Every morning, when I picked J up from his crib and walked down the stairs, we would pass by the picture of Boat Quay Singapore hanging along the wall of the staircase. For some reason, he would always give it attention. Sometimes, I would pass by without stopping, and he would protest and stop me. He would always point at it, and I would name him the objects in the picture in Mandarin. I couldn't remember when I started naming the objects and weeks passed by...
A week ago, he could repeat after me the name of the object. Then he could point to the object, when I asked him where the object is. I would ask him where the boat is, and he would point to the boat.
Today marked a special milestone development, he could say a lot more things when he looked at the picture. When I asked him one by one where these things are, he would point out the boat and say "chuan", the bridge and say "qiao", the trees and say "shu", the clouds and say "yun", the bus and say "ba shi", the river and say "han", For some reason, he calls water "han". It is a word he invented. He would only say "he", when I told him so.
This is very special to me, because the picture was Daddy's present to me on my 30th birthday. I was very touched, and this present has a very special place in my heart, because I love Singapore so much. It also touches me a lot that J has a special interest in this picture, and that he makes an effort to say the name of the things in the picture.
Oh J, you are still so young, yet it is like you telling me, "Mommy, I know how much you miss Singapore. Mommy, I know God knows that too. Mommy, I know Singapore is part of my heritage, and I look forward to getting to know it". I am going to hold this very closely in my heart. Oh J, how mommy longs to show you the places in Singapore, the history of Singapore, the struggles of Singapore, the success of Singapore, the failing of Singapore... ALL about Singapore, the place where mommy grew up and called home... and still is. Oh God, it is like Your quiet assurance that everything would be alright, even though I am so far far away... Oh God, thank you for sweet moments like this. May You protect our little island Singapore and all my family and friends there forever.
I began to name the skyscrapers in Raffles Place to him as well now, but it will take him a long time to master it, because it is 4 syllabus in mandarin!
Today too, at breakfast, I heard J saying "tog" - train in Danish for the first time. He pointed to the train and said "tog" :-). He used to called it "nan nan".
No comments:
Post a Comment