生日 Birthday Green
2009.07
I do not recall anything special related to my birthday in my childhood or adolescent years. In fact,
my memory to my birthday events is down to less than five, four to be exact.
Birthday has been a yearly highlight for her as far as I can remember, after I became her mother. In my
adult life, I actually surprised my friends many times when I remembered their birthday. Came to
this self-realization this morning, I made a mental note to myself, whatever I am writing today, it
has to be related to her birthday, or birthdays.
She has been getting up herself ever since we came back from Italy, probably to the credit of the
time difference. This morning, I reckoned she was expecting me to wake her up. It is her big day.
I could not tell for sure she was awaken or not when I sit on her bed pretending to call her out
of her dream. She was deceptively motionless, but she answered me right away without opening
her eyes: "Do I look twelve?"
Several years ago, she woke up the morning after her birthday, complaining out loud: "I don't feel
any difference!"
We skipped the morning walk today, not because of the birthday. The mason will start their work
today. She had agreed that they should continue what they are supposed to do on her birthday,
including the gardener to fix the sprinkler system and the HVAC Jose to check the still-steamy-hot
bathroom floor. She does grow up now finally, I told myself. I was surprised to find her face
resemble a graceful young lady, instead of a cute baby.
Yesterday, in the car, I caught her sitting next to me, smiled a rare, heavenly smile on her face.
Strangely, even her overbite seemed not visible. The sun burn on her face she got under the
Mediterranean sun has been healed. It make me think of how much thicker the ground covering
vinca has grown during half-month long vacation.
"It is Tiffani's birthday". You should put it as your IM status message, in AIM, I mean. She sounds
exciting on the breakfast table. I realized that all my mental image change of hers are more of my
own wish than the reality. I started to lecture her IM status message is the worst place to put personal
information like that, because you have no control on who is reading it. "We talked about that in our
parenting group meeting". I ended with this knowing that it weights more than 100 sentences of my
own to her.
"What did you want to be when you grew up as you were a kid? I asked you on Monday, and gave you
five days to answer, you still have not." She pressed me one more time on this question. It has to be
the 1001st times she asked me in the past several days now. I am not sure she really wants to know
my answers or this is what really she is working hard in her head these days -- the days she prefers
"happy almost birthday!" than anything else to her ears.
I wished I was Larry King and knew how to ask great interview questions when I started to ask her,
"so how do you feel?"
"I feel no difference on the outside, but different in my mind. My mind is spinning, it is asking me
'are you eleven? are you really twelve?'"
Her eyes was fixing on the CNN news on TV, then she asked me if I was watching the program last
night. She was referring to "Black in America 2" with Soledad O'Brien she watched all night until 11:30pm
last night. I seriously still don't know why she was so much into those stories -- another thing new to
me, but I decided to let it drop then for the time being. I was just sitting with her, reading "Twilight" myself.
She was then sitting on the floor by my chair, with her head on my lap while I was typing this. "What
are you doing and why are you sitting here?" It was a funny place and pose she chose to sit. A puppy
would not be more like that. She looked up and broke into a sunny laugh, "you got a problem with it?"
"No". I chuckled and padded on her back.
"Be nice! It is not easy being twelve." She protested. How convienient, it used to be "it is not easy being cute."
---
the sea is blue and meadows are green
today is the day to shine into a teen
- Re: 【为人父母】生日 Birthday Greenposted on 07/24/2009
nice piece. thanks for sharing those beautiful moments in life. your girl is really smart and adorable! she has a good sense of humor. now i understand why you feel challenged by her test.
Happy birthday to the girl and congratulations to the mother! - Re: 【为人父母】生日 Birthday Greenposted on 07/25/2009
雪 wrote:
Happy birthday to the girl and congratulations to the mother!
me too.:))) - Re: 【为人父母】生日 Birthday Greenposted on 07/25/2009
雪、qg, thanks!
qinggang wrote:
雪 wrote:me too.:)))
Happy birthday to the girl and congratulations to the mother! - Re: 【为人父母】生日 Birthday Greenposted on 07/25/2009
RZP is a considerate mother, cheers for your daughter's birthday. - Re: 【为人父母】生日 Birthday Greenposted on 07/25/2009
Happy birthday Tiffani!
好温馨啊。
小雪,青冈,你们有女儿的,多写一点。现在我觉得养女儿比养儿子难多了,心理上的。虽然儿子问题多多,我在他身上要下很多功夫。女儿才8周,好像已经很懂事了,不能对她疏忽一点。
- posted on 07/27/2009
谢废名和阿珊!
~~~~
Several of my British friends had commented American in general are very literal. "They just can not get the jokes", one put it in such an "American way".
Tiffani is way too literal even on American standard. Comprehension has been one of her big challenges Tiffani has. I sometimes wonder where the problem come from.
Yesterday, she gave me a detailed account about the program she watched the day before -- without me asking her first -- about a black American doctor had gone all the way to Africa to retrieve a cure for her patient, who suffered TMBC (triple negative breast cancer), etc. She emphsized that the doctor treated the patient four time, but the cancer kep coming back until she got the solution from Africa.
"It is nice, isn't it?" she paused.
"Mmmh." I responsed,
"Say YES!" she insisted.
At the end, she told me the detail times the program would be rerun for people who missed it. "Like you" she added, "You were just listening, you did not watch."
Usually she had problem to retell a story for things she read or watch. It was like she was looking at books, not reading books. Even though, sometimes she can recite a whole speech, a commercial she heard/watch, or she remembers/tells some facts or words absurdly.
This morning on breakfast table, we were watching the discovery channel, a guy fled to a tribe and
the narrative was talking about the jaguar will follow his trial to the tribe after its previous failed attack.
"What is jaguar?" Tiffani asked.
No one answered, after a while, daddy said, "tiger".
I looked at him and then her, no facial expression changed on either of them.
"豹子?", I tried to help too.
Tiffani's eyes sparkled but it's gone before she chuckled. "but it is newspaper!"
"You should look it up." Daddy smiled, and said, "it is dangerous to know just a little."
"You don't know what is jaguar?!" I looked at her surprisingly. She has never been big fan of animal
world.
"A car?" she suggested? Obviously more confused.
"What is on the logo on that car?" daddy hinted more.
"Oh...!"
2009.07.26 - Re: 【为人父母】what is jaguar?posted on 07/30/2009
拍拍好妈妈的背:) - posted on 08/29/2009
谢笨笨!
---
Morning Reading 早读
(2009.08)
This summer, one of the tasks for Tiffani at home is to read out loud one article a day.
One morning I asked her to randomly choose her recitation in the speech book -- flip to a page,
whatever speech the page opens to, it is the one she is going to read.
I had my hand on a page already and got ready to open the book.
"No!." She stopped me in alerting voice. I felt a bit guilty that I forgot she does not generally welcome
changes.
I said, "you can be the one who picks it, just close your eye and open the book".
"What if it is one which we already read?" she asked.
"Then we can read it again." I did not want her to waste time too much time.
Her new excuse got me by surprise, "If a president says a speech again, the nation will fall apart."
"Wait, what did you say?" she repeated.
"Really!" She knew the book contains many speeches not from presidents. I was wondering where
that came from, almost forgot that may be excuse not to do what is on the schedule until I saw her
victorious smile.
I quickly recollected myself, "if God wants the nation to fall apart, then we'll have to face it, right?"
"How will a nation fall apart?" she continued, but sounded like she was really puzzling.
"That is another question. But if we don't know how a nation will fall apart. Why do we worry about if
it will fall apart now?
She shot back right away, apparently hiding more guns with her, "why can't we just do it in the normal
way?!"
"It is a normal way." I tried to sound with authority, then gave up a little too, "next time, we do THAT way
again."
"but WHY?", if I've not learned what rigidity is, I would have lost myself long before now.
"It is fun!!!! isn't it" I actually felt cheerful myself when I said it, and she liked it, and
finally, she flipped the book open.
I took out my note book and start took down notes about the above conversation. She leaned over to
look at what I wrote with great interest, and commented, "This is not how you supposed to take
nonfiction notes. I'll teach you how when Liberal Art class starts at 10:30am." (Fantasy again.)
---
The speech was Golda Meir "Stop the Killing." address to the Knesset, 26 May 1970
Keynotes from the speech:
"No small nation, no minor nation, can any only dwell in safety within its frontiers."
"The aspiration to peace is ... the cornerstone of our pioneering life and labour."
---
Choice brings life to rigidity. - Re: 【为人父母】Morning Reading 早读posted on 08/29/2009
rzp wrote:
I took out my note book and start took down notes about the above conversation.
真是个好妈妈!
Please paste HTML code and press Enter.
(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation