THE TRUTH

"Mama, Granny and Uncle Michael said that many news on the newspaper are not true.
How can we tell what is true?"
Iza asked.

Such a good question!
She hasn't asked why it's not true.
She wants to know how to figure out "WHAT IS TRUE".
I think, generally we can compare different sources and the reliability of the source.
But how about we have limited source or screened source?
For our children, the broader the base and source of knowledge, the more able they are to figure out the "truth" by themselves.

BEIJING

Eventually, I manage to put all selected photos of the Beijing trip together.
I think the photos of Vietnam takes even more time.

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"Is the Forbidden City beautiful?" I asked iza.
"...yes." iza answered with hesitation.
"Do you love to live in this palace?"
"No, it is not happy here." iza said.
"Why?"
"The King and the Queen could not live together."
In the Palace, King and Queen lived in different areas.
And the King got lots of wives.

BEIJING

We couldn't get any closer to the Olympic venues.
Only a distant view,
Still soothed our desire.



Iza was pretending to be a Water Cube.

BEIJING

CCTV-China Central Television by OMA.
We are moved when we see it.
It is so beautiful!

BEIJING

Food.
Not very local!

BEIJING

Gardens

BEIJING

Beijing Colors

BEIJING

A little dancer

Just finished packing.

Eventually, we can make our trip to Vietnam though only for 4 days.

This is a trip I'm longing for...

Tomorrow, we will take the 9am flight to Hanoi, then transfer flight from Hanoi to Nha Trang, followed by an hour car trip and 20 min. boat ride to the hotel.

It is as difficult as our trip to Naoshima island in Japan!

During that trip, we changed trains 4 times after the flight and before the boat ride to the island. When we arrived the island, we then took a bus to the hotel.

We were collapsed when we arrived.

And it was extremely tired for iza!

But it worths!

BEIJING

It is the Forbidden City!
Though it was a rush 3-day trip, we still striked for a chance to visit the palace and had a distant viewing of the Bird's Nest, water cube and CCTV tower (which is still under construction).



We have made quite a number of photos.
Need "some" time to arrange!

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I may be wrong.
Iza is not particularly interested in visual perception of things.
She is far more interested in what the Earth looks like.
On our way to Beijing, on the plane she asked me,

"Mama, is the sky of Hong Kong the ground of Beijing?"

Before this,
she has asked several times whether there are people living beneath the ground.
And,
more than a year ago,
iza woke up one morning,
still lying on bed looking into the ceiling and said,

"The ceiling of 2nd floor is the ground of the roof.
The ceiling of 1st floor is the ground of second floor"

At that time,
I was impressed by her interpretation of duality of things.
And, now I have a much clear picture relating her questions.
Her conception of the Earth is like a building.
The sky is a slab.
Therefore, it really bothers her why we always see the sky but not the other slabs of the upper floors.
Every time when I read about ancient people’s hypothetic model of a flat Earth or portraying the world as a flat disk afloat in an ocean,
I’m fascinated by what made them think so.
They must be very curious and hooked onto their observations.
There were a lot of imaginations and hypothesis.
But as modern people,
with technological development of the latter half of the 20th century,
the image of Earth as blue green sphere is so popular,
we need not to imagine.
There is no need for us to dream about what the Earth looks like.
We are “deprived” from the opportunity in creating our own concept of the Earth as the ancients,
I think.

But,
Iza is just like going back in time,
like ancients,
she has vivid imaginations and associations in forming the image of the Earth!
She keeps her precious chance in a thin line.
If Beijing was on the top of Hong Kong’s sky,
then the plane flying from HK to Beijing was the elevator!
How interesting it is.

I love Mummysam's school portraits and her days with kids.
Sammi was a full-time artist in her pre-kid days.
She is on the pursuit of bringing art back into her life as raising two children.
www.sammisofties.blogspot.com

CREATIVITY

Just unpack a postal parcel. It’s "The International Handbook of Creativity", I’ve ordered from Amazon. After 18 years, my interest returns to creativity again. "Creativity" was the subject of my final year essay.

18 years ago, I related it to Tao. Actually, this was not relevant to me; it was just an extension of my tutor’s interest. But, today it reveals quite differently.
Before, I "take off"; just note down my current conception on creativity. This will be reviewed after a few months or a year...

"Creativity is a habit, a thinking style and a life attitude.
It is a thought or behavior neither bounded by norms nor against the norm. But it is scaled against the norms. Creativity is a deviation to the norms.
Creative energy flows when your senses awake and become acute. It runs vertically and horizontally, it hops, it dashes around. It is autonomous. It shouldn’t be stopped or shaped. Visual images and sounds accompanied.
Creativity is not an excuse to not being non-practical. The realization of a creative idea demands the most originality and creativity. Courage is in its position to overcome the anxiety of unknown, uncertainty and failure. Convergent thinking is in charge of outlining feasibilities.
Many times, there are back and forth evaluations… like a loop.
Creativity is driven by passion."

Today, I’m moved by the vivid imagination of a child. This evokes my curiosity on development of children.
Noting somebody formerly without pre-set values is now in the process of shaping by set norms, social values and conceptions. The child’s queries on our world are so provocative. They will ask things that we are long accustomed to. Our senses become so blunt.

Wonderful illustrator of children's books - Shinichi Maruoka

www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~maru_xr/index.html

It's good to have papa responding in the blog.
Papa ziggy is now in Shanghai.
Tommorrow, we three will meet at Beijing.
Not for Olypmpic, but for project meetings.
Iza is looking forward to go to the Forbidden City (the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty).
Last time, the Palace was closed when we arrived.

+++

Iza was playing with papa on the bus to the Airport a few days ago.
We went there for viewing "Wall-E".



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+++

Iza was trying to avoid stepping on the tiny yellow leaves.
But she couldn't make it.
Children always set some funny rules for themselves while walking.



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After sunday school



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I seldom have Iza wearing in lots of different patterns and colors at the same time.
But it's looks great as she matches all these by herself.
She adds a green ribbon around her waist.
A sensitive balance!

I kissed Iza's head after our dessert this afternoon. I can't help myself doing this!

"Oops! Sorry iza, I've got some syrup on your head!"

She made a sign to have me getting closer to her.

"Thank you very much mama! "

Then she kissed my ear gently.

"Now you have syrup on your ear!"

Iza is a very good playmate!

A THINKING CHILD

Iza’s little mind is like an active volcano.
From the surface activity, one can tell underneath there is rigorous flow.
Yesterday, Iza asked 3 questions.
All have certain weights to me.




"Mama, can an umbrella be a fossil?"
"I don’t know."
"Can sugar be fossil?"
"Ummmmm…."
"Can non-living things be fossils?"
"I’ve never heard of it and I’ve never thought of this.
Maybe we can find this out on books…"

This is exactly what she said.
Is her "arrangement" of questions a coincidence?
Or it is her real intented flow of logics?
I'm stunned.

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"Mama, why all tunnels are in 'aaaaa….' shape?"
"Do you mean arch shape?"
"Yes!"
"Iza, you have a very good observation.
An arch can take up very strong loads.
Do you recall windows of very old buildings (in the west)?"
"They are in arch shape, and also the bridges."

It is the easiest to me among the 3 questions.

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"Mama, how did Heavenly Father create apples?"
"He just said let there be apples, there were apples.
Just like He said let there be light, there was light."
"What kind of race was Jesus?"
"I think He was a Hebrew…I’m not certain…" (From the Wikipedia I search this morning, this subject is far more complicated)
"What type of language did Jesus speak?"
"Hebrew? Hebrew. Yes, may be Hebrew." I'm not sure.
"Heavenly Father is not human being. What kind of language does He speak? If He speaks in Hebrew, how can I understand?"
"He speaks in all languages, including Cantonese."
"Did He create everything?"
"Yes!"
"Does He speak Martian language too? He created Martian, did He?"
"…yes…"
"Then poison is created by Him too? Why did He create poison?"
……oooooooo!!!

....................................................................................................................................

Iza is very interested in things about GOD.
Remember once I told her everything is made up of elements.
The first thing came to her mind was,
"Is God made up of elements too?"
She starts asking interesting questions on God since 3.
...

"Heavenly Father is the father of Jesus. Mary was the mother of Jesus. But … I don’t understand. How was that?"
...

"You always say that Mary was Jesus’s Mother on earth. She is not in the Heaven now?"
...

"That house is wearing a hat with a star!" She pointed to a church when she was 2.
...

"Heavenly father has a lot of homes. There are a lot of houses wearing hat with a cross. They are everywhere. " She was saying this during her way to school when she was 3.
...

"How did Jesus go up to Heaven?"
"How does He come back?"
"Why is He not coming back now?"
"When will He be back?"
...

"God made us. Who Made God?"
...

"We should all (all the people in the World) have a surname of Ah? Why aren’t we???"
In Cantonese, the first character of our name is our surname. Adam in Cantonese is AH DON.
...

"We all (all the people in the World) should look alike. But we look different, very different. Why?"
She is thinking of we are all children of Adam & Eve.
...

"Can sister marry to her brother?"
Adam & Eve were our ancestors. We are actually brothers & sisters, no matter distant or close! She wondered.
.......................................................................................................................................
Many times I think I will die fairly soon because she is going to use up my physically energy and my whole life mental power within these few years! I never think of so many difficult questions in my entire life.

Iza loves condensed milk.
Usually she will have it on bread for breakfast.
But today, she wants to put it into yogurt.
I let her try but reminding her,
"Don't mess up! Otherwise you should clean up by yourself."
When I walk away, I heard,
"That means I can mess up."
I turn back and ask,
"Do you say you can mess up?"
"Yes!"
How honest she is.
And, how bad if there is a loop hole in my logics.
I should be more careful next time :)

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THANK YOU

Thanks Lies for all compliments.
We are so glad to be mentioned by Anemonecrafts.
( www.anemonecrafts.blogspot.com )
Iza is happy to know there are friends, originally from Belgium and USA, now in New Zealand, visiting our blog.
And, thanks Vera for dropping by.
Believe that iza's "mind map" of the Globe is expanding!


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Iza wants to open up the toy mantis, to find out how it works.
But the head of screws are triangular in shape!
We went to a few ironmongery shops but only disappointment.
Eventually, we found the right kind of screw driver.
She can "dissect" her mantis!

Love this blog.
Beautiful works by a mother and her little one.
www.perdi-o-fio-a-meada.blogspot.com

Before I forget, I must write this down.

"Mama, do you see that?" Iza asked.
"What is that?"
"Close your eyes, then you will see." Iza invited me.
"Close my eyes to see something??" I wondered.
"Do you see sparkles? Sparkles like fireworks? Close your eyes tight, very tight!" Iza was excited.
"Yes, I see fireworks!!!"
"Are my eyes sending your eyes a post?" Laughted Iza.
I touched her gently on her arm and asked her,
"Do you get my post?"
"Haha...yes!" Iza replied.
"Your postman is working efficiently!"
"Yours also. You have a lot of postmen inside you!"

Little iza has a great imagination!

Today I share a silly thought with iza.
I then get a very "inspiring" response.
"I always feel that majority of people sharing different thoughts.
Only a comparative small group shares common belief, views, interest, behavioral patterns...
Therefore statistics reflecting majority is actually minority.
Minority is majority.
Statistic is just a number game, drawing an over simplified picture..." I mumbled the words "majority" and "minority" in English.

"Mama, then majority is the same as minority." iza said. The whole phrase was in Chinese except the 2 words.

Iza made this story book for me yesterday.
The title is " The Green World"... but she's using red!
The story is about a little boat sailing on a rough sea.
She only drew 2 pages.
She said that she will fill up the others day by day.

Love her orange stickers.

It's one of the blogs I visit everyday (http://blog-vdj.blogspot.com)
A visual enjoyable blog by Charlotte.
Jeanne (8Y), sister of Charlotte, is a model of her simple but yet beautiful clothes designed by this young talent.
I especially love to see jeanne outing!
Sometimes I feel like filling with sunshine, smelling breeze of south France..
This is also iza's favorite.
Sometimes she will ask me what's jeanne doing.

A great interview on Tiel Seivl- Keevers from Tsk Tsk by bloesem ( www.bloesem.blogs.com ).

I always feel the balance between being a mum and work is a challenge.
I really like her words:

"And I’m loving how I can combine the whole’ mum thing’ with the ‘work for myself thing!’"

Here is part of the interview:

"Does being a mom influence your work … do you notice differences in your work from before you were a mom and nowadays?
Oh yes. Without a doubt. I often wonder what will happen when the kids are older. I think my style will grow as they do. Often their interests influence my themes. I’m dreading the day where my children will hate me changing the art in their room all the time and they will want to replace it with stuff I hate!"

A smile inside my heart.

www.tsktsk.typepad.com