You can never underestimate the energy and intelligence of kids nowadays. My pamangkins (Filipino for nephews and nieces) are the hyper-active types, they go restless if they don’t do anything at home. And when they tell me some of their ideas and stories, I am just amazed at the lessons I learn from them.
They grew up in a multi-cultural environment, so they speak mostly in English with few Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and Cebuano words. Being with them, playing around with them, is definitely one of the things I enjoy when I’m in Thailand.
Logic No. 1
R-vin’s favorite word for something smart or cool? Professional. He tells me, “I’m a professional.” One time I was trying to fry in the stove, but the pan kept on sliding. He told me to transfer it in the other burner, which was smaller. It solved my problem. I was thankful to him. Then he told me, “See, I’m smart, yah?” And I just thought, “oh yeah you’re a professional, of course.” He used to ride with me at the back of my bicycle when I pick him up at school, and one time he told me to pass by a difficult narrow path, I was very hesitant but he was so makulit (persistent), so when we finally went through, he told me knowingly, “see, I told you, you can do it!”
Logic No. 2
Anzel is the imaginative one. She’s fond of story-telling and one time she told me a story about a little girl, I thought it was from a book, but I later learned she made it up herself. I was impressed. So the next story-telling time, we took turns making up tales of foxes, fairies, princesses, fishes and birds. She would always tell me, “your turn!” after she does her share of wit. She even made up some story while singing it in a tune she just did herself. When her little brother R-jed would follow what she does or what she likes, she would become impatient and tell him, “Why do you always copy me?”
Logic No. 3
R-jed at three talks a lot. I think it’s because he grew up with so many adults and kids around him. When my Mom reminded him, “R-jed, I’m the mother of your Mommy, so I’m your Mama.” He did not agree with this and replied, “I don’t want to be your mama!” We laughed at first and told him, “of course, you’re a boy, you can’t be a mama.” But he still kept repeating it, and we couldn’t understand how he arrived with this reasoning. We finally realized R-jed got it from the sentence “I don’t want to be your friend,” and used ‘mama’ instead of ‘friend’.
I have my own share of childhood logic which my Mom used to narrate to us. She told me that when I was small, during one of our evening trips, I was observing the moon shining in the dark sky. I innocently asked her in Hiligaynon, “anong ngalan sina nga bulan?” (What’s the name of that moon?)This got her confused, and asked me what I meant. I told her, “You know, like February or January?” In the local dialect, ‘bulan’ is the term for both ‘moon’ and ‘month’. She had to explain to me that both words are the same but have different meanings and I confused one with the other.
Oh well, kids’ logic. Cute.
ahh so so cute!!! i remembered taking pics of them in that same soccer goal, swinging in the net.
murag ako gikuyawan nagtan-aw ni rjed gabitay-bitay! hehe
Well kids these are not only intelligent. They are getting taller too! My niece who is barely ten years old can hardly fit into children’s clothes and her Mom, my sister, had to get them at the teens department.
May second pamangkin went to Dubai last Jan 17. I missed him dearly. A seven month old bundle of joy.
It’s only now that I have the chance to cherish a relative—way to great to pass hehehe 🙂
cute pix and smart pamangkins! 🙂
would be so cool to be a kid again hehehe
Oh before I forget. You’ve been tagged! 😀
i adore children and got lots of pamangkins too. i enjoy just looking how they play….so innocent and curious…..
My youngest pamangkin is now l6 and her priorities are different that when she was younger, but having watched them all from the distance from the day they were all born to the day the are today, there are hundreds of fond memories, only us are privileged to experience from them. Now comes the great nieces and nephews and they are just as smart and even smarter. I think it is their innocence and curiosity.
Daisy: yep, I do remember those pics you took, they were a bit chubby then.
snglguy: must be the milk? LOL…
thanks for the tag btw, i hope to do your meme within this week, got busy again.
jef: sooo sad! so the family finally moved in to Dubai…
raine: yeah! being a kid again would be cool, now that there are more toys and gadgets to play with in this information age.
p.s. naa pa diay koy utang na meme from you wala pa nako mahimo… hope to do it soon.
curacha: …and their innocence and being makulit can be so heartwarming and amusing sometimes.
vic: with all your pamangkins, you must have loads of memories to cherish, huh. i do agree, the smaller ones are even smarter. 🙂
they’re so cute! tagal pala kyo sa thailand..kaya pala tagal mong tahimik 🙂
tin-tin: yup, kulang pa nga time namin dun… 🙁
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