Back to Work in late February 2010

Horrors

What fresh horrors await me today as I return to work after my mid-week weekend?  Actually, I wish there were many fresh horrors awaiting me.  Things have been slow at the school lately.  Horrors mean staying busy and staying out of trouble.

If anyone asks me how my mid-week weekend was, I'd say I got to spend quality time with the son, and I would be truthful if I was able to say so.

Most Favored Parent Status

As far as my son Tony goes, that status belongs to his mother, as it should be.  Jenny does all the work -- she runs the Tony show.  I just have the benefits of showing him off to the world.

But my wife lately has been saying that Tony and I have been closer.  She reckons that is because Tony is starting to see the benefits of playing one parent off another.  She is the hard ass when it comes to laying down the law; I seem to yield more readily to his demands.

Yesterday, Tony did something that was touching and perplexing to me.  Walking into the living room, Tony screamed "Daddy!  Daddy!  Daddy!" at me, and then gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.  As I said it was touching -- heck, it brought tears to my eyes.  I reported this to my wife and she said Tony had done this to her as well and that in the particular situation he was pleased with me because I was turning on the DVD player for him and his mother hadn't.

Parks in the Hui Shan area: a pattern develops

Taking Tony for a quality trek around the countryside area near our apartment yesterday, I happened to come upon two parks built on a similar idea.  These parks have buildings beside an artificial lake.  The buildings have a restaurant therein. The idea being to offer those who can afford, a dining atmosphere near a lake

At both parks I went I saw the cooks fishing.  Whether, they were catching fish for the evening's menu or whether the cooks were bored is an open question for me.  I have no idea what the demand among Wuxi's well-heeled is for a dining experience in a park.

Getting into everything...

The past two days, Tony has noticeably raised the level of his curiosity about things, ignoring his parents' admonitions and physical blockings that have tried to get him to stop.