The Tooth Fairy

In the last week the Tooth Fairy has visited our house twice. Our son has lost his 5th and 6th teeth, both within a 3 day span. Both front, top teeth. They both had been loose for some time now, so it was definitely time for them to come out. He missed by days being able to sing the old song ‘All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth’.


He is not quite sure how the whole Tooth Fairy thing works, and has tried to explain it in a number of ways. The thing I have noticed is that they have such simple faith. Simple not in the believing anything they are told kind of way, but simple in the ‘this is how we have seen it work, so we believe that is what is really happening’ kind of way.

A few days ago when the first one came out, I helped him wrap the tooth in a Kleenex and carefully place it under his pillow. The Kleenex is to keep it safe and clean I explained, when it fact it really helps me find it in the dark under his pillow once he goes to sleep.

This particular night he got in to bed and about 10 minutes later he got up needing to go potty once more. While he was in the bathroom I made the switch of cash for tooth, hoping he would not check on the tooth when he returned to his bed. He didn’t, and went right to sleep.

The best part is always the next morning when, in wide-eyed wonder, he comes out so excitedly displaying the results of the magic of the Tooth Fairy’s visit.

Some would say we do a disservice to our kids by ‘tricking’ them in ways like this. I don’t think so. While I won’t say it is necessarily meritorious to do such things, I don’t think it is a negative thing. As I reflected on this experience, I began to ponder how God might view us. Does he see us as simple-faithed people who continue to believe Him because of how He has acted in the past? Or are we people who are easily ‘tricked’ by someone/something that is beyond our knowledge? I also pondered on how we as parents do many things for/to our kids that they simply don’t understand or see. In the same way, what things does God do to/for us that we simply don’t see or understand?

A few tricks left in this old dog

I am glad Christmas is over. Not because of any bad reason. For good reasons in fact. I had planned several surprises for my wife and kids over the season. Sometimes it is hard for me to keep things a surprise. I find myself itching to let someone else in on the surprise. I just want so badly to see the look on someone’s face when they realize the surprise. I love that part. But, I managed to pull off all of my surprises this year without spoiling any of them. One of my favorites was on Christmas Eve.

My wife had been in the US with her mom for two weeks and was due to come home very early Christmas morning. We had agreed that she would take a taxi home from the airport so the kids could sleep peacefully. We had the kids geared up for seeing mommy in the morning too. All expectations were set.

Just before bed time, while the kids were in taking a ‘tub-bath’, having had their dinner and then decorated the World’s Biggest Christmas Tree-shaped Sugar Cookies we had made earlier in the day as a surprise for mommy when she got home, I quietly slipped in to their bedroom and placed a ‘golden ticket’ on each of their pillows. I had made these tickets earlier in the week and kept them hidden from the kids. They said “Christmas Airport Express” on the top and had the kids name on each one with a few departure details, etc.

Once we had done the advent calendar I explained that they both needed to go to bed at the same time (normally one goes and then the other an hour or so later) so that they both had good sleep and would be ready to be happy for Christmas morning with mommy. They both agreed and headed in to the bedroom.

The girl saw the boy’s ticket first and asked what it was. The boy read the ticket and his eyes began to widen. I asked what they thought we should do with the ticket and his reply was ‘We should go to the airport and pick up mommy!” Then the girl turned and saw her ticket on her pillow, and there was much jumping and shouts of joy.

They both went off to bed easily after my assurance that I would wake them when it was time to leave for the airport. At 12:30 am I woke them up and told them to get dressed in clothes I had laid out for them, which they did quickly. We headed down to the car. Once in the car, I asked for their tickets, and made a big production out of ‘punching’ their tickets, having taken a cue from the character in the Polar Express movie. And off we went.

On arrival at the airport, we stopped in to McDonalds (there are two at our airport here) for fries while we waited for mommy to arrive. We then headed to the door nearest where she would come out and ate fries and waited excitedly. As the time for her arrival neared, I handed each of the kids a sign to hold, sort of like when a taxi or chauffeur is waiting for you at the airport with a sign with your name on it. The kids’ signs said ‘Mommy’ in big letters and my sign said ‘Wife’ in big letters.

She had no idea we would be there, so when she rounded the corner and saw the three of us standing with our signs, a big smile and laugh followed. As she neared the exit the kids went and hugged her. A truly fun moment. As we walked the kids told her the story of the ‘golden tickets’ and the trip to the airport.

We pushed the luggage cart (that we knew was full of fun goodies for all of us that she had brought home from America with her) to the car and got in. Before we left I asked the kids for their tickets again, and ‘punched’ them once more. I then asked my wife for her ticket. She said she did not have one. “Check your pockets” I said (just like the Polar Express character again). While pushing the luggage cart I had secretly placed a ‘golden ticket’ in her purse. She found the ticket, and the kids were amazed that mommy got a ‘golden ticket’ too. I punched her ticket and we all headed for home.

It was a simple idea. Take the kids to the airport to get mommy. It was made all the more fun for a few surprises like ‘golden tickets’ and so on. All easy enough to do, and cost almost nothing. Just a little creativity, planning and forethought. I love pulling off surprises. There were a few other surprises too, but those will have to wait for another time.

So what about you? Any surprises this Christmas season?

12

Today the number 12 is important. Why? Here are twelve 12s about me.

-Leah and I have been married for 12 years as of today.
-We were married in the 12th month of the year.
-Our kids’ combined ages total 12 years (7 and 5).
-I have been to approx 12% of the world (according to my Facebook gizmo)
-We have 12 employees in our company here.
-We as a company are working on 12 different projects right now.
-I have a car with a 12 volt battery in it.
-If you add the numbers on the license plate of our car (8547) and divide it by 2, you get 12.
-If you add up the numbers on the license plate of my motorcycle (9690) and divide it by 2, you also get 12.
-It was 12 years ago that we first came to this country to visit.
-I am not currently in any kind of 12 step program.
-I like Diet Coke, which comes in 12 ounce cans.

So there you have it. Twelve 12s about me. What about you? Any 12s in your life? Or another number?

What drives them?

I saw something the other day the reminded me of one of the reasons we love, and at the same time dislike living in a place like South Asia. It can be a fascinating and yet confusing place.

I was sitting in the car waiting for my son to get dropped by his school bus. Every day we park by the side of the road in the same spot, waiting for him. Just ahead of where we wait is a moderately busy intersection where a traffic policeman is often standing and guiding traffic or catching offenders. While sitting there waiting I often take notice of various cultural things going on around me.

This particular day I noticed a number of people who were breaking laws with impunity. As an example, I will use motorcycle riders. Here there are helmet laws for the rider (passengers are apparently not worth saving), as well as limits of only two people per motorcycle, etc.

One bike pulled up right beside me and stopped. I noticed three guys riding on it. One deftly hopped off the back and began walking while his friends causally rode through the intersection, with the cop standing right there, and waited for their friend on the other side of the intersection. All three did not have helmets on. As soon as the friend got through the intersection he hopped back on the back of the bike with his other two friends and off they went, totally unnoticed by the cop. They were obviously more scared of triple-riding than of riding without helmets. Or perhaps the logic was if they were doing both they would get caught, but only breaking one law at a time was ok.

Another bike pulled up and stopped near the side of the car. This time there was only one person riding, but he did not have a helmet on. As he stopped, he casually reached down and grabbed the helmet sitting between his legs and on top of the gas tank and slipped it over his head and then proceeded through the intersection. Again, all of this done in plain view of the cop, but no action taken by him. As soon as the rider was through the intersection off came the helmet and he was on his unencumbered way.

This got me thinking. What is the value system that determines how these people behave? Safety does not seem to be the priority like it is for some cultures. And it does not seem to be guilt that drives them since they clearly knew they were doing something wrong (hence their stopping before the intersection to correct at least part of the wrongful behavior) but kept doing it anyways as soon as the immediate danger of the traffic cop was passed. Was it expedience? Avoidance of an awkward situation? Did they somehow know that the thing they were doing wrong would be excused if they appeared to be at least ‘trying’ to do the right thing? So many possibilities, and so little understanding of what drives them to do what they do.

Where did you learn how to ride a bike?

Our son, aged 7, recently learned how to ride his bike sans training wheels. We had tried raising the training wheels up a little some months ago, but he has not ridden much in the last couple of months. The other day he decided he wanted to try riding without training wheels. We first tried raising them a bit more so he could try learning to balance, but still have the ‘safety’ of the training wheels to catch him. Within a few minutes he was riding all around on only the two main wheels, so off came the training wheels. It was literally minutes until he was riding all over on his two-wheeled bike, with a joy that knew no bounds. Incredible, really. It was like he simply decided that it was time, and knew he could do it.

However, this whole process made me realize one thing that was fundamentally different about my son’s bike riding learning process than most. Certainly different than my own. The big difference? He learned all of this on the roof of our house/apartment building, six floors up.

Now, before you freak out at the imminent danger we placed our son in while letting him ride on the roof of a 6 story building, let me clarify. We live in south Asia, where most buildings are made of cement and brick, and have flat roofs. Our apartment building has this, and the half of the building across from our apartment is known as a terrace. It is quite wide open and smooth and flat. And there is no animal or other traffic to contend with while learning to ride.

So, where did you learn how to ride a bike? On the top of a 6 story apartment building? I bet not. This is one of the many, many things we love about living here.

Culture, but which one

Recently we were the recipients of Asian hospitality. This is the stuff of legends for some. We were in Singapore for a long weekend.

In preparation for our trip, we had asked a friend of ours who is from there if she had any recommendations for a cheap, safe and family-friendly place to stay. That set the wheels of Asian hospitality in motion.

A series of emails back and forth between friends of friends resulted in a chain of things being done for us that was so totally above what we expected (or deserved). The net result was an incredible 5 days, being spoiled rotten with home cooked meals, outings to restaurants, being driven all over the island, and having gifts given to us and our kids, etc. All of this by people we have basically never met before. Asian hospitality is truly amazing.

After thinking about it some, though, I was faced with a question. It is definitely an Asian culture thing to show incredible hospitality. But, what we were shown was so incredible. Some of it, we realized, was due to who we knew. Most of the people were doing these things because they knew someone we knew, and were doing these things as much for their friend as for us. All of these friends were like-minded in terms of faith. So, the question – was this an Asian culture thing, or a Christian culture thing? After some reflection, I tend to lean toward it being a combo of the two, with a strong portion of it being the latter, but don’t know for sure.

Is it wrong to play 'fetch' with your kids?

My kids love to play outside. They also love to play various games while outside. Tennis in a favorite. Cricket as well. Sometimes we play other games like riding bikes in races, hide and seek, catch, etc.

The other day we were playing ‘tennis’. My son can hit the ball pretty well, and has reasonable control. My daughter can hit it if you toss it just right for her (read as toss the ball in to the face of the racket, timing the toss with her swing of the racket causing the ball to hit the racket, rather than the racket to hit the ball). When it was my turn to hit, the kids both went to return the ball to me. This quickly turned in to a competition to get the ball first, which quickly deteriorated in to me hitting the ball and them both going to ‘fetch’ it.

I play fetch with my dogs. Well, the one plays fetch, while the other one plays keep away. Playing fetch with my kids seems a little out of place, but they love it.

So is it wrong to play fetch with your kids?

Only a daddy

This coming weekend our family is going to go to Singapore for a few days. Long boring story, but it relates to our visa status here. In preparation for this trip, we were planning what things we wanted to do over the weekend there. There is an aquarium there that is apparently quite nice, and one of the things you can do there is to ‘swim’ with dolphins. This is an educational thing where you learn about dolphins up close, and are allowed in to the water to some degree with them in the process of learning up close.

When I mentioned to the kids there was a place to swim with dolphins, they were very excited. They then took off on a story of how this would all work. Here is there version of events to come.

“Daddy will swim out in to the sea and try to find some dolphins. He has to learn to speak Dolphin in order to be able to convince the dolphins to come to the beach so we can play with them. If he sees a shark, he will have to swim ‘jet-fast’ to get away, and try to find a dolphin to help him. If a shark comes while he is riding on a dolphin, then the dolphin has to jump high, ‘cause they can jump higher than sharks to keep daddy safe.”

While the above plan seems sound to a 5 and 7 year old, there are several parts that are worrisome to me. 1) Swimming in to the open sea is a bit scary. I like swimming, but open water is a different kind of swimming than High School Swim Team. 2) Leaning to speak Dolphin is not going to be easy. There are likely not as many ‘Learn to Speak Dolphin in 30 Minutes’ courses as there are for other languages. 3) Sharks? Ummm, about that . . . . . . . . .

When asked why mommy can’t be the one to implement the above plan, the kids response was that only daddy’s can speak Dolphin. How silly of me. I should have known.

So, we will see how the weekend goes.