The other evening, Robin came out of the boys’ room, quite amused, after putting them to bed. He could not wait to share with me his conversation with Athan.
So, he was having a little lie-down with Calvin on the mattress after putting the boys to bed (which I strongly discourage). Mr Athan became restless and upset and called for attention when he saw his papa and “gor gor” lying on the mattress. He wanted a share on the mattress too! This was when the interesting conversation between the father and son started. It went like this:
Robin: di (short for little brother in mandarin), ni ku shen me (what are you crying about)?
Athan:Â bao di di, ba ba (carry little brother (referring to himself), papa)!
Robin: bu yao bao, ni yao shui jiao le (no carry, you need to sleep now).
Athan: di yao xia, shui ba ba “gor gor” chuang (athan wants to come down, sleep with papa on big brother (Calvin) bed)!
Robin: bu yao, ni hen chao de, hen duo hua jiang. (no, you are very noisy, talk too much)
Athan: di xia! bao di di! di yao! (athan down, carry athan! athan wants!)
and he kept repeating himself …
Robin: hao, wo bao ni xia lai, ni bu ke yi jiang hua, yao shui jiao, ok? ( alright, i’ll take you down, but you can’t talk, have to sleep, ok?)
Athan: hmm (and nodded his head).
Robin: ru guo ni jiang hua, ni jiu hui qu shui ni zi ji de chuang, ok? (if you talk, you go back to your own bed, ok?)
Athan: (looked at his father with his most innocent look) di bu hui de! (athan won’t!)
Robin found this amusing as he did not expect Athan to be able to answer him this way. He really wanted to laugh at that moment. He seldom has such long conversation with Athan and so he has no idea how much the boy’s speech has progressed. He was quite surprised by Athan’s ability to hold the conversation and how he could answer in a logical way. Anyhow, guess whether the boy kept quiet and slept with the boys?
Of course not! He could not stop talking and laughing and he even poked his “gor gor”! So, he was sent right back into his own cot. Of course he protested, but the father just stuck to his word. Thankfully, the protest wasn’t long. The boy was asleep in no time.
Still talking about Mr Athan ….
We bought a single futon mattress for Calvin to replace his very old double mattress. This is part of the changes we are going through.
Anyway, I brought the mattress home the other day and left it half folded lying on the floor in the front living area. Robin and I were in the boys’ room clearing out the mess to make space for the new mattress. When we came out of the room, we found Mr Athan happily sitting on top of the mattress playing his blocks! He has climbed up onto the half-folded mattress (about 12 inch) all by himself and he must have found it very fun for, when he saw us, he slid down from the mattress and climbed up again. He thought it was a game. 🙂 We had a little trouble trying to get him to come down. When we asked him to come down, he said to us “bu yao xia, di yao zhuo zhuo de!” (no coming down, athan wants to sit!)
Well, this is the fun part of parenting! At least you get a taste of how little ones perceive their surroundings. 🙂