Taikun update

Recently I found I am often touched by Taikun’s growth and developments.  He runs. He infuriates. He jumps. He giggles. He cries. He smiles. I am so fascinated by everything of him. I found I love him a lot, a lot, a lot.

Being a father is an opportunity to change myself. I spent hours and hours taking picture of him. Videotaping him. Capturing more static photos from the footage.

What kind of man will Taikun become? What is my role in it? While I am not perfect, am I able to cultivate a man who is better than I am?  

He picks up things very quickly. Whatever I do, he mimics. His learning capacity is simply amazing. He insists all three adults---A, T and me—to be with him at all times if possible. This morning, he somehow stole four pillows from a room and relocated them to the playroom. Each adult grasped one immediately but that’s not he wanted. Instead, he wanted everybody to line up sitting along the wall with him, with one pillow tucked underneath.

Of course, I was most remote—then he came to pull my hand, and dragged me to the wall, wanting me to sit down against the wall. Then, he returned to where I left the pillow which was several feet away, and brought that pillow to the wall, wanting me to sit on it along the wall! He is thinking on behave of me. He is caring and loving!

His language development is exploding as well. Tonight he approached everybody saying he wanted to see hóe-kim-ko͘ (firefly) outside. Then he insisted to bring three adults to the window. I peeked through the window, simply didn’t see any. Then he kept saying hóe-“ko”-ko͘, meaning he was seeing them. T securitized outside and concluded that there were some—just not as many as several days ago. What an amazing kid!

Also, I try to teach him abstract concepts, saying the word to say asking for help. A has been teaching him to ask help to open something. I, on the other hand, asked him to say “baba tàu-saⁿ-kāng.” Of course, there is an alternative “tàu-kha-chhiú” which I use less and I think I will teach him later on.

He is now able to ask to follow my lyrics of momotaikunsan and the talking-a-walk-outside song by A-má.

Here is the lyrics of MomoAkunSan:

Momo a-kun san,  Momo a-kun san, 

A-kun san, ióng-kám, kian-kiông, kó͘-chui, koh iân-tâu,

hó-hó tha̍k-chheh, hó-hó phah-piàⁿ, it-tēng khì ka-iû-chām*/Harvard.

*    ka-iû-chām (gas station): his recent favorite word. For example: "sàm-pō kiâⁿ ke-lō͘ " has been changed to "sàm-pō 'ka-iû-chām' ".