One of the more enjoyable - and harrowing - parts of parenting is to watch your child interact with other children.

Today, she made friends with some children a couple of years older and the conversation went something like this:

Girl: Are you from China?
Rae: No, I’m from Malaysia.
Girl: You look like you’re China.
Rae: No, I’m from Malaysia…MOMMY! I NEED TO TAKE OUT MY HAIR BAND SO MY FRIEND KNOWS I’M FROM MALAYSIA!

Her logic defies even me so don’t ask.

So she comes over and I take off her band for her, explaining to her that she is Malaysian Chinese, which made both of them right. Rae shakes loose her hair and runs back, fully expecting her new friend to go, “Ohhhh NOW I see what you mean!”, which, of course, didn’t happen.

A couple of minutes, the conversation took a turn:

Girl: You know, China is becoming very powerful.
Rae: Well, Malaysia is powerful too…

All I could do was smile. I was so proud of her.

Here’s Rae, running about, proudly Malaysian with her Malaysian heritage hair abound.