A belated Happy Valentine's Day, 2011.

I would like to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day, if belatedly. I didn’t find time on the 14th February to post this, since it was, as many of you know, my birthday, too, and I was rather busy.

I hope you all had a great day, whether you celebrated it, or not. As for me, I am now officially one year older.

Some might be curious about what Tiarnan actually bought me for my birthday, after his urging for Transformers. In the end, he chose something more to my taste, if a little cheeky: a little book of quotations, on getting old! It was his own choice, not prompted by his mother. He just seemed to find it apt, for Daddy, “This is about birthdays.”, he concluded, “Daddy will like it.”

I do like it. Even if it is a reminder of the paucity of birthdays we all face (presently, anyway).

Thank you Tiarnan, for your surprising gift. Thanks to my other boys and my wife, too, for making my birthday a memorable one. In particular, I am pleased about the African restaurant Syahidah proposed – where I managed to have a truly unique meal, eating foods I have never eaten before. That is a memory I shall never forget.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

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

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Birthday of a Singapore Cowboy

Today is Fintan's fourth birthday. Yesterday, however, we celebrated it.

The party was held at Fintan's grandmother's house and guests included both relatives and friends from various backgrounds and races - including an American theologian!

The theme was Cowboys, since Fintan is rather fond of them. Thus Syahidah did her traditional thing and drew themed posters for the house: cowboy scenes, poster sheriffs, cactuses and general western landscapes. She also made up - or selected - a group of games for the kids centred around the Western theme: Sheriff's Badge (a game of pin the badge on the Sheriff, while blindfolded); Paint the cactus; Newspaper Quicksand; Shooting the cactus; Bean the Cowboy Hat; a Western Pinata Boot.

Although Fintan was not well on the day, he enjoyed himself surrounded by friends, getting involved in the games and being surprised by his presents.

It was almost impossible not to stop his fellow three and four year olds from opening his presents for him: their little hands piled in, the moment adults backed off. As it was, therefore, Fintan did not manage to get to open all of his presents himself. His friends were as eager as him to get inside.

When it came to the Pinata, everyone took turns to beat it - but the winner, in the sense of first to break in, was Ainan.

A queue of three and four year olds took turns to pin the badge on the Sheriff. They were all over the place. Ainan however, had his own method - and, although blindfolded, managed to get the badge exactly on target - not even off by a millimetre. It was quite an ingenious technique which he used - which I shan't describe lest I spoil the game or any variation, forever, for everyone. Let us just say that it worked well.

Both Tiarnan and Fintan found a favourite friend - a girl apiece (!) with whom they spent much of their time. Tiarnan, in particular, was very cute with his new friend, Chloe. It is clear that he is both socially adept, and socially at ease, in his little world.

Thank you to all who made their way to the party - and thanks also for the gifts, for Fintan. He much appreciates them.

HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY FINTAN!

Belated Happy Valentine's Wishes

Here is a belated Happy Valentine's to all around the world. I was a bit busy...it was my birthday, of course.

Best wishes all.

Tiarnan at the safari

To celebrate Tiarnan's first birthday, yesterday, we had a themed party - as usual. This time the theme was "safari". Tiarnan was dressed as a bird, with feathers all over and bird feet. I came as a tiger - as did Fintan - and Ainan was a cheetah, spots and all. Syahidah was a ladybird - red and black spotted. We were the "animal" family for the day.

Tiarnan was at first a little surprised by the appearance of his family - but soon settled down and enjoyed the party. He had some little friends over - and was delighted with his day.

The most memorable moment was when he sat quietly down looking at his bird costume and his bird feet, his face alive with the comedy of it all, in a big, wondering smile. He seemed to be thinking how funny he looked.

I am presently unable to upload photos but I will try to address this in the coming week.

Thanks to those attended his party, and for your thoughtful gifts (which he has been playing with all day).

(If you would like more tales of Tiarnan, or his gifted brothers, including scientific child prodigy, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and one month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)

Happy Birthday, Tiarnan!

Tiarnan is one year old, today. Happy Birthday my boy!

I will post a little tomorrow about his birthday, today.

Ainan's seventh birthday: a space adventure

Every year, Ainan has a themed birthday party: something a little different to mark the day out as special. Last year, the theme was pirates. This year it was Space.

Yesterday was November 23rd 2006. This was Ainan Celeste Cawley's seventh birthday.

The house was decorated in blues and silver-greys, which my wife, Syahidah, thought were suitable colours for a space environment. Hand-drawn posters depicted scenes from space - or instructions/information thought typical of a space-going environment. For instance: "Warning: Don't Exit The Rocket While In Flight", was one fun example. Ainan himself had a specially drawn "Nasa" shirt, with symbols and the peculiar way Nasa writes NASA on its spacesuits.

There were games galore: the favourite being "Wrap the Alien" - which was my wife's idea. It was a simple one and fun for the children: it involved covering their mummies in toilet paper so that they could no longer be recognized. Four mothers were good enough sports to go along with the game and enjoyed it tremendously. The children thought it was hilarious.

We had a set of hand-drawn aliens - which were drawn by Syahidah's sister Hanisah - which were used as targets in a game. Prizes were distributed for those able to knock them down.

The greatest fun was had using an unexpected guest in the house: the dry ice that came with an ice cream cake from Swensen's. The cake, which had Ainan Astronaut written on it, was made entirely of ice-cream and was cooled by dry ice, (frozen carbon dioxide), to prevent it from melting. This dry ice became the centre of the children's attention, who, under Ainan's guidance, dropped it into water, to create a ghostly mist rising from their cups. He also used it to demonstrate its potential explosiveness, by containing it as it evaporated, which, after a while, caused a BANG! as the container gave way and the gas forced itself out. Ainan thought this was great and proceeded to try it with all sorts of containers, creating a whole variety of booms. It wasn't a quiet party - what with Ainan's booms, and the children's shouts and screams - and the sound of party poppers going off. Ridley Scott's film said "In space no-one can hear you scream"...well a vacuum was no sonic protection in my house, yesterday.

A comic moment occurred during the "beat the pinata" session. As in Latin America - and America - I understand, we had a pinata - a shaped cardboard container, fashioned like the space shuttle. The children took turns in hitting it three times. It took about fifty or sixty blows to break into it. Long before that, however, as Fintan, three, took his turn - he ran off with the stick used to beat it, his mischievous laugh trailing him as he ran down the length of the basement carpark where we were - a whole gaggle of kids running after him. He was the youngest and smallest there, so it was funny to see this huge column of older kids running behind him, as they tried to catch His Naughtiness. Of course, they eventually caught him, and pulled it off him - but, for a glorious moment, Fintan had usurped the game's symbol of power: the "pinata stick".

There were about twenty guests and Ainan enjoyed his day tremendously, his laughter often to be heard, high above the tumult.

As is the tradition in Singapore (I don't know if it is elsewhere) - every guest left with a gift goody bag, put together by Syahidah.

I would like to thank my wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, for her inventiveness with the games and the theme: everything was her doing. I would also like to thank Hanisah Osman, for her drawings of aliens - and for the assistance of Sabariah (my mother-in-law) on the day itself.

Appropriately - and entirely without planning - Ainan's seventh birthday party - which had begun at 4.10 pm with the arrival of the first guest - finished at 7 pm, precisely. Incidentally, Ainan was seven, exactly, at the moment of his birth: 2:02 pm on the 23rd November, 2006.

I shall upload pictures later of the event - which you can catch if you check back in a few hours. Right now I am trying to overcome certain technical difficulties in doing so. (That is why I haven't uploaded photos for some time). After this is resolved, I shall try to upload photographs on a more regular basis. Thanks.

Happy Birthday Ainan!

(If you would like to read more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, savant, the creatively gifted, and gifted children and gifted adults in general.)