Eli likes the ladies

Eli has always liked the girls and nothing has changed in that respect except that he seems to have a special affinity for cute Asian girls. The other night I mentioned to Becky and Kathy Chen that I thought we might have a Chinese daughter-in-law in 20 years and Kathy laughed and said, ”Eli has yellow fever!” I don’t think I had ever heard the term before.

A couple quick stories on this front:

•Last week, I went to school midday to drop something off for Jacob. Eli’s class was on the playground. They all ran up and said, “Hi, Eli’s dad. Hi, Eli’s dad.” Except Eli. No sign of him. On my way back out, I saw him holding hands with Angela Wong (pictured here as Super Girl). She was leading him away, saying “Come on doggie.”

That night he told me when asked that they play girls chase boys and when the boys get caught they are dogs. No one else was walking around holding hands.

•Last week, coming home from Jacob’s play, Eli said to me, “If Caroline was a lady, she would be a saxy one.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Also Krystal, Xin Yi, Angela and China Claire (Claire Moy, called that to distinguish her from E’s cousin “Michigan Claire.”)”

Xin Yi and Krystal are the two girls in the middle picture. They are both Singapore Chinese and are best friends, always together. Xin Yi is moving in across the street from us next week. Eli is not sad about that.

•That’s Claire hugging E, taken on the night we all went out on a boat on Houhai Lake for Chinese Full Moon Festival last fall. That was the night that Claire and Eli kissed and declared their love for each other. Months later, Claire was in a car accident and broke her collarbone. Eli was extremely upset. I assured him she was okay and he calmed down. At bedtime, he burst into tears again. I asked him what was wrong and he said, “It hurts when your love breaks her arm.”

Last summer, I was discussing Eli’s love of the ladies with my folks. I said, “He is either going to be a ladykiller or gay because he sure likes playing with girls.”

“Funny you should say that,” Dixie replied. “I used to think you might be gay too!”

Now, I had never, ever heard this before. I asked him why and he shrugged.

“You just were so happy go lucky. I had never seen anyone act so… gay. I didn’t know how else to explain it.”

True story.