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Wednesday, September 3, 2008 Dear Koen, You turn 31 months old today. I've been receiving emails from friends wanting to know about a certain picture hanging on your bedroom wall. The picture was posted on your June letter.
The picture is actually 1 of 2 posters I created for your Mom as a Christmas present. Every year, your Mom and I have a rule of only spending a maximum of $10.00 on each other. I know, you're probably thinking that you can't buy anything meaningful for $10.00. Not true at all. The idea is to be as creative as possible. It's easy to spend a couple hundered dollars on presents, but can we create something that is meaningful with such a low budget? Plus, we would rather spend our money on presents for you, family and friends than on ourselves. I started with the idea of creating a few images and buying some inexpensive frames from IKEA for under $10.00 and giving them to your Mom as her Christmas present. Well, I made the mistake of talking to your Uncle Trey about my plan and my inexpensive idea turned into me creating 2, 18"x24" posters defining my definition of the words "Home" and "Love."
Last month, your interests were Fisher Price GeoTrax and Batman. This month, I am proud to announce you have taken a liking to one of your Dads favorite cartoons as a child... SPEED RACER! It started on a Tuesday evening when I got home from work. Your Mom had been on the phone with our ISP, trying to figure out why she no longer can see her email. Little did she know, it would take her approximately 5 hours to resolve the situation. Within those 300 minutes of your 2 1/2 year old life, I was able to assimilate you to Speed Racer. Don't get me wrong, I never planned to do this; it just happened. I needed to keep you distracted so you wouldn't bother your Mom. You had been playing with some Hot Wheels and Match Box cars that once belonged to me and your Uncle Greg. One of them happened to be The Mach 5; Speed Racer's car. To keep your mind off the fact that your Mom wasn't in the room entertaining you, I opened YouTube on my iPhone and decided it would be fun for you to see and hear the intro theme song to THE ORIGINAL Speed Racer. You instantly took to it. After begging to watch it for the ninth time, you began humming the tune and your head started bobbing up, down and side to side. Just in case you want to know the lyrics; here they are. Along with the video we watched over and over again. Speed Racer Theme song He's gainin' on you so you better look alive. And when the odds are against him Go Speed Racer He's off and flyin' as he guns the car around the track Go Speed Racer Your love for trains hasn't completely diminished. You are still into playing with your GeoTrax Trains. However, it's been some time since you've shown an interest in Thomas and Friends. Little to my knowledge, your Mom has tried talking to you about the new Thomas and Friends movie, "The Great Discovery" and the new "Track Master Thomas the Tank at Action Canyon" toy. This was a plot to try and regain some interest in your once beloved hero. One weekend, your Mom had taken the afternoon for herself, to attend a party with some friends. While she was gone, we played GeoTrax and made some videos. One video in particular confused me to no end. Can you guess what you are talking about? Since your Mom is your professional interpreter, when she came home I showed her the video and asked for a translation. Without hesitation your mom quickly translated, you were basically trying to tell me that you wanted to go see "The Great Discovery" on Monday which features the "canyon," like the "Track Master Thomas the Tank at Action Canyon" toy. The Action Canyon toy has a bridge that breaks and crashes. Your mom even pointed out, at the end of the video you tried telling me three times, that we should call Mom. Oh, and on a side note, did you also notice how you are licking your lips? Congratulations! You have now joined the ranks of thousands of kids in America who walk around with "Cool-Aid Lips" because of this habitual licking. Remind me to give you a gold star.
Towards the end of the month you had brought home a viral infection and gave it to both your Mom and I as a gift for being such wonderful parents. Thank You. It had been six months since you've last been sick and you were probably thinking to yourself that your Mom and I missed the sleepless nights along with snot, strung from end to end of our house like kaleidoscope spider webs. Aside from your new love for Speed Racer and my inability to understand your language, we've seen a big change in your sense of smell. You have gained Super Human Smelling Powers and everything to you is "Mabaho" (Tagalog for Stinky). Also, you now have a strong opinion on what's best for you. For instance, you have certain ways of playing, and if someone isn't playing your way, you make sure they know. What they don't understand is you are actually re-enacting scenes from a video or tv show regarding the toy you are playing with. Oh, and I can't pass up telling you about your strong opinion about changing your diaper. Basically, you would rather walk around Mabaho, than feel fresh and clean. After a few minutes of you saying "me no Mabaho" I usually have to make threats that I'm going to open the door and let the fly's inside so they can have a field day smelling the essence of soiled diaper. If you think I'm bad, your Mom and I used to tell you "the bad people were coming for you" if you didn't listen to us. Hey, your Lolo use to tell me the "Momo" (Tagalog for Monster) was coming for me if I didn't listen to him. Hmm, now that I think about it, I think he's used that on you a few times already. If you hadn't already noticed, your Mom and I have been teaching you some Tagalog words. Your vocabulary is certainly growing, but will be limited unless your Lola and Lolo step in and teach you more. When its time to eat you say, "Daddy, kain na." When something tastes good you say, "Masarap." When you are greeting someone you say, "Mabuhay." Here's one for you; "Koen, ikaw ay mabaho. Palitan natin ang iyong diaper. " Translation: Koen, you stink. Lets go change your diaper. So little man, what's next? What surprises do you have in store for your Mom and I this month? What else can I introduce you to from my childhood? Ultraman, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot or Star Wars? Just kidding.
Love,
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