The Scary Horse

I have a niece who's a little over a year old now. She's a very cute little girl who is now learning how to talk (actually, she's talking but hasn't quite connected the right sounds with the objects yet). My husband and I used to remark how she used to look just like my mother-in-law, mainly the "worried" or "concerned" expression, but is now at a point where her features are starting to get defined a bit more. To me, she's definitely starting to look like her mother.

So how does my niece fit into the whole Sagacious Grandmother bit? My niece used to cry at the very sight of me. Every time she saw or heard me, she would start crying. The only way she could be around me was from far away where she could keep an eye on me from a distance. This really bummed me out because I love kids and she was the only one who would react that way to me (actually, her older brother used to have the same reaction towards me but that lasted a couple months). I would feel really badly that she would sometimes get so worked up crying that I just wanted to leave so she could calm down lest she develop some anxiety issues.

I had told this to my grandmother during her stay with me this past summer but she didn't really believe me until she saw it with her own eyes on a couple occasions. Once was in my BIL's house and the other was my niece's one-year birthday party in a park (by the way, at said birthday party, my niece took to my grandmother like a bee to honey. THAT was rather depressing). My grandmother just couldn't believe the reaction I would get from my niece every time. She was constantly asking me why she would react that way every time she saw me and I would constantly reply with "I don't know".

On the way home from the birthday party in the park, my grandmother asked once more why my niece should be so afraid of me to which I replied my now-standard answer "I don't know". She became real quiet as she pondered this little mystery. After a little while, she loudly proclaimed:

"The reason why your niece always cries when she sees you is because she's a Rat and you're a Horse and Rats are afraid of Horses."

For those of you who don't know what that means, my grandmother is referring to the Chinese Zodiac where the calendar is run by 12-year cycles and each year is represented by an animal. Those born in 2008 are Rats and those born in 2009 are Oxen. I was born in the Year of the Horse.

I didn't know how to respond to that. If this was true, then all my little nieces and nephew (on my dad's side) would also be afraid of me and cry at the sight of me. If I brought this up, my grandmother might say that it was because my dad's side of the family was "different". As my BIL and his wife pointed out, the both of them would also be afraid of me because they're Rats also. But if I told my grandmother, she might say that it was because they're older than me and that it doesn't count. And since my grandmother went back to Singapore, my niece hasn't cried at the sight of me. She's actually interacting with me more, though she still won't let me hold her. It's really cute to see her trying to talk to me and interact with my son as well. I just love it!

I thought about telling her this latest update but I know that the response I'll get will be something that actually sounds pretty practical, like "it's because she's been seeing you more." But whatever the case is, there was a time when that little Rat was too afraid of this scary Horse.