Like father, like son

When Fintan, four, was at the hospital, the other day, for his eye injury, the nurse weighed him on check-in.

She asked him to step onto the scales and pressed a button.

I couldn't see the readout - but she clearly could. From her face, it was clear that she didn't believe what she saw.

"Off the scales...it is not accurate."

Fintan stepped off the scales. She then pressed the button to "zero" the scales.

"Step back on again."

He did so.

It was quite clear, from her face, that the unsatisfactory number was there again.

I read it: "21.90 kg". That is 48.18 pounds.

She didn't say anything, but it was clear that she had a hard time believing it, of such a young boy. She wrote the number down.

I knew Fintan was stocky, but I didn't have a handle on how stocky. It wasn't until I got home and did some net browsing that I found some figures for comparison.

Fintan is over 48 pounds. He is just four years old. He is also Eurasian, not Caucasian (and therefore they tend to be more lightly built, in general than Caucasians, by observation of the ones here, in Singapore). Yet, according to a Doctor's website, I found, the average SIX year old Caucasian weighs in at 45 pounds. Thus Fintan, four, is 3 pounds heavier than a typical Caucasian, six.

It is lucky he is so robust, for he has a physical style of play that requires that sturdiness, for him to be safe.

In a Singaporean context, of course, his build is even more unusual. For children here are slighter than children in Europe - quite a bit so.

There is one disadvantage though. People tend to judge him to be rather older than he actually is, simply because of his size and build. This can be a social disadvantage.

It is funny to see Fintan's physique. It is a sturdy little echo of my own. He even has my bodily proportions. So, despite his Eurasian background, from his build alone, he looks like nothing more than a stocky Irishman. As I said, like father, like son.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Why marry a caucasian?

My wife, who is asian has the answer, as she told me yesterday: "How else would I have someone large to carry the heavy boxes?"

It seems I have a purpose at last!

The situation arose in preparations for my sister-in-law's wedding: there were a number of large boxes that no-one in my extended, asian family, was able to lift - and so I was asked to do so. It was funny that simple exertion could bring amusement to all concerned.

Public reactions to prodigy

Yesterday, I took a bus ride to town, with my son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy. For the first part of the journey, he talked science - a non-stop stream of scientific ideas, observations and possibilities. He is only seven years and three weeks old and of quite a slight build. I, however, could never be accused of a slight build and so, beside me, he looked rather diminutive. As he talked, I would nod at appropriate moments to show that I listened - and he would just patter on. I noted that the Chinese young man opposite and his girlfriend, had soon lost interest in each other and had begun to listen to my son. They commented to each other in their own tongue, and though I couldn't understand Mandarin, their gaze told me their subject: Ainan.

Ainan then asked me for a piece of paper and a pen. Thinking he might need one, I had prepared myself by bringing some. He took the pen and paper, offered, and turned away from the couple opposite and set the paper against the seat back and began to write.

If I was easily embarrassed, I might have been prone to cringe at that point for the title of his page, in large letters was: "Poisons that I know." In this terrorist afflicted age, what would my fellow passengers think of me, as a father, him as a son?

Ainan then proceeded to write a long list of poisonous substances. What was interesting about this is that he wrote them in alphabetical order from beginning to end: so he sorted them first in his mind, before beginning to write.

I looked up from Ainan's work and saw every eye within range was staring at Ainan and his writing. The young man opposite wore glasses and, with the resultant visual sharpness, was clearly able to read what Ainan was writing. He stared incessantly. So, too, did about half a dozen others. Ainan, oblivious to this, wrote on: chemical name, after chemical name - names that even I had not heard of, in some instances.

What was interesting about the onlookers is that none of them stared at me. I am living in Singapore where the Caucasian is a rare breed. Very few Caucasians ever use buses. One would expect them, therefore, to be interested in me, in my presence in their Chinese/Malay/Indian midst - but no, it was my son who drew their eyes. He did not speak loudly, did not shout his presence to the bus. He simply sat, reversed, in his seat and wrote chemical names on a piece of paper. No-one spoke. Everyone stared. It was as if, beside me, there sat a film star, so intent were they on Ainan.

The combination of Ainan's scientific conversation, followed by his chemical inscriptions had silenced everyone nearby and given them a unified focus of attention: him.

I have become so used to Ainan's ways that I no longer consider them unusual. To be confronted by such a public reaction of amazement, therefore, was something of a surprise - for it made it most clear to me how others perceive such scientific abilities in one so young. They were all, without exception, absolutely stunned.

He pulled the same trick on the bus back - so it wasn't the particular individuals on the first bus who were unique in their reaction - for all the people who sat near him, both ways, had the same reaction.

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