When a birthday is not a birthday.

Tiarnan is a boy prone to his own point of view. It may not be obvious what this implies, at first, but, in his case, it means that he lives in a different world to the rest of us. He sees it in ways that, perhaps, others would not.

Thursday, 20th January was Tiarnan’s fifth birthday. At least, that is how the rest of the world saw it.

“How do you feel being five?” asked Tiarnan’s mother, Syahidah, on his birthday.

“I am not five,” Tiarnan explained, carefully, as if his usually wise mother had unaccountably overlooked something, “Until my game comes.” He seemed somewhat put out, that it hadn’t arrived yet. His face seemed quite determined on the issue.

This seemed a very reasonable position, to Tiarnan. Clearly, the whole world had to wait for the arrival of his present, Little Big Planet 2, from my mother, his grandmother. Until that moment he could not possibly officially be five, since, he seemed to be reasoning, the present was his fifth birthday present – and so its non arrival meant, quite clearly, that he could not yet be five.

A couple of days later, Tiarnan rushed upstairs, in the morning, to his mummy. There was excitement in his eyes, eagerness on his tongue.

“My fifth birthday has come!”, he announced.

Syahidah at once knew what he meant, though he was already a couple of days past his fifth birthday: Little Big Planet 2 had arrived.

The wait turned out to be worth it. The verdict of my three sons on Little Big Planet 2: “The best game ever!”. Even Ainan thought so. My own intuition for why they think so, is that the game has a great variety of challenges in it…so they do not find it repetitive and boring, as most games are. They even said, most surprisingly, that: “It is better than Ultimate Alliance 2” – which had been their previous best game.

Anyway, Tiarnan’s birthday may have been a little extended – but he certainly found it enjoyable.

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To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

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