Hannah and I had the following conversation just a few evenings ago.
H: “Daddy, after I bathe, can I watch a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode?”
Me: “Daddy will think about it.”
After a few minutes…
H: “Daddy, I love you. Let me give you two kisses!”
Me: “Awww!!!” Happily receives two kisses on the cheek.
H: “OK Daddy; I’ve given you two kisses. One kiss is one Mickey Mouse. I will watch two episodes afterwards, OK?”
Me: “…?!!!!”
As one of my old friends commented when he read my post of the above conversation, it’s not art any more – Hannah has got it down to a science! Our 4 year 4 month old girl still isn’t too hung-up on having her iPad or TV time and won’t go into tantrums, though she’ll increasingly ask questions of ‘why’ when she’s not allowed time on those toys. Last evening’s current exchange rate is 4 kisses to 1 episode now, and we’re already thinking of long-term inflation! Thankfully, Hannah is jovial, and able to give hugs and kisses to us or sit with us on her own spontaneity.
That said, we’ve had of late to deal with picking up after her at home. Yeah, the usual sort of thing parents have to deal with for kids with plenty of toys. The both of us are quite in unison in this regard. On several occasions now, I’ve told Hannah sternly that she is to clear her toys off the floor/table/bed and put them into their proper storage places – Hannah routinely will look quite chastised and immediately clear her toys. Ling has even taken it one step further. Just a couple of nights ago, she thundered at Hannah and told her – in no uncertain terms – that if she saw toys on the floor, and even if it’s her beloved Pluto, they were going straight into the trash bin.
Ling and I were also talking about how different has bringing up Hannah and Peter been at their comparative ages. We struggled quite a bit with Hannah when she was an infant, since we were new to parenting, and spent lots of mental energy understanding baby needs, and trying to get everything we did perfect and right for her. Ling mused that in comparison, she’s been able to enjoy Peter a lot more at this point. Might be to do that after Hannah, lots of things now come more intuitively to us and we are less immediately nervous or anxious when little issues come up. Like for example – when Hannah ran into any kind of temperature as a baby, we’d freak out and immediately make a beeline for his pediatrician. For Peter, we’d see what happens first, and if he can ride it out.
Pictures from the last weekend, and mostly taken on the 17mm f1.8 (apart from the pool picture).
There’s nothing wrong with leveraging your earnings potential! Haha!