“Mom, can I have that ice cream sundae?”, asked my daughter while pointing at the McDonald’s poster in the wall at the food court. We were having lunch, rice and viand because you can’t force a McD into her. The ice cream sundae seem to attract her attention, though. My husband and I looked at each other and we were thinking of one same thing.

M handed Pristine 2 coins and told her she can have her sundae if she can go and buy by herself. Honestly, I expected she’d freak out, refuse, give up the ice cream but the opposite happened! She gladly held the coins and confidently went to the counter, with big proud steps like and army ready for war!

It was lunch time and the big people were queuing at McD’s. Pristine, at 4 and a half years old can barely be seen from the counter. I think the crew can only see the part from her eyes and above.

Looking from afar, we were nervous. Will the crew take notice? A couple of minutes passed, no one minded her and she kept on looking back at us - we tried to pretend we were not looking. One time, I wasn’t able to help it and attempted to stand to go and help her although she was not sending any SOS signal. I restrained myself and instead gave her an approving nod.

I could see the adults smiling and looking at this little girl in the counter. In a big, confident voice, she blurted out, “Excuse me!” then again until one crew saw her.

“Can I have one ice cream sundae, please?”

The magic words came out! Added with, “in chocolate please”. She then handed the coins and with a beaming smile, held the ice cream cone in her hands and walked back to us.

We were so proud. Our girl is not a baby anymore; she conquered one huge task by battling adults twice her height and got what she wanted - without the help of either mom or dad.  I held back some tears. Yeah, you can say I’ve become corny since having a mom and you know what? It’s true and I don’t think it’s bad.