I say the talent's there

On some weekends, the happy trio would just go out walking with our cameras in tow. My bugey's shots from October till this month have just been uploaded in our desktop. I'd say of the hundred shots he took, there were some that were really impressive and promising. So on with the mummy bragging: 

He took this shot on our walk home after a Sunday mass last October.
I like the perspective he used here. 

This one I like for the contrast. I'm not sure if he intended this.
But heck, I'm unapologetically biased. So I say,  he did. :) 

I'm really proud of this shot. He took this on a cold rainy afternoon
when I told him to find something else to do after watching two
DVDs in a row. He switched the TV off ( what an angel!),
 got his clic toys and wooden blocks, and made this cute house.
While trying to take a shot, I told him what Lakay had taught me-
to take pictures of toys (in my case, of kids)within eye-level of the subject.
My eager student got the idea in a snap, lay on the floor, and took this shot.  Bravo my love!

This one he took when we went to the nearby Arenberg Castle last October.
Lakay and I have our own versions of this shot.
The bugey joined the bandwagon. I like to show off here the
steadiness of his hands. And his sense of proportion.
Makes me really think that the talent is there. (ahrrrm, please agree!) 

This is a really great shot. Taken about three weeks ago
while we were walking visitors around the Botanical garden.
Notice how balanced it is? So proud proud proud of you my baby!

more on map mania

The map obsession is still on. But happily, it has branched out to other interests, too, such as:

1. A growing passion for football - of course it's all because of World Cup and the whole idea that you have to root for a country. Now, this boy plays football in our living room at every chance he gets. If you want to play with him, though, you have to have a country in mind, because he'd definitely ask who you're for. (he does this in the middle of a "game" with his friends in summer camp--picture them running, and him interrupting them one by one, with "What country are you ?" !?!)

2. I noticed, too, that he likes representing "teams" from countries that are virtually unknown or would hardly enter the world cup season: Seychelles, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Faroe Islands. - way to go my boy! Go for the underdogs!

3. He's also into weather reports now because he loves watching the forecaster moving the map up and down. While on the tram in Amsterdam, the little one picked up the free newspaper and started to flip through the pages while loudly asking for the weather report. Some passengers had to turn their heads in shock(?) - and I had to give them the look: he's-just-enthusiastic-about-maps-nothing-grand!

4. And because it's in the news, he also got an interest in other parts of the news (especially when a flag of a country would time and again flash on the screen). Sometimes--you ready for this-- he even chooses Euronews over Nick Jr. or Disney Channel. (Of course I wouldn't let him yet!) One day, Lakay and I were talking about California at the dinner table. Then out of the blue, the little one said, "Mummy,California was once a part of Mexico. But then, the United States 'borrowed' it from Mexico." At first I thought he was just imagining things again, and then after two minutes, Lakay and I realized that he was making sense. I asked, flabbergasted, "Where did you get that?" He answered, "In the news!"
* note to self: be careful now, mummy, because this seemingly naive boy can absorb things like a sponge!

5. I don't think he is aware that he is starting to dip into history, too. It all comes with having an old picture atlas (where USSR was still on the map, Czechoslavakia was still a country) and having a new world map. Since then he learned that things were different in the past (while he was 'still in heaven' as I would lamely explain whenever he asks why he wasn't there yet when, among other things, Germany was divided into East and West). For some reason, this got him excited, running back and forth the living room and his bedroom, comparing the old and the new map. Lakay welcomed this as a good development - because, thank God, it is also a physical activity.

6. I'm not sure though, if this is going way too far, now. Sometimes he looks at the rice on his plate and says that the shape of his rice is like the map of Thailand. The same thing happens when he looks up at the clouds. And when he eats m&ms, he chooses a flag first, and then picks the colors of that flag inside the bag of chocolates. Of course his favorite is Seychelles because many colors =many m&ms. Ismarty ngay!



7. But the best part for me, though, is that I have found a way for distracting him whenever the stubborn little monster begins to prop up. A while ago, he tried to talk his way out of sleeping by saying that he misses dad and that he wants to be with him in the living room. I said that he was being silly missing his dad. "I'm not being silly!" my drama boy replied. I said, "Yes you are! How can you miss dad when he's only in the living room. You can only miss people when they are so far away, in another continent, such as South America, or Asia..." "And Africa?" he joined in. "Yes, " I said. "And North America? And Australia? And Arctic and Antartica?" he went on and on, the "missing daddy" was completely forgotten. Case closed.

We went to the sand sculptures in Blankenberge last weekend. This year's theme was...that's right! Countries of the world! How very appropriate for this little one.

He was our tour guide, helping us identify the country participant through their flags.

Map Mania

I mentioned earlier here that my little one is into maps lately. It's been about 3 months or so, and that fetish has not waned, nope, not one single bit! In fact, it's increasing in a magnitude that I cannot even begin to fathom. What do I mean?

Picture this: when we go on a trip, the first "distraction toy" he'd choose to bring is Sansbury's Picture Atlas. He would go over the pages all throughout the train ride, talk us into his guessing game about "which country is in the left of Spain," or "what is the capital of Morocco," or "what flag has blue and white stripes with a cross in it?" This caught the attention of passengers who cannot help but listen in awe to the loud excitement of this bright little boy. But this is also to the detriment of his mom and her geographically challenged mind (I actually thought that Oslo is the capital of Sweden!)

Ok, so he knows the capital of almost every country you'd ask him (some of them, I've never even heard of until now!) and tell in what part of the world this or that country can be found. He can also identify to which country each flag belongs. Hence, the World Cup gets him so excited with all those flag-themed costumes and masks of fans.

Of course I worry that his brain development is just too fast for his age. And of course I am aware that this might mean that his physical-motor development would be relatively neglected. That's why I make an extra effort to impose motor activities on his play time.

But what is a parent to do if one's boy is just so in love with maps and flags and capitals and countries. I bring out his lego blocks and he comes up with the brilliant idea of making flags out of blocks. I buy him a play-doh and all he wants to do with it is make a 3-D map of Europe or Africa. I bring out papers, crayons and scissors, and--aargh--flags again!

Dora's singing Map is at the root of all these, compounded by that one moment when his lolo showed to him where his plane would be flying on his way home to the Philippines. The fact that many of his classmates and friends come from different regions in the world didn't help in lessening this obsession with maps. He'd come home from school and share that so and so went home to Nepal, or this other classmate is now in India, or this or that tita will be going to Greece, Peru, Suriname...Next thing I knew, he would choose Sansbury Atlas for his bedtime story (I had to explain to him time and again that the book is not a story book!!!)

The day came when Lakay and I just decided to let him be. In the first place, we didn't force this down his throat. It all just came out so naturally. All that's left for us to do is support him in his development, stimulate his interests some more (Lakay recently bought a much bigger map, to my little one's delight!) and we'll see from there where this goes.

This, of course, means, we will have to be more patient and cooperative whenever he'd start out with his "What is the capital of....?"(Breakfast at that!)

For in the end, his parents, with all their unused and aging neurons, are the ones being helped here.

The map of Poland, Belarus and Russian Federation (he says: Fersheration!)

The other map: Norway, Sweden, Finland