Updates on the Fishball

Fishball, aka Owain, is always so affectionately sweet.

Like my knight, he defends me against all slurs - his daddy teasingly accused me of being greedy last night (In all honesty, I probably was being greedy, having polished half a plate of oyster omelette, a bowl of prawn noodles and two mega mugs of sugar cane juice!!) and my knight in shining armour immediately leaped to my defence. He growled back at his daddy: Don't call her that! Mummy is not greedy. She is perfect! She's the best mummy in the whole world!

Then last night, after all that food and a walk round the neighbourhood, I lay on the floor and drifted into a nap. Along came a familiar little voice that asked very solicitiously: Mummy, mummy, would you like to go upstairs to sleep?

I must have mumbled something and the little voice floated back: Can I get you a pillow for your head mummy? And the next thing I knew, I heard him say: Here mummy, I've brought some pillows for you. Lift your head up so I can put them under you... there, and here are some more pillows... (he placed one on each side of my face, effectively covering me under the cushions!)

Later when I roused myself and went upstairs to his room, I was still feeling sleepy, so I sat on the floor and rested my head against his bed rail, closing my eyes. He came in, full of concern and said: Mummy, would you like to lie on my bed? Its more comfy for you. I can sleep on the floor.

When I declined, he thought for a while and said: Mummy, here. Here's my pillow. I can sleep without a pillow. Let me put my pillow on this (the bed rail) so it won't be so hard on you.

I declined yet again and he offered me his comforter. I assured him I was okay and tucked him in nicely, told him a bedtime story before saying good night.

That's Owain for you - always considerate of others, full of TLC.

Its not the first time that he's thought of the comfort of others. Even KH agrees - wheneverOwain cuddled with daddy on the sofa, he would always make sure daddy was comfy, offering to turn on the fan, fetch cushions, position himself nicely etc. In school, whenever Trin cries (and that is pretty much every time she goes to school!), he would spend time with her, sitting with her, stroking her hair, trying to distract her, play with her etc until she stopped crying. My friend related this incident when we went to the zoo together with both our families. Her little girl was asking her about getting some apple juice. Owain was walking several meters ahead of them and overheard. Immediately he turned around and offered her his apple juice. "You can have mine," he said. My friend's daughter said no, but my friend was struck by his spontaneity and kindness.

He's really sweet, that fishball son of mine. I love him to bits! Everyone says I am very bad - picking favourites, but I can't help it. He's got such a loving, winning, sunny nature.

For the umpteenth time, I wonder what I did to deserve such a sweet-natured kid. Did nursing him for so long have a part to play? Was it because I practiced more attachment parenting principles with him, Cait and Trin than the rest? Whatever it is, I loath the days passing and my boy growing up. All these beautiful days where I am the sole object of his adoration will soon go. For now, I am, in his words, his "queen" and "bestest mummy". But once past a certain age all that loving affection and loyalty may end. So I should treasure it all while it lasts, and record all these gems of days in my memory.

Speaking of days, these days Owain and I have a project.

He's been complaining of boredom. Nothing to do, he says, its so boring! He would love nothing more than to play on the computer, internet games from Nitrome or Mini-Clip, but I can't have that all the time - hence his complaints of 'boredom'. Even those puzzle IQ games we've bought have fizzled thin with him. He hardly touched the Safari game and he finished River-Crossing in less than two weeks! To his credit, he is not a TV person and does not particularly hanker for TV-time. I don't want to pile worksheets on him either.

So I have been racking my brains on how to manage this - finding an activity that would stimulate, challenge him and keep him occupied?

Quite by chance, I hit on the solution. Eileen, the director from Lumiere Montessori, Owain's school, suggested letting him type words on the PC. So I went home and fleshed out the idea - not merely typing words (which helps him learn how to spell and how to read), but typing with a purpose. This also gives him something to do with the computer that is different from just playing games.

So we sit together and Owain tells me what he wants to say, I write out the sentences - nothing long, just simple ones like "I am five years old. I like to eat sushi." Then he types out the sentences, we plan the layout and the font etc and I draw an empty box. We print the page out. He then draws a picture in the box, colours it. When we get enough pages, we will collate this into a book.

The idea caught fire with him and his eyes lit up. His first question was: "Can we sell the book and make lots of money???"

Entrepreneurial boy. Okay, I said, but it will only make money if it is interesting so you've got to write interesting things in it and draw interesting pictures. He nodded, eyes shining in anticipation. We've started doing this already and we plan to do at least one page a day. I plan to gradually get him to think about stories, write them out and type them in too. Hopefully this project will sustain his interest for a bit longer! And who knows? It might just grow into a really big, nice book that records his thoughts and his days as a five-year-old.