a girl in the world

finding beauty, pleasure and grace on the road less traveled

Guest post by Miss Cynthia Kwon: Baby Insight

I received this email from Cyn and asked for permission to post. It made me laugh/smile.

I was standing in line at the immigration office and there was this little baby boy and he was running around furiously. You could tell that he just learned how to use his legs and was still a little unstable. Anyway, he was running full speed for the door and then suddenly, he fell onto his knees. It was quite loud and all of us cringed because we felt badly plus we knew the wailing was about to start. But instead of crying, he just giggled and started going in the same direction crawling. It was amazing to me that his instinct was to keep moving forward and to not give up.

This little baby also taught me something else. After the run/crawl incident, I saw him run straight into a glass door. I have to admit, it was a little funny, and he did start crying after that for a little bit. Five minutes later, I see him running full speed for the glass door again and I am thinking that he is going to hurt himself once more. But right before he smacked into it, he stuck his hands out trying to push it away. Here he clearly demonstrated that if something isn’t working the first time (smacking into the door), do something different to try and get a different result. I don’t know how many times people do the same thing over and over again hoping to get a different outcome.

Babies are quite smart. How do we grow dumber as adults?! 🙂

And Europe is just a little quieter these days…

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Mom just left after her two week visit here in Europe! It was AMAZING. We didn’t fight! We didn’t even get annoyed with each other! This is great considering the last time we spent some quality time together in Europe, she gave me the silent treatment for two days because I brought us to the wrong airport and we missed our flight to Prague. Ooops! =) This time around, we didn’t lose our passports, we didn’t miss any flights and we didn’t get robbed. Dad must be so proud of us!

We explored London with Auntie Jose and Auntie Beth, who were visiting from Vancouver. They managed to be-friend every possible Filipino in Camden market that day. Discounts discounts! And then we saw Nice, Monaco and the Amalfi Coast. Just beautiful. It was full of laughter, nonsense and inappriopriate chatter. For those of you who think that my Mom is little Miss Innocent – DO NOT BE FOOLED! I am, after-all, my mother’s daughter. And what daughter does, mother did also…

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You can see our pictures from France and Italy here.


Things I learned from my mother:

  1. Always look your best. You never know when you’ll find a potential husband driving nearby (in his Ferrari, Bentley etc etc).
  2. It’s ok to wear revealing clothing when you’re running around Europe all by yourselves. For some reason, people are so much more friendly and willing to help you out!
  3. You can be a fashion model, anytime, anywhere. See examples here, and here, and here.
  4. Eight thousand foot gondola rides aren’t that scary. As long as you scream and freak out the ENTIRE way up!
  5. It’s OK to marry your daughter off to the first man who asks. Even if he is fifteen years old!
  6. It’s OK to talk to random people about anything and everything. It doesn’t matter if they speak English, Spanish, French, Italian. Just talk to them.
  7. It’s also OK to try to crack jokes, in conjunction with the tour guide. Example:

Tour guide: “The winding steep road that goes up to Anacapri can sometimes be considered dangerous. It has a special name. To Americans, it is called ‘Oh-My-Gawwwwd’.” [Insert laughter from the crowd here]

Mother interjects: “And ‘HOLY COW’!” [Insert silence from crowd here]

Next time, I will have to remind her that “Holy Cow” is so 1980’s.

Anyway, that is a short summary of how the last two weeks have been. Needless to say London, and Europe, seem just a little quieter these days. =)

In all seriousness – we had a great time. I am blessed with the most incredible mentor, supporter and friend in my Mom. =)

My Imelda Marcos moment

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We were cleaning out my closet last week and low and behold – I had 40 pairs of shoes in there!

My favourite: the space-boot on the left. I had to wear it when I thought I broke my ankle last summer. I got hit on in that boot, on my way out of the Notting Hill Carnival chaos that had taken over my street. The guy said that he appreciated how I matched my outfit to blend with the boot. I thought: “Why, thank you! I get that (fashion sense) from my mother.”

Hi, I'm Denise. I'm a writer, artist and photographer. This is where I share what I'm seeing, learning and making.
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