Ella loves dressing up. It all started when she was barely two years old. We and my older sister, Crislyn, who is still single at that time are living in just one house to cut cost. Whenever she would arrive from work, Ella would run to the door and gives her tita hugs and kisses.
That would be her password on doing her rituals. She then would insist on holding her tita’s bag. Then she would dig into its content and look for her favorite things as a baby-lipstick, lipgloss, pressed powder and make up. She would also squeeze her tita’s lotion and liberally apply to her body and even her face! Ate would just let her play with those then minutes later, she would emerged from the room with a thick powder, smeared lipstick across her face and a pink paint all over her cheeks.
I thought her fondness to such things would gradually lessen as time passes by. I was wrong. Even ate doesn’t live with us anymore, Ella remained addicted to it. When she turned two, we moved from Davao to our hometwon in Kabacan, Cotabato. She would pull a chair and reach for my mother’s bag. Mamang Eling would just smile and let her only grandchild borrow her lipstick and powder. She even asked for a make-up kit from her tita during the holidays when she was three and jumped in excitement when she received her precious kit. Now that she is four, it got worst. She is not just wearing make up (well after three years of practice, you could not tell she applies it herself) but romping back and forth like a lady. With her tita’s xoxo bag, high heeled shoes (she really knew how to project in those heels!) and other props I would laugh in disbelief how this little creature easily adopts what she sees. Surely children nowadays are far more intelligent. Good luck to all the parents out there!
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