One of the things that I’d like to do when Erik turned one was “抓週” (Zhua Zhou). It is a very ancient Asian tradition – when a child celebrates his full one-year birthday, the parents lay many symbolic things before him to choose in order to detect his future ambition.
We happened to celebrate el ninja’s first year birthday in Guanziling (Taiwan) and we prepared all the “symbolic things” such as books, first-aid kit, calculator, magnifying glass, candies, car keys, tools etc.
So guess what he picked? Surprisingly, he went straight to the screwdriver – good job kid! He’s making both of his parents proud – either he will end up selling tools for his dad or fixing the bikes for his mom :)
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Thursday, 5 January 2012
What's in the name?
Think that his life is already complicated enough with 5 nationalities and various ethnic backgrounds…might as well keep his name simple and having a name that can be pronounced by anyone (from his Asian great grandparents to his Ecuadorian great grandma). That’s pretty much the reason we gave him a simple 4-letter name: ERIK (with only K, not C, not CK either).
Erik has various nicknames, some of them were given even before he was born. Ninja, was given by his Tio P, who has been referring him Ninja (or sometimes Samurai) since he was just an embryo. 大炮 (pronounced Da-Pao, means “big firecracker”), was given by Aunt D, because he farted a lot and aloud as a new-born.
My dear uncle J had helped to name him in Chinese, by going through his time of birth and the number of strokes of the characters. 安得樂 (pronounced An De-Le), An is derived from his paternal family name, and De-Le, his given name, means "receiving happiness". Pretty much what I want him to be – always happy and I pray to God everyday that he lives up his name for the rest of his life.
Erik has various nicknames, some of them were given even before he was born. Ninja, was given by his Tio P, who has been referring him Ninja (or sometimes Samurai) since he was just an embryo. 大炮 (pronounced Da-Pao, means “big firecracker”), was given by Aunt D, because he farted a lot and aloud as a new-born.
My dear uncle J had helped to name him in Chinese, by going through his time of birth and the number of strokes of the characters. 安得樂 (pronounced An De-Le), An is derived from his paternal family name, and De-Le, his given name, means "receiving happiness". Pretty much what I want him to be – always happy and I pray to God everyday that he lives up his name for the rest of his life.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Boing Boing
We set up this Jumperoo for el ninja for a while but he never really liked it. Not until now, has he become mami's boing boing star!
Confucius is not Confused at all
This entry really has nothing to with el ninja, more of my own revelation. Watching el ninja grow and reflecting what I have done, I gradually found that our Confucius summed up LIFE (or his life) in the most perfect manner,
“ At thirty, I established myself. At forty, I was free from delusion. At fifty, I knew my destiny. At sixty, I could tell truth in all I heard. At seventy, I could do as I wished without transgressing.”
子曰：「吾十有五而志於學，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳順，七十而從心所欲，不踰矩。」
Our Confucius is not confused at all…
“ At thirty, I established myself. At forty, I was free from delusion. At fifty, I knew my destiny. At sixty, I could tell truth in all I heard. At seventy, I could do as I wished without transgressing.”
子曰：「吾十有五而志於學，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳順，七十而從心所欲，不踰矩。」
Our Confucius is not confused at all…
Monday, 15 August 2011
Dipping
It is hard to figure out where to go for vacation when you have a 6-month-old. After juggling with all the options, we decided that we are heading east (el oriente), the amazon.
El ninja behaved extremely well on the way, pretty much slept through the road trips. The biggest highlight for him was that he had his first dipping experience in the pool, and he loved it!! Couldn’t stop kicking his feet and paddling his arms.
Monday, 1 August 2011
Three
We were in the car, three of us, me, papi, and el ninja, and out of blue papi said, “I need to play you this song, it reminded me of us.”
Three is a magic number
Ya it is, it's a magic number
Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity
You'll get three
As a magic number
The past, the present, the future,
Faith, and hope, and charity,
The heart, the brain, the body,
Will give you three,
It's a magic number
It takes three legs to make a tripod or to make a table stand,
And it takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle
And every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less,
You don't have to guess
That it's three
Can't you see?
It's a magic number
A man and a woman had a little baby
Yeah they did
And there were three in the family
And that's a magic number
3, 6, 9,
12, 15, 18,
21, 24, 27,
30
Now multiply backwards from 3x10
3x10 is 30
3x9 is 27
3x8 is 24
3x7 is 21
3x6 is 18
3x5 is 15
3x4 is 12
And 3x3 is 9
And 3x2 is 6
And 3x1 is 3 of course
(now dig the pattern once more!)
It is a cute little song by Blind Melon. I thought that it was a new single, but it was actually written almost 2 decades ago. And it could might as well be a song for the kids to learn about numbers.
Three is a magic number
Ya it is, it's a magic number
Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity
You'll get three
As a magic number
The past, the present, the future,
Faith, and hope, and charity,
The heart, the brain, the body,
Will give you three,
It's a magic number
It takes three legs to make a tripod or to make a table stand,
And it takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle
And every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less,
You don't have to guess
That it's three
Can't you see?
It's a magic number
A man and a woman had a little baby
Yeah they did
And there were three in the family
And that's a magic number
3, 6, 9,
12, 15, 18,
21, 24, 27,
30
Now multiply backwards from 3x10
3x10 is 30
3x9 is 27
3x8 is 24
3x7 is 21
3x6 is 18
3x5 is 15
3x4 is 12
And 3x3 is 9
And 3x2 is 6
And 3x1 is 3 of course
(now dig the pattern once more!)
It is a cute little song by Blind Melon. I thought that it was a new single, but it was actually written almost 2 decades ago. And it could might as well be a song for the kids to learn about numbers.
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