the search for a purple dress and two hands

it's not always easy to figure out what kids want to say. my nephew juancho is now 8 years old (which is so dangerously close to puberty, i want to cry) so it's not really a challenge to carry a decent conversation with him. he who used to tell the best stories and had the cutest way of talking has turned into a smart boy (when he's in the mood) and doesn't give me as much blog fodder as he used to. he does, however, lend me his diary of a wimpy kid books so he still plays a very important role in my life.

speaking with 4-year-old martina, on the other hand, is still pretty hilarious.

martina's 'work'

she calls the house every now and then, sometimes just to report that she is sitting down (whoohoo!) or that she 'was sick tomorrow'. these days, i hear her say that she is 'very busy with work'. one time, she left me for a while and came back with the product of her labor. it was a piece of paper filled with red scribbles and her name written at the top. when i asked her what it was, she said it was a letter and proceeded to read it to me:

'i love you very much, tita eng. dear, martina.'

awww.

(she can learn about the proper use of salutations later on.)

one boring afternoon, i thought it was a good idea to force-feed martina with so you think you can dance videos. i think it was because i saw marteens krumping to a justin bieber (deeber, according to her) song. i showed her the krump performances from sytycd and didn't stop there. i must've shown her more than 10 dance routines that day. she seemed pleased.

the next time martina visited, she wanted to see more sytycd dance videos. i happily obliged but she was looking for a particular number.

'where's the one with the purple dress?'

try as i might, i couldn't remember which dance had purple costumes, so i pressed her for more details.

'you know, the one with the purple dress, and fur ... and the TWO HANDS?'

fantastic.

we searched high and low for that elusive dance number. i felt like i disappointed my new convert. every time i saw her, she asked me if i had found the video she wanted. during one of those times, i futilely asked, 'was the dance fast or slow?' slow, she offered. i honestly don't know what possessed me to clarify.

a few more weeks passed and i still couldn't find the purple-dress video. little did i know that insomnia would prove serendipitous in my quest. it was about 4 am and i was watching a sytycd rerun when i saw a samba number by katee and joshua of season 4. i sat upright on my bed when i realized what i was looking at:

a purple dress. with fur. and the dancer had two hands!

that had to be it!!! i felt ecstatic, much like when i found out i had passed the medical boards (i rejoice in big and miniscule victories equally).

when i was finally able to show martina the precious video (which i saved on my phone, mind you), a smile slowly formed on her face and she whispered reverently, 'it's the purple dress.'

she watched the video a dozen times in succession that day. i watched it with her, not so much because i was scared she would drop my phone, but because i knew i had to savor every moment before she turned 8.