“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” – an excerpt from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan

The baby is growing beautifully.  Little Simon is nine months old now.  He is very much aware of his surroundings these days, making him a popular pastime with the other children and adults.  Every one wants to make him a funny face or, play peak-a-boo with him or, simply shower him with kisses. 

All of us wants to play with him because we love to listen to him laugh his hearty laughs.  He is such a happy baby.  He laughs and laughs, and never tires of it. 

Every regular activity to us is a new adventure to him. 

He laughs when he sees Brian tossing a balloon into the air. He laughs out loud when his father throws him into the air.  He laughs when I caress the palm of his chubby hand.  He laughs when Daniel plays peak-a-boo with him.  He is tickled when he sees trickling water. 

The house resonates with his laughter.  My being is joyful when the baby laughs.  His laughter is like a breath of fresh air.  The tainted world that I know of seems renewed, as I see it through the eyes of a baby. 

Today, my spouse asked me what had happened to the flashcards  he purchased years and years ago.

I remember the cards.  These were bought when our first child was born nine years ago.  My spouse had wanted to raise a genius, and so with much enthusiasm, he went and bought two stacks of flashcards.  One stack consists of various types of animals, and the other, fruits.   

The purple coloured boxes that contained the cards are long gone  but the cards are still kept intact.  They are being stored in  one of the drawers downstairs.  Lying untouched, they looked new, as if these were bought yesterday. 

Slightly smaller than an A4 sized paper, these are beautiful cards.  An eye catching coloured picture is printed on one side of the card, and the word describing the picture is printed on the overleaf. 

I used the cards on Daniel when he was around a year old.  This October he will turn nine years old. 

I did exactly what the cards indicated.  I flashed them at him.  Well, I cannot confirm whether card flashing brought out the genius in the boy, but I can surely confirm that practically, it was a messy affair.  He would only be interested for the first few minutes.  Thereafter, he would reach out for the cards in an attempt to put them in his mouth or scatter them on the floor for his pure entertainment. 

After a few rounds of gathering scattered flash cards from four corners of the living room, I took the practical route.  I stopped using the cards altogether.   

It seemed to me that my spouse had shown more enthusiasm purchasing the cards rather than flashing them in front of the child.  I reckon he had only done it once or twice with Daniel, and none with James and Brian.
 
I look at him now and reply, “Didn’t you ask for the same thing when James or Brian was around this age?”

He gave me the sweetest smile ever.

This felt like déjà vu.

The both of us had no patience nor persistence in using the cards on any of the boys.  It’s no wonder that none of them are geniuses yet.

Well, it’s still not too late with little Simon yet.  Perhaps I’ll flash the cards tomorrow.  Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

In the meantime, we are just too busy flashing our monkey faces at him trying to make him laugh.

Wishing you a great weekend!  Cheers!