Left behind. Bad Daddy.

What would you do...

...if you were all alone in school and all your classmates had already gone home and you don't know where you parents are and you don't know why they still haven't picked you up?

Daddy forgot the time and was very late coming to school to pick up Dominic.

As soon as I entered the shoolgrounds, I looked for him.  There was still about 300 meters to walk, but I could see him from a distance, no bigger than my thumbnail.  I waved my arm at him so he could see me and not be too worried anymore.  But he wasn't looking.

He was looking down at the ground, walking back and forth slowly across the playground, burdened with his backpack and his knapsack.

I was worried that he'd be crying.

Then, still from a distance, I saw him step up on a log, balance himself a little bit on it, then jump off.  He was amusing himself. He's not too worried.

But as I came up to him and could finally see his face, I saw tears had been flowing for a while.  Some had already dried.

He was happy to see us (I was with Sammy). He didn't complain.  Didn't even ask why we were so late.

Can you do math in Klingon?

Pia had been doing addition and subtraction for a couple of weeks now, and she's definitely getting better and better.  So much so that she's been answering pretty much all the questions correctly.

But when we moved to the next level - adding numbers with two or more columns (for example, 35 + 48), she faltered very very badly.

We could not figure out why, until we realized that she still hadn't memorized writing out numbers beyond 1 to 12.

So although she could add the numbers column by column and she could enunciate the correct answer, she didn't know how to write out the answer.

For example, she could say 'eight plus eight equals sixteen', she didn't know by heart how to write '16'.  She would write something like 8 + 8 = 65.

Spoon and Fork 101

For much of the civilized world, a fork's purpose is for pushing food onto the spoon, which is then used to carry food to the mouth. 

There are cultures, like that in North America, where the fork is used as a spoon. These people scoop up food (such as peas) with their forks, and then convey the food to their mouths.

And then there's Dominic.

He has a technique for using the fork that can be described as....barbaric.

First, he uses his fork to carefully arrange a towering mound of food onto his spoon.  Then he lifts the spoon, opens his mouth, and rests the tip of the spoon on his lower teeth line.  Then, using his fork, he pushes the food from the spoon into his gaping mouth.

After successfully packing in the food, he leans back, and takes his time chewing what is the equivalent of two normal mouthfuls of food, before repeating the procedure.

No comment needed

We had been wondering if he will swim at their next class. This shot says it all.

Down the Yellow Slide

Pia, on what could be her very first ride down any slide.

Having a playground on the 4th floor of the building we lived in - this was in the Hong Kong - made it very convenient to bring the kids out to play every day.  The playground was open-air, so it's technically outdoors, even though within the building.

There were probably 300 families in the building.  There was no shortage of children. There were always plenty of noisy children running and playing around. The first ones would arrive with their nannies, or their mommies, around 4:30 pm and play until up to 7:00 pm, when it became too dark to see.

This same pattern occurs everday except during winter. It was too cold to play outside by then.

 

No Ian Thorpe for now. Maybe next Friday

They just started swimming classes at Dominic's school. We weren't expecting anything out of it, but right at the point where everyone started changing into their swimwear, Dominic decided he won't swim.

Which was surprising because he always loved to go swimming in beaches and in swimming pools.

Despite encouragements and some teasing (from me), gentle invitations from his teacher, and a few threats (from me, again) which led to tears (his) he really didn't want to swim. 

My initial suspicion was that his schoolmates intimidated him.  Dominic just splashes water, but these 6 year-olds were doing backstrokes, lapping the length of the pool, and diving through hoops. And that's literally jumping through a hula hoop. The instructor stands in the water, extends his arm holding a hoop and the children standing at the edge of the pool dive into the water through the hoop.

But no, intimidation wasn't the reason.

Only later that night did we find out why.  The knee wound he received a few days ago was still fresh, and he intimated to Mommy his concern that the 'bad germs' would come in and infect him. 

Fair enough, as they often say here.

Since that day, we've been trying to get his commitment to swim at their next swim class, but he seems to enjoy being cajey about it, and keeping us in the dark as to his intentions.  We shall see.

The Horror of Numbers

Teaching Dominic to count 1 to 20 in Filipino while walking to school. 

He's not getting the pronunciations right:

Daddy:  Labing-isa ('eleven')

Dominic: Lagim-isa ('Horror one')

Daddy: Labing-dalawa ('twelve')

Dominic: Lagim-dalawa ('Horror two')

Daddy: Labing-tatlo ('thirteen')

Dominic: Lagim-tatlo ('Horror three')

Daddy: wait a minute...what were you saying?

Paper boy

 

Sammy's diet includes milk, oatmeal, fruits, and paper.

Paper is low in sodium, low in fat, obviously very high in fiber, and apparently, very very tasty.

 

He prefers magazine paper and will not touch A4 office paper.

 

Now we know where the magazines have been disappearing to.

 

 

 

Clicking

No matter how hard she wished, Pia could not successfully get her swing to swing. She would flail her legs wildly. She would bend and stretch and lean her body forward and backward, left and right. She would shake her body, twist her hips, jerk her behind, and contort her body into various shapes. All to no avail.

The swing and its chains just shrug and twist with her for a few moments, and then settle back to their quiet state, their now sullen passenger being forced to -- once again -- ask someone to help push her.

Then all of sudden, after months of such struggle and helplessness, something clicked.  Anatomical coordination fell into place and she can swing. 

Now she swings as long as she likes; a graceful, happy, bobbing pendulum.

 

A Hydrating Hydra?

Pia was standing wet in the bathtub.  She's learning how to give herself a shower. 

Like most little children, she hadn't been very thorough in soaping herself.  We started to guide her to make sure she soaped every part of her face and body and not miss a spot.

Daddy:  Ok, soap your hair... 

Daddy:  Now soap your face...

Daddy:  Don't forget your ears...

Daddy:  The back of your neck...

Daddy:  Your forehead..

Pia: NYAAAH!!  Daaaahdeeee....I don't have four heads!

Where are you WHAT?

Trying to teach the children to speak Filipino, we start with 'Where are you off to?'

Daddy: Pia, say 'San ka pupunta?'  That means 'Where are you going?'

Pia:  (Drops the critical 'n') 'San ka puputa?', 'San ka puputa?','San ka puputa?'  

 

"Where are you whoring?" -- not the best first sentence to teach.

Sammy at 9 months

I like the color play between the tree trunks, the leaves, the brick wall, the iron wall, the sunlight, and the ground.

Smile by Sammy. Photo by Mommy.

Three stickers

How do you earn 3 stickers in class in one day?

After his class was dismissed, Dominic ran out of his classroom proudly showing two stickers, 'The teacher gave me two stickers because I was very good in writing. I wrote "AUSTRALIA".'

'Very good,' I said.

And then he pointed to his left knee, which had a bandage.  He tells the story behind it, 'This morning, when we were lining up, I was running and a tall boy pushed me. But it was an accident.'

'Who put the bandage on your knee?', I asked.

'The teacher', he said.

And that's how he earned 3 stickers today.  Two proudly displayed on his bag. And a special one stuck on his knee.

Rice. And Magic

Sammy has started eating rice. We mix it with soup so it'll go down easier.  His 4 lower teeth have all lined up, and at least two teeth are peeking out from his upper gumline.

He still doesn't crawl.  But we think it's about time that he learns to, so we try to be a bit sneaky and set things up so that he'll be forced to crawl.

We set him down flat on his tummy, and then we place some of his toys about a foot beyond his reach.  The idea being that he will force himself to crawl toward the toys, if he wants to play. 

But he has other ideas.

By stretching his left hand toward the toys, palms up, and opening and closing his hands, it's undeniable that he's trying to use magic to beckon the toys to come to him.

It may or may not work. 

Keep tuned.

Thirsty

On the way to the train station, Pia was being playful and probably getting tired:

Pia: Mommy, my ears are thirsty.

New Bike

Taken at our old home in Hong Kong. Pia's new bike. We had to leave these two bikes behind when we moved to Australia. Those damn quarantine rules scared me. Quarantine Australia threatened to clean these bikes and send us the bill if they found any soil in the tires. Anyway, the bikes have grown rusty.

She Did Have Hair

I've gotten so used to seeing Pia with a shaved head that seeing old photos of her feels like seeing someone you knew from a distant past. It can't be that distant, though -- she's not even five. Here's a photo of her at two.

Math Study Updates

We are making progress in teaching basic arithmetic to the kids.  Dominic can now add or subtract arbitrarily large numbers, like these:

2345689 + 345284956

34950684 - 2304895

1000000 - 999

He trips a bit, especially when distracted by the TV, but he knows the rules for carrying numbers at addition, and for borrowing numbers at subtraction.  We'll keep giving him exerices to cement his understanding.

Beyond addition, he's now learning how to multiply and has quickly grasped the concept.  He now easily multiplies small numbers like 3 x 4, 2 x 0, 5 x 4.

Pia is starting her subtraction lessons and can do basic subtractions like 3-2, 5-4, and 6-2.  She sometimes gets confused between addition and subtraction though, and will occassionally give 4 as the answer to 3-1. 

Basic Manners

Pia ran to the swing at the playground, sat down, and yelled out: "Daddy! Push me!"

Daddy:  Say please.

Pia: Push me!

Daddy: Say pleeease.

Pia: PUSH. ME.

Daddy:  You should say please if you want someone to do something for you.

Pia: PUSH ME NOW!

Daddy: Say please.

Pia: NOW!!!

Daddy: You must learn how to say please.

Pia: You must learn how to push me now!

Relax

Whiling away the time and pondering the state of the world. All he needs now is a cigar.

Among the leaves

Walking back from church on Good Friday, we came upon a 'lovely' pile of dried leaves. It's the start of autumn. We were expecting that the trees will turn brown. Instead the leaves turn brown and drop off. The trees don't turn brown, they turn bare.

Sammy

He can still tip over backwards, so we make sure he sits with something solid behind him.

Like Mother, like Son

While checking over Dominic's toenails,  Mommy saw icky dirt under the tip of each toenail:

Mommy: 'Dominic, your toenails are so dirty. I think you have fungus!'

Dominic: 'Like you?'

The Way of the Fried Egg

Pia and Dominic both love fried eggs on their rice.  Like most children, their favorite part is the yellow yolk. 

Observing how they eat their eggs reveals something about their personality. 

Dominic finishes off the white of the egg first, leaving an unbroken egg yolk for last.  So he ends up with a half-sphere of yellow yolk.  Pia, on the other hand, eats the yolk of the egg first, leaving the white of the fried egg with a hole in the middle where the yolk normally is. 

Looking for the stars

The morning after a night of gazing up at the stars with the children, I asked, 'Look up at the sky. How come there are no stars in the daytime?'

Pia: Because we can't see them.

Me: Why can't we see them?

Pia: Because they're not there in the daytime.

Me: Why not?

Pia: Because they are not there.

Me: Why not?

Pia: Daaahhhddy....don't always say 'Why'

Me: Why?

Pia: STOP IT!

 

Perhaps a career in science is too early.

Countersigh

Domu left his toys and things scattered on the floor again.

Daddy: Dominic, how many times do I have to tell you: Put away your things after using them.

Domu: Oohhhhkay.....

Daddy: (Sigh) Dominic

Domu:  (Sigh) Daddy.

Adding Numbers

School's out and the children are on vacation until the 2nd term begins.

 

To make sure they don't lose momentum, we are giving them some studying to do at home. Domu is studying how to add large numbers of any number of digits (like 2,345,689 + 45,789,002).

Pia is just beginning to learn and we're giving her small numbers to add (1 + 2, 2 + 1, etc.)

Sammy is starting to learn how to open and close his hands on cue.

The Tooth

Four teeth coming out, but one of them seems like it wants to go somewhere else. His rightmost front tooth is not quite positioning itself properly. I hope this doesn't mean he'll have to wear braces.

Swinging

It's hard to believe, just 3 months ago this little guy was so afraid of swings that he wouldn't even sit on a stationary swing. Today, he'll even swing standing up on the seat.

What's YOUR name?

Right after church, we were approach by a nice friendly lady, declaring what a lovely family we were. She then asked our children's names. So I looked at Domu and asked him: "What's your name?"

Going beyond the requirements of the Geneva Convention, where prisoners are required to give out only their names, Domu remained embarassingly quiet. So I looked at Pia, our wonderfully outspoken daughter. Sadly, she took was struck by instant amnesia. I thought of asking Sammy -- maybe HE knows his name.

Determined to never let that happen again, that night I practiced the
children:

Me: Domu, what's you full name?

Domu: <gave out his full name>

Me: Pia, what's your full name?

Pia: <gave out her full name>

Pia: Daddy, what's your foolish name?