Ay phone!

I got myself an Iphone, courtesy of my sister who let me pay for it in installment. So now I know why others are all raves about it- it's because of the many games you can install in it... kidding.

Though partly true, it's not just the games that give the gadget its appeal. There are others, like the multitude of songs, videos, and other applications you can store in it, depending on the memory your Iphone has. But for gamers, like myself, what else would constitute most of the applications you'll see when you scroll through the screen but, that's right, games!

And if the fruit falls from the same kind of tree, it's not surprising either for Paolo to be using my Iphone more as a game console than it's principal function which is as a phone. He now easily flicks his finger through the screen looking for the Hidden Expedition or the Flick Fishing games. I really have to be cautious not to leave it anywhere or else he might be running outside the house with and inviting his playmates to try the games themselves.

Blame it on me, of course, and I cannot but take it. I introduced him to the PSP, the Playstation, the Wii, the PC games, that learning there are games on the Iphone is not something that intimidates him unlike some adults who would hesitate to press or touch the sensitive screen for fear of erasing a file. The difference, however, is that adults know that that could happen unlike kids, 6 year olds particularly, who still cannot fully comprehend the difference between saved files and saved games.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Paolo has had his exams and we've gone to the school to get his 2nd quarterly grades and now, in a couple weeks time, it's gonna be his 6th birthday. Those were what have happened since last time I posted.

It's not difficult to discipline Paolo. What's hard is for himself to remember the things that he has to do and those he has to do at a later time. But for us, we tell him what to do and he does it. I think from his point of view there is still no clear anticipation of the logical consequence of the choices he make at a given time. For Paolo what is important is still the "here and now."

Take for example doing his assignment after coming home from school. We've already told him that when he gets back from school he could either take a nap first or, if he doesn't want to, he could go ahead and do his assignment. That's before watching tv or going to the neighbor's house and playing with Amos. But over and over that's not what he does. When Paolo gets home at around 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon he changes out of his uniform and goes to play with the 3 year old boy neighbor, Amos. Later that evening, when I heard about that I punished him by spanking his hand. It was what we agreed on. Before I left in the morning I told he was gonna get it if doesn't do his assignment first before playing after coming home from school. He knows me that I keep my word especially when it comes to him getting some punishment for breaking a rule or a promise.

What's challenging me now though is that it seems spanking him is not as effective anymore as it was when he was younger. After getting spanked he was even proud to tell me that he wasn't crying even though tears were welling in his eyes. One thing I wanted him to learn is to control emotions, especially anger and to tolerate some hurt. And he has done that. The concern, however, for me is that I'm not getting the reaction I was hoping for. So what I did was I made him write in three (3) sheets of paper the rule, "I will study first before playing." Sure enough, after one page of doing that he broke and promised not to forget that rule.

Paolo doing Ice Ice Baby

Here's another video of Paolo, this time doing the hip hop song, Ice Ice Baby.

Pao at Play

I thought of putting this video up...

Ice Drop.. Ice Drop... Baby

Here is Paolo at 4 years old liking his strawberry popsicle..




.. we were at the check out counter waiting for his mom with the groceries. Paolo has always liked, and still does like, the color red. He picked the strawberry flavored popsicle because it's red. See his shirt? It's red. He has a lot of red shirts.

Even at 4 years old Paolo has always had his antics. He's a comic by nature as you can see in the video.

To Make the Long Hair Short

Paolo sure is getting bigger fast. One day you were looking at him as so cute, and the next you'll be surprised that he seemed to have

grown up so fast... still cute though. However, there is one thing that hasn't changed and that is his penchant for making us wonder how in that yet small head of his he is able to conjure phrases and antics that would both render you speechless in disbelief and make you smile simply because he's only acting his age.

In this picture, Paolo has his hair short. One day I noticed that there's something wrong with his hair so I asked him what happened. He innocently admitted that he cut his bangs because he wanted to look like Harry Potter. Apparently, it was obvious that the awkward cut was not made by a barber, especially when you notice next his nipped forehead which showed underneath the uneven bangs. Yup, Paolo cut his own bangs hair and also slightly cut himself in the process.

After examining Paolo's work on his hair, the barber said it was beyond redemption. The only recourse to make his hair look neat is to cut his hair evenly resulting in an almost bald head. I guess I'm a better barber than Pao then. You see, when I was in the elementary grade I, too, cut my own hair where it touched the ears. I didn't do it to look like Harry Potter though. I remember doing it because I was afraid of being caught with hair length longer than what was prescribed. There was going to be a hair inspection among boys the following day and those caught with hairs touching the ears would get their hair nipped at the portion where it should be cut. Figure how each of us were differently motivated into being barbers to ourselves. Caution to parents, keep those scissors away from the kids.

Anyway, the almost bald look is not new to Paolo. It's just that his mom stopped liking it for him because he was looking like Robin Padilla when he was still maintaining the bad boy image. And Pao is his mom's little angel. Oh well, she can't do anything about it now. And neither can Paolo. Besides, nobody can really see what G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes' hair look like.

Kid Kuneho

You would easily know if Pao is sleeping when the car is quiet. What does that tell you? Well, just imagine the Energizer rabbit.

When Paolo wakes up in the morning it's either he snaps at you with "cookies and milk!" with his eyes still closed, or greet you with an energetic "good morning!"or, like when it's a school day, he would lazily get up, drag his feet to the living room, fall into the sofa and idle some minutes away until it's really time to prepare for school. Either ways, not more than one hour or maybe a minimum of 30 minutes after getting up Paolo will be flowing with energy he will begin to talk and that wouldn't stop until the evening when he falls asleep. And I'm not kidding!

One time I asked who's the noisiest one in his class. He suddenly laughed. It was a forced laugh but amused nonetheless. I asked him half jokingly, half knowing my suspicion is correct, "Maybe you're the one."

"Yes! That's why I don't want to tell you," he answered, still maintaining the laugh.

He knows it! He acknowledges and admits to the fact that he talks a lot. Oh well, at least he tells us that in class he doesn't talk at the same as his teacher. He says he doesn't disturb his seatmates during lectures, and that he raises his hand when he wants to share his thoughts with the class. Good job. Better is that he makes sense when he opens his mouth. Well, most of the time. But wait, that's just talking about his uhh.. talking...

When we got his grades for the 1st quarter grading period we got a chance to talk to his teachers and his adviser, Teacher Cecil. She told us that being the youngest in Grade 1, she has referred to Pao as his "Bunsoy". She told the story that during a break in class while she was talking to someone, a co-teacher I think it was, Pao came up behind her and slapped her at the back, but only to get her attention. She continued that when she turned around and saw him, he made face and said "bunsoy.. bunsoy.. bunsoy", and then he took off obviously wanting to play tag.

When it came down to talking about his performance in class, his was acceptable and may be said to be even more than what can be expected of him being a year younger in age for his class level. I was of the impression even that he did better in other areas/ subjects than his other classmates. I was shy to ask about class rankings and wary also because I didn't want to plant seeds of stress in me which later on I might unknowingly vent out in Pao for not being at the top of his class. What should be more important is that he is understanding what is being taught in class, and that he is developing discipline and other skills for learning. Which brings me back to the topic...

One of Paolo's teachers told on him that sometimes he stops and just refuses to continue writing and copying things on the blackboard because he is so sleepy. And that would explain why his other notebooks still don't have any writings on them. Naturally, being a concern about Paolo we then talked about how he is at home, what time he goes to sleep, and basically, why he doesn't seem to be getting enough sleep. Well, we told him that it was his fault. I mean, what can we do? Even if we make him go to bed early, say 8:00 o'clock in the evening he still keeps on turning about, asking questions and telling stories that you'd just realize it's close to midnight already and he's still awake. And that's not even considering that he did not take a mid-day nap. He is an Energizer bunny, I tell you.

After a couple months since then, when I see his teachers it's not a question anymore, it's also a proven fact for them already that Pao can just keep going on and on and on and on and on.....

Sly, Sleuth, Slick

The other day I called Pao at home from the office. I was going to check up on him knowing he would be having a unit test the following day. When he got on the phone and I asked him whether he had reviewed already he said "yes." I would like to doubt him because he has somehow learned that by saying "yes" to some questions it ends further questioning. Like at one time, he was watching tv but the condition was he should first keep the toys he put out in the living room. When asked whether he had kept his toys already, he quickly answered "yes" obviously not wanting to be disturbed watching Chowder, I think it was, on CN (Cartoon Network, that is). But then, when I went downstairs, lo and behold, he lied! Naturally, he had to pay for it. The tv got turned off, and he had to keep his toys.

Anyway, he sounded a bit convincing when he said he had reviewed already so I took his word for it. I then asked him what he was doing. He said he was watching Santino, a tv soap about this young boy who is shown to be able to talk to Bro, or what is made to appear as God in the show. Personally, I'm not fond of Tagalog soaps. Their plot is always predictable, which is the least of the criticisms I have for them. Exclaiming surprise and questioning disapproval, I asked him why he was watching that show. Of course, I knew also that his companions at the house at that time were our 2 household helps and his lola. With that, no explanation is really needed anymore, right? But I asked anyway.

Pao said he wanted to know more about Santino, a conviction in his tone. He said when he was at the mall one time, with his mom, he saw this shirt with a picture of Santino praying. I was stopped short from questioning his motivations for watching the show when I accepted the one good point going for the show which I myself cannot argue against- it teaches religiousity in kids. Now, who am I to go against Bro? Plus, I was also reminded how when I was a small kid I also used to follow Gulong ng Palad, also a Tagalog tv soap opera about a boy who was shown to be suffering all the hardships in life and overcoming all of them. And then there was also Flor de Luna and Ana Liza, two other soap operas, ... but hey, there weren't any cable TV then! And no remote control to change the stations from the couch. There was only that dial that you had to turn on the tv itself.

Anyway, back to our phone conversation...

"Papa, I love you," he then said.

Awww... Ok, you can watch Santino, I believe you already that you've studied your lesson already. Hearing those words from your child from just out of nowhere really makes a jello out out any parent pretending to be hard as a rock.

"I love you, too."

"Uhmm, Papa, on Friday are you going to give me a reward.. if i obey?"

Rewards and punishment. That's how I've been able to discipline him and motivate him into doing what I want for him to do. So, now he has gotten used to having a toy on Friday but only on the condition that he had done good in school for the whole week. But then, honestly, I'm also sometimes just using it as an excuse to buy the toys that I myself like. But then again, this is not about me.

He asked for Skids, the transformer motorcycle in the movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". I told him that I don't think it's being sold yet. He said he saw it in the Block, a mall north of Metro Manila. ANd then he followed it up saying, "Or maybe a Gormiti toy na lang." He knows how to provide alternatives already for his benefit!

And the ever doting father that I was, I can only say "OK".

Mental note: Check out Toys Kingdom at the Block before Friday for Skids.

Mach-5

"It's not about cheating.. it's about winning."

I know.. I know.. I know.. It should not be condoned. My laughing when he said that and my amusement at his remark might impress upon him that such thinking is uhhh.. cute. Well, what dyou know, a Machiavellian 5-year old.

But, to set the records straight, I did tell him that it's not good to cheat just so you could win. It being apparent that he knows what cheating is I asked him if he'd like it if he were called a "cheater" and he said "No." He's still young, he's just five, and I don't forget it. It was the first time he was taught that lesson but I know it would not be until he enrols in a Philosophy subject that he would fully understand this concept of consequentialism.

To SioPao

This blog is motivated by the thought of immortalizing the suprising, amusing, head-shaking remarks coming out of our 5-year old son, Paolo. Going further, I thought, why not share with just everyone else the other things he does which make me wonder how in the world did he come up with those.

Last Thursday, I brought him to the clubhouse to swim. We were the only ones there so we had the pool all to ourselves. He brought some toys, Gormitis and a few more similarly sized (meaning small) figures, which were placed in a plastic box. When we were in the pool, I suggested a game that I meant would practice his swimming skills. I gave him the rules: Each of us would have 7 pieces of toys and we would place them on one side of the pool, then we would get one piece and swim to the other side and place it there and then get back for another one until we get all our respective pieces to the other side. It was easy enough to understand and he excitedly agreed to play.

We were at the shallow, about a little above 3-ft. deep, end of the pool and we were ready to begin the game. He was the one who was going to say "GO!". At his say so, we played and while I was getting ahead of him, though also deliberately trying to slow down so he could catch up, he shouted "time out", frustrated that he was losing. I talked to him about it being just a game and we should just have fun doing it. After being convinced, he agreed to play again and we re-placed our pieces again at one side of the pool. But this time after he shouted "GO!" and I began tredding the water to the other side, he jumped out of the pool, got one of his pieces and began running at the side of the pool to the other side where we were supposed to place them. I raced against him in the water, going to and fro, while he also raced in getting in all his pieces to the other side. I was laughing the whole time that naturally he won, afterwhich he jumped in the pool happy at his victory. When I told him he was cheating, he answered "It's not about cheating.. it's about winning." And then he mocked a sinister laugh.