told her MK was fine to play and that she wasn't too far away for me to watch. She proceeded to tell me that her parents would "freak" if she wasn't right beside them....hmmm, this I found odd as the little girls parents had simply dropped her off for two hours with her 3 siblings at our tennis courts. Did I mention the little girl is only SEVEN! And her siblings weren't watching her, they were playing tennis. Anyway, just before the boys were finished, the little girl came over to me once again and asked me where MK's real mom was. I told her that I was her real mom, thinking that this would suffice. WRONG! She says, "no, I mean her REAL mom, the one that grew her." Ok, I was prepared, so I bent down and explained to her that MK has two moms, one mom that "grew" her and gave her life in China and another mom who will teach her how to live it. Finally, she was satisfied and I did not see her again.