Aiden Adorable

                          Gather round and listen to the tale of the mispronounced "Seyfried"

I find five year olds to be the apex of cuteness, my grandson no exception. They are old enough to be very verbal and capable of much more complex thought than their toddler counterparts, but are not yet self-conscious or self-editing, so what they blurt is what you get. They are riding their bikes now (more freedom), but still need those training wheels (continue to need lots of support). Every day is an exciting adventure, be it an ice cream outing or a trip to the park, and if you don’t go (or even if you do) you will later be treated to a play-by-play of all the action.

They have friends now, friends of their choice and not just the convenient offspring of their mom’s buddies. But this also means periodic heartache, as those friends sometimes snub them on the bus, or say cutting things to them in the cafeteria. In addition to the kindergarten drama, they are learning to write and spell and count and read and follow directions and a million and one other skills they will need to navigate the challenging grownup world. Whew!

In any event, we are really enjoying Aiden this year. He is funny and outgoing and imaginative. His big thing nowadays is performing “magic tricks” for us (his version: he tells us all to close our eyes. Then he does whatever he’s going to do with the coin or whatever, then tells us to open our eyes again. Where did the object go? Amazing!) My favorite part of this whole routine is the finale, when we applaud and he says, with a bow and flourish, “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for clapping. Thank you.”

Aiden is learning to write his Chinese characters from his mama, who works diligently to make sure he and Peter know their Taiwanese heritage, language and culture. He seems to switch seamlessly between Mandarin and English, but understands that it is pretty fruitless to converse in the former with non-Chinese speakers. When an American visitor asks him to say something in Chinese, Aiden shakes his head and says, politely, “No, this is an English house.”

In January, Sher and Yaj will take the boys on their annual visit to Taipei, and they’ll be gone several weeks. This is such a good thing, as they will continue to build relationships with their other grandparents, aunts and cousins. But I will miss them terribly as I always do, and long for them to return. This year, I expect to get a FULL report from Number One Grandson, and I can’t wait to hear.

I’ll be helping this year in Aiden’s kindergarten class. In the 20 years since Julie attended the same school (with the same wonderful teacher, Ms. Irvin), much has changed. But I am guessing that all the fives will still be as adorable as always. I promise to try not to be partial to mine.

All bets are off if he does his magic tricks, though.

My happy (half) Chinese character!