Status check

Sammy has recently discovered something sticking out between his legs.

Ever since this discovery, he has been performing a status check each time we remove his soiled diapers. 

Because he's lying down when we take the diapers off, he cannot do a visual, so he'll move his hand to the area, and check that his thing is still there.  This his preflight check.

Then we carry him to the bathroom and wash his behind.  Before we put in clean diapers, he does another check.  That's his post-flight check.

Dominic plans to one day build a rocket to the sun and  Sammy is training to be the pilot.  These pre- and post- flight checks are part of his training.

* * *

Cucumber bird

We were having cucumbers at lunch.  The children aren't familiar with this veggie:

Pia: (pointing) What's that?

Daddy: Cucumbers

Pia: Cucubers

Daddy: No, cucumber

Pia: Cumcumber

Daddy: No, Cu-cum-ber

Pia: (starts singing a children's song) Cucumberra sits in the old gum tree....

(Original lyrics: Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...)

* * *

People of the week

Dominic: "I am people of the week"

Daddy: (understanding what he meant) How do you know?

Dominic: My classmates told me

Every week, one student from each class is nominated as student of the week and the student receives an award for some meritorious behaviour.  It was Dominic's turn, for 'persevering in his writing'.

 

* * *

 

I understand you except I don't understand you

We let the children attend a children's group during Mass one Sunday. 

The teacher read the story of John the Baptist and then asked some questions. Since most of the children were older than Pia, and the teacher had an Australian accent, we were curious if Pia could keep up.

So after Mass we asked her:

Daddy: Pia, did you like going to that school?

Pia: Yes.

Daddy: Do you want to go back?

Pia: Yes.  I like the teacher.

Daddy: Do you understand what the teacher was saying?

Pia: Yes. ... But I don't know what the words mean.

 

* * *

Literalist

Dominic is a sigurista. 

That's someone who doesn't like to play if he won't win, doesn't like to try something new, and doesn't like to reply if he doesn't know the answer.

Daddy: (wanting to test if Dominic already knows the names of his classmates) Let's see how many classmate's names you know.

Dominic: (quiet)

Daddy: Hello?

Dominic: Do you mean I should tell you the number or tell you the names and you will count?

 

* * *

 

Unwelcome Shower

Up until about a year ago, Dominic had the habit of sneezing without turning his face away.  It was an especially gruesome habit when sneezes while talking to someone.

One second he's talking to you and the next ... ACHOOOPLKT! ... you just had someone sneeze point blank into your face. 

Without missing a beat he'll continue to talk as if what he did was as normal as blinking.

Meanwhile, you patiently dry off your face.

* * *

No thanks

Sammy is crying and looking for attention.

Mommy is busy. Daddy is busy. Dominic is in school. Pia is playing with her toys:

Mommy: Pia, can you help me take care of Sammy?

Pia: No, thanks.

Slugger

You notice him looking at you with rapt attention.  You fall for it.

That little gap between his two front teeth makes him all the more endearing. If there is a face of baby-like innocence, surely Sammy's cannot be far from it.

You make baby talk and you inch your face closer. Perhaps to kiss him. Perhaps to smell him. Perhaps both. 

His grin widens and his eyes twinkle with excitement. He adores you as much as you adore him.

It is when your face is less than a foot away that the open-fisted right hook comes. BAM!  This 11-month old baby has just slugged you. And it's a pretty firm one too. One that's made eyeglasses fly off.

You are still surprised when the second right hook comes. 

His grin is now wider.  You've made his day.

* * *

Doogie Howser, Aeronautical Engineer

Dominic loves folding paper planes.

We borrow books about paper plane folding and books about origami for him, and he devours them night and day. He must have folded over 50 different kinds of planes, not counting those he made up himself:

Daddy: Hey, maybe when you grow up you want to build airplanes.

Dominic: (intrigued) Oh...wow...that's too difficult. I need to be fourteen years old to do that.

 

* * *

Wolf cubs

Dominic and Pia screaming and very noisy while playing inside:

Mommy: (wanting some quiet) Ssssshhhhh!

Pia: (in whispers) Quiet Dominic, there's a wolf.

 

* * *

Word list

Pia's reading is constantly improving.  Sometimes slowly, sometimes a little faster. She just passed her in house test conducted by her teacher (Daddy) and assessed by the principal (Mommy).  She can read the following words and phrases:

in, come, quiet, queue, girl, you, boy, am, good night, Mummy, Daddy, good morning, how, fine, no, not, yes, Paul, Pia, Dominic, Sammy, can, read, chair, keep, thank, stand, this, what, is car, see, table, flower, tree, book, look, picture, keep, please, auntie, uncle, thank you, close, door, open, goodbye, my, name, we, are, friends, Merry Christmas, sit, down, up, stand, and her current favorite phrase: good grief.

Weekend photo - Computer Whiz

He was playing with Microsoft Word and came up with that diagram. He just discovered those features by himself while tapping at the keyboard and clicking everything he sees. Leave him with the computer for 5 minutes and he sets up configurations that are hard to undo -- we didn't even know they existed.

Winter Uniform

Winter school uniform in Hong Kong circa 2005. Dominic was in K-2, Pia in K-1.

Blood brother and sister

Dominic seems to be a regular customer of the school's first aid clinic.

One day after Pia cut her lower lip by biting the plastic leg of a toy cart, Dominic came home from school with a bloodied lower lip. 

He and two classmates were playing and running when he crashed into a table.  That's his version of the story.

* * *

Inorganic diet bad to your well-being

Pia cried a suppressed "Ungghh!" and then went over to the sofa and sat down.  She was holding a dismantled leg of a toy plastic food cart.

Daddy:  What's wrong?

Pia: Nothing

Daddy: (wanting to take a look) Can you come here?

Pia comes over. She has blood on her lower lip and on the wrist of her shirt, apparently from wiping blood from her lip.

Daddy: Why is there blood on your lips?  You cut your lip!  How did that happen?

Pia: (showing the leg of the toy cart) I bit this.

Daddy: (??) Why did you bite it?

Pia: I don't know.

* * *

Dazed, but not confused

Pia was spinning around, making herself dizzy when she took one round too many and suddenly...BLAG! Down she goes on the floor, rolling under the computer table:

Daddy: (concerned) Are you hurt?

Pia: (using Australian accent on the last word) Yes. But not so much. I'm just dei-zei 

Collection at Mass

Sometimes we dread the collection time during Mass. 

One the one hand, we want the children to learn about and acquire the habit of giving donations.  On the other hand, we worry what the children will do each time.

Last Sunday, as the collector approached, Mommy hurriedly grabbed some coins from her purse and passed it on to Dominic to drop into the collection bag.

The way normal people give their donation is by slightly lowering their closed hand into the bag and letting go of the donation.

But normal seems to be not for us.

Dominic approached the man with the bag, then lifted his hand five inches from the top of the bag, then started letting go of the coins one by one, pausing in between each coin: plink.  plink.  plink.  plink.  plink.

* * *

Open Sesame

The magic only works if you really believe.

If Sammy doesn't want to eat and he doesn't want to open his mouth to accept food, how can you make him open his mouth?

Ask Pia to say 'Open Sesame'.  Like magic, Sammy will obediently open his mouth. 

It doesn't work if Daddy says it.  It sometimes works if Mommy says it. But Pia has a 100% batting average. 

She doesn't even have to shout the words out.  Even if she's across the room and barely audible, just uttering  those magic words is enough to make Sammy contentedly open his mouth and accept the spoon.

 

* * *

The Clock Says Time is Money

Pia hasn't learned to tell time yet.  All she knows about hours is that at 3 o' clock, school is out and it's time to pick up her brother. 

It's also time for her to persuade us to bring her along to school for the pickup.  Being too young for school, she spends her days inside the house.  Understandably, she is excited every time there's a chance to get out. 

So when we decided to spend the afternoon at the nearby playground, she readied herself very quickly, putting on her outdoor clothes and jacket. 

After getting dressed, she noticed that, not only was the rest of the family not yet ready, they did not even seem to be in a hurry. 

So she pointed to the wall clock and called out:  "Mommy! Hurry up, it's already ten dollars!"

 

* * *

At City Hall

Taken a few years ago in front of City Hall, in Hong Kong. In front of the City Hall is the harbour and the original Star Ferry pier (which they tore down and moved to another location just after we left).

 

* * *

 

Feeding Master Sammy - The Pace

Although there are days when Sammy doesn't want to open his mouth to eat, there are other days when he really wants to eat.

When that happens, you have to keep up with him.   You cannot feed him while doing something else.  You have to keep putting food in his mouth, while he keeps on chewing and swallowing as fast as he can.

If you get distracted and fail to put food in his mouth the moment he opens it, he'll bang his hands on his high-chair.  Or he'll tug at your sleeve.  Or he'll make noises: MMM! MMM! MMM!

But if you keep up with his pace, he'll eat happily, swinging both his legs and flapping his hands while eating.

 

* * *

Feeding Master Sammy - 'Convulsions'

The swat is the most irritating technique that Sammy has come up with to block our attempts to feed him when when he doesn't feel like eating.

He has another technique, which is far less irritating and far less messy -- his faked convulsions. 

He performs this fake convulsion by shaking his head left to right as vigorously as he physically can, to the point we sometimes wonder if his head will fall off.  And while shaking his head, he has his eyes rolled up, so that almost only the whites are visible. 

 

 * * *

Moon girl

Late one afternoon the moon was already up. Pia was playing outside while waiting for the rest of the family to come out for a walk. 

Pia noticed that the moon seemed to be following her.  She stared up at it, took three steps to the left, and saw that it 'moved' in the same direction.  She took three steps to the right, and the moon again 'followed'.

Pia: Look Daddy, the moon is following me where I go!

Daddy: Why is that, do you think?

Pia: Because I'm powerful.

 

* * *

Feeding Master Sammy - The Swat

If Mommy or Daddy don't get the message that Sammy doesn't want to eat, and if they still persist in trying to deliver a spoonful of food to his mouth, then the little emperor ups the notch by pulling another trick from his sleeve: the swat.

Once the spoon is in range...SWAT!  He flicks his hand and hits your hand, sending food flying from the spoon down to the floor.  Tempers flare.

Sometimes it's a bulls-eye on the spoon and the spoon itself flies out of your hand and onto the floor. Oh, the blood pressure.

A carpeted floor is the worst kind of floor to have when spilling wet and soupy baby food.  And yes, that's the kind of floor we have.

This swat trick has trained Mommy and Daddy to develop their individual techniques in holding the spoon firmly, to tense their wrist and hand muscles when feeding Sammy, and to be alert at the first sign of a coming swat.

* * *

Feeding Master Sammy - Off With You!

Not for the faint of heart is the job of feeding a baby.

Sammy's appetite varies from feeding to feeding.  Some foods, like sweets, are always welcome.  But he cannot be fed on sweets alone, so real food must find a way in.

And the way in can be hard and narrow when he decides he doesn't want to eat.

As soon as he senses the next spoonful of food coming toward him, he'll shake his head left and right -- a firm 'No'. 

Usually he won't even give the courtesy of looking at you when he shakes his head.  He will look away, or past you, or up at the ceiling. "Begone slave, I am full", seems to be the proper English translation.

If you don't heed the No, and you still move the spoon closer, he'll turn his face away, to the left.  Go to his left, and he'll turn to the right. Go to his right, and he'll turn back to the left.  Left. Right. Left. Right. All this time his mouth is locked tight and you have no chance of inserting the food at all.

"Come on, Sammy, open your mouth" is the hopeless refrain you sing during this dance.

The little king gets agitated and shakes his head even more wildly: Off with you!  Do you not know what No means?

 

* * *

I wet my pants with my saliva

Quite apart from the threat of global warming, the cold weather also brings with it the threat of bed-wetting.

One morning we woke up with two surprises. First was that Pia was sleeping in our bed instead of in hers, and second, that she was wearing pajama bottoms different from what she slept in.

We suspected that she wet her bed again, but when we checked her bed, it wasn't wet.

So we investigated further:

Daddy: Pia, did you weewee again?

Pia: (defensive) No.

Daddy: Why did you change your pants?

Pia: Because it was wet, but my bed is not wet.

Daddy: Your pants are wet but you did not weewee?

Pia: Only my pants are wet.

Daddy: Only your pants are wet?

Pia: Yes.

Daddy: Did you weewee in your bed?

Pia: No

Daddy: So how come your pants are wet?

Pia: (alibi) I wet my pants with my saliva.

 

* * *

What's going out of here?

Pia is still too young to be in school, so she spends her days at home playing, studying, and watching kids' TV.

From watching Australians on TV, she picks up phrases and pronunciations here and there.  For instance, she often pronunces me as 'may', instead of the American style 'mee':

Mommy: Pia, come here!

Pia: "Are you calling may, Mommy?"

But sometimes she mishears things, something understandable if you know how the Aussies speak (somtheyng ohndersteyndabl eif you noy how Oyzzeis spake)

These past few days she's been going around saying "what's going out of here?", or "Daddy, what's going out of here?", or "Hey, what's going out of here?", which we think is her mishearing of "what's going on here?"

 

* * *

Unclassic chidren's games

Some children's games become classic, enjoyed by millions and millions of children from generation to generation.

Some children's games do not:

Pia: Domu, let's play a game.

Dominic: Ok.

Pia: I will say different words and you tell me which one is right.

Dominic: Ok.

Pia: Which word is right: Popeye, paypay, popoy, peepee

Dominic: (no hesitation) Popeye.

Pia: Oh.

 

* * *

Linus the Gross

In the Peanuts comic strip, there's a character named Linus.  He's the little boy who's always carrying around his security blanket and who's always sucking his thumb.

Our Sammy's preferred security blanket are socks.  Used and dirty socks.  We often catch him with the toe of his sock caught in his bite, and the rest of the sock still attached to his foot, which is hanging between the ground and his face.

Hand him a sock and it goes directly to his mouth.