Relating with Rose Is Rose

This is from the comics Rose is Rose. My favorite character there is her son Pasquale. He's cuter back when he was 2, I think. That was when I first met Pasquale and Rose and her husband Jimbo.

My brother studied at a different school back in grade school and high school. Their school had a booksale nearby. He bought a couple of books, one of which is Rose is Rose. At first, I thought, "Man, this looks like it's going to be boring." If I remember correctly I even scolded him for squandering his money. We're only in grade school then! And he's 3 years younger than me! So at most he would've been only 9.

Eventually, after reading the comic once, I found myself reading and rereading it from time to time. And through the years, I'm finding bits of pieces of myself in Pasquale and bits and pieces of my mom in Rose.

There was one strip wherein Rose said, "Ok, Pasquale, if you must." Then she dressed up for rain outside, rushed out to the grocery, lined up for what seemed like an eternity, rushed back home. Still dripping wet, she gave Pasquale the bag of chips. Then she asked Pasquale, "May I have one." Pasquale, adultly replied, "Ok, Mama, if you must." hahahaha

That's probably one of the most critical things we have to learn while teaching kids. Now that I have a baby cousin who I get to see everyday, I am always reminded of scenes I once saw in that comic book. The scene I just narrated is just all too familiar.

What we do to him back home, reflects itself when he interacts with others or how he responds to us on different occasions. My aunt and I sometimes would try to discipline him by threatening to spank him (lightly, of course) by saying "da-da" (Chinese for "hit, hit") whenever he would throw tantrums. Little do we know how much he's been absorbing until we arranged a playdate with one of the managers' kid, who's the same age as him older by just a month.

He was playing with the kid and he wanted a toy that the kid's playing with at the moment. When the kid won the toy after a short tug-of-war, my cousin smaller by a few inches suddenly raised his hand and said "da-da." I was shocked and forcing back a laugh. I didn't look at my aunt but I got a feeling she's a bit appalled by the incident.

My cousin's cute as far as cuteness can go. But man, you have to have more than a PhD in dealing with this lil monkey. (He's born under that sign.)

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Here's another classic strip that I very much relate to:
http://www.comics.com/comics/roseisrose/archive/roseisrose-20060910.html

Back when we used to play bump cars, I didn't really understand the word "bump;" moreover, the concept of bump cars. That was my favorite carnival attraction though: It's the nearest I can get to driving a car when I was young.

I thought the concept was others would try to bump you and you have to test your skill by escaping those bumps (and headaches). When our minute's up, I would walk out proudly saying, "Didn't you see how great I was? I didn't get bumped!!!"

It took me more years, an older cousin, a nearly vacant carnival, and a ride-all-you-can card before I learned, "Oh the point is you bump them, they bump you, you all laugh semi-hysterically."

Fine, judge me!