A day at the zoo

I love the zoo but today is my third visit within 12 months, so forgive me if I get weary of it. I even brought along my copy of “The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing”. You know, a random thing to fill my mind and soul if I get down time at the zoo.

It turned out that parenting is an introspective journey. Today, I poignantly realised how different my son is from me. So we were watching the sea lion show halfway when he said that he had enough and wanted to go see the hippos. Subsequently, he said nope to seeing the lions because he wanted to reach the water playground earlier. I don’t know what his MBTI profile is, but I bet it isn’t ENFP. I was inwardly gasping. Why wouldn’t you want to watch something novel like sea lions devouring fish? Why would you want to skip the Lion when it’s just across the road from the giraffes and zebras?

But in a way, I admire his confident little spirit. He knows what he wants and I just take him to whatever animal/place holds his fancy and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to spend more time on the several things that he likes. I probably can learn from him.

Also at the water playground, he displayed his independence by not needing me around. I see other dedicated parents following their offspring around and am grateful that I can lean back on the bench and relax. Yes, I even read a few pages of that stock market investing book - this is my idea of fun.

But lest you judge me for being inattentive, I also did the dedicated dad thingy by switching off my mobile for a bit and feeding him watermelons while he pretended to frolic in the dirty water like a hippo. I would have kept the mobile off too but I had the urge to write. So here I am posting this on my IG and warning him not to climb up the water slide. “很危险！” I bark.

Another thing. I think PCF Sparkletots is doing an excellent job. Why so? Because no one speaks English to him at home but he can express himself decently in English, using vocab that surprises me. 4 year old toddlers can communicate their inner voice to the world. Language acquisition is amazing.

Now excuse me while I feed my boy watermelon.

Also, he peed at the urinal for the first time today.