(this is written by my wife on the day I posted the previous post)

My husband is away again. But this time my little son noted his absence. On the day my husband left, my little son came to me and exclaimed “Papa’s birthday is coming! Let’s go and buy a present for him!”

HUH?! What does a barely 3-year old fellow knows about buying presents for an adult?

Anyway, I played along. We went to the shops to choose a toy because according to my little son, “papa likes toys”. He chose a red toy car. Toy cars, are incidentally my son’s favourite.

“If it’s for papa then you can’t open it”, I said.

“OK” came the reply.

However, even before reaching home, the little one changed his mind.

“Let’s open it and put it in the toy box”, he said.

I played along and the red car, which was meant for papa’s birthday, had its box torn open immediately upon reaching home. My little son has been playing with it in the last 2 days, bringing the car to his bed to sleep, something that he does with his “favourite toys”.

“Is this car yours or papa’s?” I asked.

“It’s papa’s. When papa comes back I will give it to him,” he said.

I can’t wait to see what happens to the red car when papa comes back.

I am now in Beijing and missing my son…and wife (better say I miss her too else she’ll start saying that all I remember now is my son hehehe!)

Anyway, my wife text me just now to say that my son kept asking to talk to me. So I sneaked away from the midst of dinner and make a call home.

“Papa can you come home please?” , “Papa can you come home NOW please?” were what he kept saying when the line got through. I believe you will be able to empathise with how it tugs at my heart ;(

And what a contrast to the article by my wife when my son hardly mentioned me when I was away!

Strange…children are sometimes so unpredictable…and doesn’t that make them even more cute & lovable & sometimes…irritable as well?

I have a feeling he will say the same thing when I call tomorrow.

Lin Miaoke - the day after

Lin Miaoke, that’s her name.

She’s the nine year old girl who sang at the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. According to Zhang Yimou, the Director of the Opening Ceremony, she was “…selected among many girls. She is a lovely girl and she sings well.”

Lin received thunderous applause from the 90,000-plus spectators at the National Stadium, known as the “Bird’s Nest”, when she performed “Ode to the Motherland” as 56 children,

each representing an ethnic group of the country’s 56 nationalities, carried the national flag into the stadium at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on 8 August 2008.

8 8 8 is the BIG DAY. Are you ready for it?!

No this is not a SPORTS BLOG….but as a parent, you better be PREPARED for questions that your child is going to ask you. Afterall, they are all over, in TV programs, newspapers, billboards and…even at MacDonalds, there’s no escape.

Ok, so lets prepare for the most basic question first then. What do the 5 Olympic Rings represent? Er…..

Duh! Not five Kiwis!!! ( Act stupid, your child will go hee-haw!! )

Olympic Donuts! Tell that to my son and I won’t survive till I bring him to the nearest donut shop!!

Yes ….yes, the boring answer is it represents the five continents of the world, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time. (as of 1931).

Play this game with your child, memorise the colors and regurgitate them : Blue, Yellow, Black, Green, Red………Blue, Yellow, Black, Green, Red………Blue, Yellow, Black, Green, Red…..

(this is written by my wife, I wish she hadn’t!! haha)

As I read my husband’s post on how elated my little son was on seeing him at the airport, I must say his behavior at home during the 3 days when his papa was away was far from that. He didn’t ask “where’s papa?”, nor was there any hint that he missed his papa. In fact he acted as if his papa was never a part of his life. Which got me a little worried actually. My gentle prodding of “where’s your papa?” yielded no reply as he busied himself with his toy cars.

It was therefore not without reason that our little boy was super elated to see his papa. Just before picking his papa, we had lunch at one of the cafes in the airport. Halfway through lunch, a boy came in with his parents and they took up the table beside us.

Being in the “I don’t care I just stare” age, my little son stared blatantly at the happy family. The boy started to act up (probably enjoying the attention afforded by my son) and talked incessantly with his parents, stealing glances at my son occasionally to see if he was watching. As their food arrived, the boy’s father lovingly cut them into smaller sizes for his son and fed spoonfuls into his mouth. All through this my little son was watching. Then suddenly he turned towards me and said “My papa is coming back?”.

I guess that was when he “remembered” his papa. Seeing the boy and his father probably made my son miss his own papa as these realize his papa hasn’t been around.

But I guess if my husband had been gone 3 months instead of 3 days, the reception at the airport would have been entirely different. Out of sight, out of mind. My husband should be thankful if my son would even open his mouth to call “papa” then.

I won something today!!

I have been a regular reader of Nona Nita’s Grandparenting Blog (yes…am getting ready years in advance!) and she recently put up a lucky draw for all readers who subscribed to her blog. Being a regular reader, the decision to subscribe to her blog and enter the lucky draw is a no-brainer.

The rest, like they say, is History.

And as I write this off the cuff, the thought of "winning" comes to my head. Is winning important?

I have encountered children (during the days my wife and I taught in Sunday school) who are absolutely "desperate" to win.

I recall an incident where I was playing card games with some children, and when one particular child lost, he was absolutely sulking and being a terrible sore-loser, demanding a re-play or something like that.

I need to reflect more on this. But my initial thoughts are that I shouldn’t allow my son to breed such a mentality.

Yes winning is good, but not to the extent that we become un-gracious and inconsiderate before, during or after the process. As long as we have tried our best, I’d rather be a graceful loser than a spoilt-brat winner who wins by unorthodox means.

I believe this is what Our Heavenly Father wants to cultivate in us too.

I just came back from Shanghai, hence the stale post prior to that.

So for the past few days, my wife has to take on additional duties to take care of our cheeky boy. I have no worries that she’ll handle well without me. And she did.

The only one little concern I have was that with me gone for a few days, my son would get used to the idea of not having me around, and hence not miss me!

On the day I returned, my wife brought him to the airport to pick me. And honestly, I was pleasantly surprised that when he caught the first glimpse of me, he jumped happily, screaming through the separating glass "Papa papa!"

My wife later told me that he said, "I wanna go hug Papa, I wanna go hug Papa!" while I was waiting to collect my luggage.

I am just glad that not much (love) was lost during the few days of absence. But I am also aware that time equals investment for our children. The more time we spend with them ,the deeper the relationship.

Simple theory, and no short-cuts. Out of sight, out of mind. I believe this is so especially for children.

(this is written by my wife)

My little son came down with a blocked nose and cough last night so I brought him to the doctor’s this morning.

While we were waiting at the clinic, we saw a lady wearing a pair of low cut jeans. When she sat down on a low stool with her back facing us, the back of her jeans went all the way down to reveal the “line” in between her buttocks.

My son stared in fascination. Knowing he was about to ask the unthinkable, I quickly distracted his attention. But alas, his attention came back to the lady with the half revealed buttock and asked, “WHAT’S THAT HOLE MAMA?”.

I was rendered speechless. I’m not sure how to start explaining the “hole” to him in a public place. Embarrassed (fortunately most of the people in the clinic were women), I brought him aside and told him not to ask. And thank God, he really stopped asking after that. I heaved a sigh of relief!

I am sure this is not the last time I get asked such an awkward question in public, given that my little son is in the “why this why that” age. So if you have any idea as to how to react in such situations, do drop me a note.

My wife told me my son was taught in school how to express their anger.

She got him to show me when I got back from work and my first impression was, “What a cute son I have!” Hahahaha….

Here’s how he did it. With arms akimbo and his face tilting skywards, he said through his pouting lips, ” I am angry!”.

And true enough, my wife said that on occasions when he was not happy with her, he would use the newly-learnt posture to express his anger.

Personally I think it is good that children learn to express their anger. They should be made aware that it is not wrong to be angry with things they don’t feel happy about . In fact, they should be encouraged to verbalise their anger.

Only that way can we adults find out the root of their anger and help them rationalise if the “root” reason for being angry is correct.

If it is “correct”, then we can empathise with his anger but at the same time gently encouraging them to simmer down. If it is “wrong”, then it is about imparting the right values.

The most important thing is that they DO NOT grow up bottling up their feelings.

Yeah…am being lazy with just this simple message.

NO!!!

When was the last time you said "I LOVE YOU " to your child?

I believe hearing those words from the parents brings a certain level of security to the child, provided they are not said out of duty/routine and with emotionless regurgitation.

Trust me, our child can detect whether our message is genuine or not. But there is nothing to worry too if we truly mean what we say, our child will know.

Do it with a hearty hug, a super duper peck or a pat on the shoulders. Tell me how you do it please!…It’s not about learning new tricks, but ways to express our love.

Do it the next time you see your child, DON’T WAIT .

Let me know if you have done it today ok?