A Very Sweet Moment

Sometimes my son still surprises me.

Over the weekend, we had our weekly Skype session with Kai’s grandparents in Japan. Depending on his mood, Kai can be quite talkative with Jiji and Baba.

As his grandparents speak very little English, and Kai does not speak Japanese, this makes holding a conversation very difficult. But that doesn’t seem to matter to a boy who prefers to say his piece without having to listen and respond to anyone else.

In fact, when my wife tries to translate what Kai is saying so that his grandparents would understand, he often gets annoyed, saying, “Mom, stop talking. You’re interrupting me.”

Oftentimes, Kai starts chattering to his grandparents about whatever his passions of the moment are – Pokémon, Trashies, some new app on the iPad – and they often seem puzzled about what he is talking about though amused that he is so talkative and happy.

This time, though, Kai wanted to talk about something else.

His grandfather will be visiting us from Japan in a few weeks. He will join us as we go on a road trip to some national parks out west.

Kai’s grandmother, however, does not like to travel to the States and will not be coming along this time. Kai directed his conversation to her.

“Baba, you can come here because we will have Japan TV (through our cable tv provider).

“Then we will go on vacation. Some of the motels will have swimming pools. And we’ll see mountains and wild animals.

“So, Baba, you have to come!”

It was incredibly sweet to see him plead his case. It surprised me, in part because his grandmother has come to visit only once in the past six years so he hasn’t gotten as close to her as he has his other grandparents.

But it also surprised me because it exposed the love that he holds for others, and the pureness of his heart, which we don’t always see on a day-to-day basis.

We had to tell Kai that Baba won’t be making the trip this time – all of the plans are set. But perhaps she might think about coming the next time.

Kai seemed very disappointed. But he accepted it without anger.

I don’t know that Kai swayed Baba to ever think about coming here again.

But he sure melted my heart.