Talking with Lyra

On Tuesday, Lyra woke up and complained of a headache. Nothing much - she still went to school. After school, she went to ballet. On the way home, she complained of a headache again. She told me, "When we got home, I said to Baba, 'Baba, we should take my temperature.' 'We're not taking your temperature,' he told me. [Note: taking her temperature is a frequent request from Lyra.] But when we took it it said 1-0-2. And Baba said to me, 'I should listen to my daughter more often.'"

I asked her, "Do you like taking your temperature because it's fun?"

"No," she said, "I take my temperature because we should know if I'm sick."

[point taken]

Later on, the subject moved to school. She and her friend, Meera, are both very strong personalities. At times, they end up fighting or arguing. Lyra was upset because she felt Meera had fibbed. Lyra told me, "I asked her, 'Meera, why did you fib about that?' and she told me, 'It was a joke.' I said, 'That's not a very funny joke.' Mama, doesn't Meera's mama teach her not to fib?"

"Of course she does, but when you're five, you're still learning and sometimes you make mistakes," I said.

"We-ell, sometimes I say things to Meera and I know it's not nice and then she says things that aren't nice and I think, 'I shouldn't say that.' And I know it's not nice. And then sometimes Meera will go like this (sticking out her toungue) and that's not a nice thing to do. And I think, 'Why is she sticking her toungue out at me? Doesn't she know that's not nice?!?' And today Meera told me not to play with Inaya, but I told her 'I haven't seen Inaya all week.' Why did she tell me not to play with Inaya?"

"Sometimes it's hard to share," I said. "But I'm glad you still played with Inaya."