Tuesday, February 12, 2008

conversation with imran


It happened about two weeks ago. The boy has picked up a new hobby of throwing pebbles into the tortoise pond at my parents' house. Except the fact that I have to pick up the pebbles every time just to give him the joy of throwing them into the water, I thought of it as a perfectly healthy activity for my boy.

But one day, he started to think outside the box. I was on the computer inside the house when I knew he must be up to no good as he was too quiet for some time. True enough, when I went to check on the cheeky boy, I was shocked to see my pair of high heel shoes and Havaianas thongs floating in the pond! I was furious at first, but soon realised that he is only innocent and needs to be told that he is not supposed to do certain things.

So, when I was washing his hands and giving him a nappy change, I started to tell him the rules, not realising that a 15 month old would fully understand me. I told him, "Imran, you can't throw shoes in the pond. It's no-no." His face was sad (the boy is very sensitive!). Then I said, "Batu and ball is ok. But shoe no-no." And then he looked at me and said "dindi?" I had no choice but to say, "dindi also no-no." His face again turned sour and upset, breaking up into small tears.

At that point I could only hug him to make him feel better. And it was then that I thought to myself that, oh my, this is the first conversation that I've had with my son! It was emotional and funny, all rolled into one!

* 'dindi' (for some strange reason) refers to any thing or articles like padlock, earings, remote controls etc