Those days, we simply prayed while he lie on his bed and closed his eyes. As he grew older, he started praying in bits and pieces on his own. He also requested that we pray for this issue and that.   One funny request I recall was to pray that he won’t grow up! (Of course footywife and I never said “AMEN” to that!)

Of late, we just need to start the prayer off with, “Dear Lord…”, and he would continue the rest of the prayers from there.

Few nights ago at bedtime, as per routine, I said, “Let’s pray.”

Guess what? He said matter-of-factly, “No need. I told GOD GOD {sic} last night that whatever I have prayed before, He would remember and I do not need to ever pray them again.”

Now I have dealt with “Blanket Approvals” in the corporate world before, but this is my first spiritual enlightenment about BLANKET PRAYERS!

And so happily she went one weekend.

When she came back, my son (who was not used to NOT seeing her for hours at a stretch) said,

” You don’t look familiar.” LOL!

My son was doing some coloring at the dining table and I was sitting beside watching him. Footywife and myself had noticed that over the past few months, his coloring skills had improved tremendously, especially in the area where he was supposed to “color within the line”. We were always lavishing praises on him for coloring well.

However in this instance, he seems to have lost a bit of confidence and did not seem to be in the mood to color well. He said, “I can’t do it”, referring to coloring within the lines.

In my enthusiam to encourage him, I said, “Com’mon, don’t give up”.

He immediately caught on the new phrase and said, “I want to give up“, and instantly stopped.

I just thought, “Fantastic… I had just provided that little bit of catalyst to promote despondence.” Hopefully it doesn’t create a lasting impact on him, but he had certainly learned a new phrase.

I just wished I had watched what I said.

One of the topic they touched on was money management.

It was recounted that my sister-in-law was trying to teach Jeanette how to count her money and get her change back after paying for  food during recess breaks. To which Jeanette confidently replied, “no need Mama, it is very easy!”

My sister-in-law was probably pleasantly surprised until she continued,”…. just let them count and return you the money!“

Any better advice?!

Then one day, when we were walking down a shopping street in sunny Singapore, a Caucasian boy with a pair of beautiful green eyes walked past us. The next moment was the killer.

Never in my wildest dream could I have seen this coming…. my son screamed out, “Papa, that boy is color blind!”

I did not know where to hide my face.

PS: By the way, do you know that while color blindness may be seen as a disability, some studies have shown that certain of these individuals could actually penetrate color camouflages better

He absolutely adores the character and has been asking my wife for her. No, not the toy Ming Ming. Nor the books on Ming Ming, but “I want Ming Ming“!

It seems like there are times when he cannot tell the difference between an animated characters and real characters. I have even shown him how the program was made (thanks to youtube) but he still wants his Ming Ming.

Worse, there was once he asked me to be Ming Ming! (Well I must admit I like to animate characters to him myself, holding a toy etc, and making it talk to him)

Well I hope the infatuation goes away soon….or else I have to be Ming Ming in the coming days…

Quite some time ago my little son came back from school and told me (while pointing to his chest) “Mama, Ms XXX’s chest is like the backside, got a hole”.

I nearly fell off my chair.

“Oh” I said.  “Did you tell Ms XXX that?”

“No” he replied.

The next day I went to school and stole a glance at Ms XXX.  Couldn’t exactly see the cleavage but the bosom does look ample.  My little son must have caught a glimpse of “stuff not meant for his young eyes” when Ms XXX bent down in class.

We were basically searching for items that start with the letters that were assigned for the given week.

Our little son has caught on a little of this “game” and started suggesting things that starts with the assigned letters. Of course he doesn’t know how to spell words yet. But the way he (and I suppose other kids as well) is learning is interesting and sometimes …cute.

An example is this declaration one day…”I know papa, scissors start with “C”!” (Get it? “C”sers)

We have a long way to go..:)

We both knew these were 2 of the more difficult letters most young kids will master pronouncing correctly last. But we just wondered when…

So imagine our joy when out of the blue one day, my wife noticed he could pronounce it properly in a one of the words he used. Just a few days before, we also noticed he could pronounce “V”an instead of “Ban”.

Now it is a matter of changing the habit. Occasionally he will still say “You TEE”, and we would both jump in “You SEE!”

Here’s a useful article for parents who are stressed out with their kids mis-pronounciation. Do not be so hastened to look for a speech therapist.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Pediatrics-1429/2009/2/Preschooler-t-pronounce-F.htm

“Parina” turns out to be be “Hazina”.

It was her birthday last week and all her classmates including my little son got goody bags.  When I asked whose birthday it was my little son’s good friend Dominic kindly informed me that “it’s Hazina’s birthday!”

Seriously I do not know how “Hazina” ended up as “Parina”.  My little son could pronounce “h” as in “horse” but why not “Hazina”?  Beats me.  The world of the little children is sometimes like an enigma.