She's probably asleep right now, nestled snuggly in our bed while H is braving Chicago's project snowstorm and I am comfortably trying not to think about having to go out there. It can't be that bad can it?
Anyhow, I know that I mentioned in the last post that Saya's starting to talk a lot more, up to a point where it makes our brains dizzy. "Mommy? Why does it get cold? Why is it light and dark? Why does it rain? Why does it snow? Why does the moon come out when it's dark? Why is that lady talking? Why? Why? But WHY?....." Although it can be exhausting at times, I have to give this one credit for being so inquisitive about scientific phenomena. I try not to discourage her for asking the questions. Instead of giving her half-assed explanations, I do make an effort to explain the reasoning to her.
"Well Saya. It rains because the water in the ground gets hot and become air. The air goes to the sky, where it becomes clouds. When the clouds have a lot of water in them, they can't hold it in any longer and they let everything out. That's why it rains."
Saya goes,"oooohh..."
Daddy adds,"See Saya. It's just like when you need to pee. You drink a lot of water and when you can't hold it in anymore, you pee in the toilet."
Saya,"OOOhhhhh..."
It just amazes me how a little child like Saya is already asking questions that I never thought of asking in the first place. Even when I was a young kid, I would just assume that the moon was a well-lit balloon that followed me everywhere I went. It never occurred to me to ask the adults what actually happened. So yes, as tiring as it is to come up with explanations for Saya's questioins, I keep on answering until I reach a point where I can't answer her "Whys" anymore. I figured that's a life lesson that we all often forget: that some things just don't have an answer and it's up to us to find those answers.
As much as I love science, I find that I'm not as creative as I want to be in the way that I think about things. I mean, given an idea, I can make things work. But to come up with that idea alone really takes a special kind of skill. Growing up in an asian household with strict parents, I was trained to never question adults. If we were accused of doing something, defending ourself or just the mere act of speaking to our parents would be met with a beating. I'm not saying that my parents were bad parents, but I feel that type of discipline could suppress a child's leadership qualities. I think that my siblings and I would've been really messed up human beings if it weren't for my mom's ability to reason through our actions and consequences, which negated my dad's beatings.
So I carry what I learn from my mom and years of education in psychology to my parenting with Saya. She's young, but already at a stage where she is defiant. Her auntie tells me she that she acts more like a teenager, throwing b*tch fits and getting upset when people talking about her. She's also very empathetic by displaying nurturing attitudes towards her toys and other members in the family. The other day auntie called Saya to ask her what she wanted for dinner. Saya asked her to bring enough food for "mommy and daddy." When anyone asks her who she loves more, she always reply that she loves "both." One day I caught saya rubbing some vaporub on her Hello Kitty stuffed animal. Saya said that Hello Kitty had a tummy ache and the vaporub would make HK feel better (she mistakes vaporub for tiger balm because of the smell).
So that's the update on my baby. Sassy, as always, but now more mature. If she acts like a teenager now, I sure hope that she will act like an adult when she does become a teenager. Such wishful thinking!
