If you want to confuse your child, just ask her "are you sure" whenever she says no. A typical exchange goes like this: "Do you want to go wee wee?" "No." " Are you sure?" "No." "Then you do want to go. Do you?" "No." She stands her ground. But after a few of these kind of exchanges, she concluded, "Mama, does no mean yes?" I'd better watch out about what I been teaching her.

I Am  Not Hungry. I Want Some Cheese.

It's about dinner time. I was cooking away in the kitchen. Samantha approached me, apparently hungry, "Mama, can I have some cheese?" "No, honey, It's almost dinner time. You can have some after dinner." "But I'm not hungry. I want some cheese." 

Give Me a P Word: Palm Pilot

Her daddy were discussing his latest toy, a palm pilot with his friend. As usual, Samantha listened in on the conversation. A few days later, we were playing alphabet games and I asked her to give me a word for each alphabet. There were Giraffe for G, Alligator for A, Elephant for E, and Kangaroo for K, lots of animal names. But when it comes to P, she gave Palm Pilot as an example. I guess it's only appropriate for a kid growing up in Silicon Valley.

Home Is Where You Are Well Loved

I was reading a bedtime story, "Where the Wild Things Are", to Samantha. When the character in the book, Max, wanted to go back to where he is well loved, I asked Samantha where that was. She said "Home." I was both pleased and impressed with her answer. I pressed on a bit more and asked her where her home was. She patted on the bed and said "here". Of course she meant the vicinity of that bed. "So this is your home." I said and asked " is this mommy's home too?" Her answer surprised me. "No, your home is in Taiwan. You don't have  your mommy and daddy here."

Zero Effect

Samantha's progress report from her preschool indicated she did not understand the concept of addition and subtraction yet. Out of curiosity, I tested her. "What is one plus one?" "Eleven" was the response. "Then what is five plus five?" "Fifty five". "How about two plus two?" "Twenty two." I can see her logic: She is putting the two numbers together visually side by side. While snacking on "Rice Chex", I tried explaining the concept on addition by giving her some "Chex" pieces than one more piece and subtraction by taking away one or two pieces. She was starting to get it. As usually she loves to turn the table on me so she gave me some "Chex" pieces but instead of adding or subtracting, she took them all away at once stuffing them in her mouth then declared, "you have zero". She may yet to learn about addition and subtracting. She certainly knows the concept of zero.

The Little Diplomat

As far as I can remember, Samantha has never taken side. We as parents have been careful not to ask her to either, From time to time, I would ask her "do you love mommy?" The answer has always been "I love Mommy AND Daddy" with the emphasis on AND. Her daddy got the same answer when he asked her "do you love daddy?" Did we train her so well that she divide her affection equally among her two parents? I think we have a little diplomat in the making.