Of Hunger and Hobbits.

My eldest son, Ainan, 12, has turned into a hobbit. No, that does not mean he has become short and stocky with furry feet – it means he has become someone who is ever hungry.

Yesterday is an example. He had dinner – twice. Then, an hour or so later, he started prowling around the kitchen, muttering: “I want food.”

He eats like there is a hole in the bottom of his stomach and the food is all just falling out, once swallowed. It is funny to see him like this. You see, when he was very young – from a toddler to a preschooler, he just hated eating. As a toddler he once even asked: “Why do I have to eat? The chair doesn’t do it. The table doesn’t do it. The towel doesn’t do it. Why do I have to do it?” He really didn’t want to eat.

Now, he is rather different. The end of one meal is just the beginning of another, for him. Like a hobbit, he has first breakfast and second breakfast. Last night, he had his first dinner, followed about 45 minutes later by his second dinner – and was looking for his third, within an hour!

I rather think he is beginning to grow. He is quite tall already for his age – at about 163 cm, for a 12 year old. I am curious as to whether he will one day be taller than me. He is certainly giving himself the fuel for such growth.

Happy eating Ainan! May you soon grow to be taller than your Daddy! Hopefully, though, you won’t be heavier...

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

A strange man in the house.

About a month ago, I called Ainan’s phone, expecting him to be at home.

“Hello?”, said a strange voice, one unexpectedly low.

I paused. I really paused, to listen to my memory of that voice because, quite simply, I didn’t recognize it.

“Is that Ainan?”, I asked.

“Yes.”, said the unexpectedly low voice.

It wasn’t. It really wasn’t the voice I had long known Ainan to have had. This was a new voice. In that instant, I came to understand that Ainan’s voice was beginning to break. It was a sad little, happy little, mixed emotions moment. My young boy, would soon begin the journey to becoming a man.

I cannot remember the rest of the conversation. What has stuck with me is the shock of realizing that Ainan’s voice was transforming into that of a strange new man, in the house.

I suppose I should have expected this, since my own voice began to break at around the same time, though perhaps a few months later, in my case, since I remember singing treble in my twelfth year – at least for much of the year. Ainan, by the way, is twelve years old, now.

Yet, even though expected, in the sense that all boys who live long enough, will go through this, it caught me by surprise, perhaps because all these years I had come to think of him as speaking in a particular way.

Now, that his voice is changing, I can’t help but wonder where it will end up? Will it be as deep as his father’s...or deeper? How tall will he be? His mother is much shorter than my mother...but he is rather tall for his age? Could he end up taller than his father?

We shall see. Ainan has embarked on a new time of change. A time in which he will become, in some ways, a stranger to the child we have known. In other ways, perhaps, he might become more familiar as he more closely resembles his parents.

In a way, this is a bit sad. I had become so used to the boy he was, that the thought that that boy will soon be gone and a man would be in his place, is an odd thought. I wonder what it will be like to have a mature Ainan around?

In a handful of years, we shall know. It won’t be long, now.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

On growing up.

Tonight, as I put my youngest son, Tiarnan, five, to bed, he remarked, eyes peering up at the ceiling, in contemplation: “I don’t feel like I am getting older.”

“Why don’t you feel that?”, I asked, quietly.

“Because you can’t see that you are getting older. If you don’t remember what size you were, how do you know you are getting older?”

His eyes appraised me in the gloom.

“Birthdays,”, he began, in self-consciously patient explanation, “are just birthdays. They don’t have five, six or seven stuck to them...they are just birthdays.”

I understood his problem then. The process of growing up was too slow for him to be directly conscious of it, without external measures. He didn’t feel he was getting any bigger. He didn’t feel anything much was changing. So, he didn’t feel he was getting any older. Then again, his external benchmarks – Ainan, his eldest brother and Fintan, the middle brother, were also growing, so, for him, in comparing himself to them, would not, necessarily see himself as getting any bigger...for they were growing too. He was always the small one. For him, time seemed static. He was ever the smallest, ever not any noticeably bigger , so it was quite fair for him to say that he did not feel he was growing older. He just could not define the changes that were occurring and had no direct means to measure them, for himself.

“When is my next birthday?”, asked his little curious voice in the darkness.

“Just under four months.”

“OK...”. He grew silent, thinking about it, perhaps wondering how he could prove his own aging, to himself.

Later, when his brother Fintan came into the room, he told him the good news, about when he was going to be six. Fintan absorbed the news in silence.

Tiarnan lay there, contemplating his own maturation. I could almost hear him thinking in the darkness, so intent was he. I left him to it, feeling that there was no need for me to be there. He let me go, in silence.

It is funny, as a parent, for him to express exasperation at his own apparent temporal stasis. For me, looking at him, I see a boy who has grown from a baby, in a very short time. Yet, I would agree that he doesn’t seem to get any bigger, each year (even though he does), because unconsciously I compare him to his growing elder brothers and the gap always remains. Thus, he seems to be perpetually suspended in this ever childish youth...whereas, in truth, he is growing and changing as much as any of them. Had he no elder brothers, we would see his change more starkly.

I felt, in his words, a yearning to grow up. Perhaps he feels the physical outranking of his brothers. I do not know. Tomorrow, perhaps, I shall explain to him that there is no need to feel so and that these years, he now wishes to rush by, will, in time, become ones that he had wished lingered, still. We do not appreciate, fully, what he have now, until it is long gone. So it is with childhood.

Sleep well, Tiarnan, my growing boy. You are getting bigger by the day, even if you can’t see it and know it. One day, you will look me straight in the eyes and say: “Hi Dad” – perhaps then, when you are as tall as I am, you will finally say to yourself, that you have grown up.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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

How to grow up fast.

Little children seem to grow up fast, from their parents’ point of view. Yet, as most of us remember, that growing up doesn’t seem half fast enough when you are a little kid. Tiarnan, today, came up with a solution to the problem.

My four year old son, Tiarnan was talking to his elder brother, Fintan, seven. They were in the kitchen, near the refrigerator, which, perhaps unseen by me, Fintan had probably recently opened. For those who haven’t read long enough to know, Fintan is the big eater of the three sons. He is also the biggest and strongest for his age.

“I want to be you.”, said Tiarnan, to Fintan, as he looked up at his much taller brother.

“Then,”, Fintan began, considering the proposition, “You have to go to my school.” From the way he said it, he seemed to think that would put him off.

Tiarnan was undeterred. “Let’s change places.”, he continued, focusing more intently on his new idea, “You become me, and I become you.”

I interrupted him, then. “Why do you want to be Fintan? Is it because you want to be bigger?”

“Yes.”, he said, simply.

Then the two of them raced off, continuing some imaginary game or other.

To my mind, this encapsulated Tiarnan’s outlook so well. Tiarnan is ever imagining himself as superheroes, who are physically powerful – yet he himself is small. So, something in him wants that power and strength for himself. He sees that Fintan has some of that: he is stocky and well built for his age and quite tall – so, for Tiarnan, a very big step towards his goal of physical power would be simply to become Fintan.

Then there is the more conventional side to Tiarnan’s aspiration: he simply wants to grow up and have the requisite attributes and skills (and size and strength) of an older person. He wants to zip through his childhood and get to a mature stage overnight. This is, of course, a common wish in many children. However, of our three sons, the wish is strongest in Tiarnan, perhaps because he is the youngest and smallest.

What Tiarnan doesn’t appreciate is how we see him. He is most endearing just the way he is, growing up the way he is and changing day by day, the way he is. I, personally, would not see him fast forward through any of it. Simply seeing him change gradually, over time, is a delightful experience. Were there ever a technology that allowed children to become “adult” in form, in a much shorter time frame, I, for one, would not avail myself of it, for my children. Childhood is short enough as it is, without throwing it away entirely.

That being said, the adult like quality of Ainan’s mind is also something I would not change. That brings its own pleasures. However, I am pleased that Ainan’s mental advancement, does not also mean a shorter physical childhood. It is good to see him grow, in the normal way, at an expected rate. It is, in fact, a good reminder, that he is a child, still, however bright he might be – and such a reminder is good to have, lest he be misunderstood.

Tiarnan will just have to be patient, as all children must learn to be – and wait for his own access of strength, size and power to come at the biologically appointed time. As he waits, he can, of course, imagine his own superhero status, all he likes. That, of course, is fun, in itself, to watch – but that is another story.

(If you would like 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.)

Unexpected meals.

My wife and I came home the other night, with some Mexican food. Ainan was still up and he expressed great interest in this strange cuisine. He duly tucked in.

I looked over at him, as he enjoyed this new offering of flavours, for he was eating as if he had not eaten at all, that night and asked:

"Is that your second dinner, tonight?" (For we had left dinner for him, before we went out).

He looked over at me, in silence and took another enthusiastic bite. Then he shook his head slowly and held up three fingers of his right hand, in silence. He was holding the fajita wrap in his left hand.

"Your THIRD dinner?!", I found myself, exclaiming, rather surprised at the capacious appetite of my slender son.

He smiled a little, as is his way: with him the littlest expressions are used to speak loudly of his inner thoughts - and gave me a little nod.

"Yes.", said my wife, Syahidah, in support, "They had pizza, after dinner, as well."

This was all rather a surprise to me. I can't remember ever having three dinners, in my own childhood. Or even wanting to have three dinners!

I remembered then, an incident, over six months ago, on a Saturday morning, when Fintan, six at the time, came into my room.

"I want my second breakfast!", he requested, with some urgency. He was hungry. He behaved as if he hadn't eaten at all, though it was probably no more than an hour since he last had. Anyway, I duly got him his second breakfast. I thought, then, what I think now: that this behaviour so reminded me of Tolkien's hobbits, whom he stated were prone to second breakfasts. It seems to me that Tolkien may have been observing his own children's behaviour when he wrote such. My kids have second breakfasts, and now, third dinners. I think this is a sign of much growing to come. Perhaps Ainan will not seem so young, for long...perhaps, given his evident appetite these days, he is soon to be growing rather fast. In a way, that thought is a sad one - for he seems to be growing up so quickly. It will only be a handful of years, now, before my "young son" as he was, will soon be a young man.

The funny thing about this is that all my sons are so slim (though Fintan is well-built AND slim). Yet, the way they eat, you'd expect them to be overflowing with excess flesh. I certainly couldn't eat like they do: I wouldn't even be able to muster the ability to chew on my THIRD dinner, never mind swallow it.

I had become accustomed to thinking of Fintan as the one who was always hungry, or seeming to be, no matter how much he ate - but now, Ainan, too, is taking on this characteristic. I think it is a portent. Soon, I shall be surrounded by towering young men, who once had been my little sons - and it all begins with those unassuming words: "second" and "third", placed before the names of meals.

I hope only this: that they stop having second breakfasts and third dinners, once they finish growing. Otherwise, I really will have BIG sons - in the worst possible way. For now, however, the food seems to disappear without trace: it goes in, but seems to have no effect. They are not fat nor getting so. They are not big in other ways, either. It seems that they are growing, day by day, without me being able to discern it, except, in retrospect, by the marks upon a wall. The food changes them, without me being able to see the change in action.

Happy eating, boys. When you are all grown up, you just won't be able to believe how much you ate as kids. This post shall let you know.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 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.)

A special request from the Cawley juniors.

A week or two ago, Syahidah asked our three sons if there was anywhere they would like to go, in Singapore. Their answer was unanimous:

"Mohammed Sultan Road, at 7 pm on a Friday.", they said, their bright eyes aglow at the prospect.

She thought this a very strange request. You see Mohammed Sultan Road is a famous nightlife area of Singapore. The Cawley boys at just 9, 6 and 3 years old were really rather too young to be making special requests to visit a nightlife area. To her mind, there flashed an image of her three young boys, out in a clubbing district, amidst the social whirl. It was jarring.

"Why," she asked, without the laugh she no doubt felt like making, "do you want to go there on a Friday night?"

"Because there you can see lots of Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Maseratis!", they replied, as if it could not have been more obvious.

It was then that she laughed. It was the boys' love of CARS, not nightlife, that was on their minds.

In recent months, all three of the Cawley boys have become interested in cars - and in no small way, too. Their speech is filled with references to engine designs, horse power, turbochargers, superchargers, acceleration, which car has beaten which car and so on. The funny thing is, even little Tiarnan, all of three years old, makes references to them. His tongue, too, speaks of "Bugatti Veyrons" and "Lamborghinis".

I suppose we should be thankful that their interest in Mohammed Sultan Road is such an innocent one! Then again, it was rather observant of them to notice the right time and place, to find supercars and sports cars in abundance, in the first place.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Today, I went shopping with Tiarnan, three. When we got home, Tiarnan helped carry the shopping. Indeed, he took two shopping bags from the boot of the car, having to use his whole body weight to drag one out. It wasn't an easy task for him, but he gave it all his determination.

He hefted the smaller bag over his shoulder, and carried the other one in his clenched right fist, leaning to the left to balance its, to him, humongous weight.

At that moment, he uttered the immortal words: "I am a man!"

I had to smile, but luckily, restrained a laugh. He didn't see my reaction, though, for I was behind him.

I accompanied my little "man", into the house, with the shopping. It was a sweet moment.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals.If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Happy 5th Birthday Fintan.

Fintan is 5 today. Happy Birthday, my son!

The tale of his day's activities will have to wait until tomorrow...but I just wanted to mark the day with this brief post.

Personally, I think it rather incredible that five years have passed since I first saw him enter the world. Now he is a big, sturdy young boy full of enthusiasms and well observed comments. How quickly it all happened.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind)

The child who wants to grow up.

Yesterday, Tiarnan was asked by a stranger how old he was. He said: "Abang!". This means he is the older brother. Tiarnan is, in fact, the youngest - and only 26 months old.

Later on, I spoke to him about his age, to see his reaction, as he sat on the ground.

"Tiarnan, you are two."

"No!", he shouted.

"Fintan is four."

"No!" he shouted louder.

"Ainan is eight."

"NOOO!", he shouted, loudest of all.

It was quite clear he didn't like to be the youngest. Tiarnan is a little boy who wants to be grown up, already.

We thought it sweet.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, Singapore, 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.)