Three Dozen Roses

Posted on Sep 16, 2019 in Everyday Bliss | 0 comments

We were on our way to Tagaytay one fine day three years ago and I was belting out the song ‘If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys.

When I reached the line that goes, “Some people need three dozen roses and that’s the only way to prove you love them. . .,” I heard my then 5-year-old daughter exclaim, “36! Thirty-six, Mom!’

That broke my concentration. “Thirty-siz what?” I asked.

“Three dozen roses is 36!’ Mishca explained.

“How did you compute it that fast?” I asked.

“I don’t know. . .I just counted it in my head,” she remarked.

She was just in kinder that time and had not started learning multiplication. That’s when I knew I was raising a very intelligent child. A year later, after Mishca’s third session of abacus class, her teacher called us in to inform us that she had to be “disciplined” because she didn’t want to use the abacus in class as she wanted to do mental calculations instead. The teacher was also suspicious that we were helping her answer her abacus book because there was no way she could finish the workbook in 2 sessions. Where can I, a mommy with no maid and nanny, find the time to answer my daughter’s abacus book?

Tonight I finally got to ask her how she came up with 36 for 3 dozen. “My teacher told me that a dozen is 12. So I added two and two and two. Then three ones is 3, easy! So it’s 36!”

Mishca, you never fail to amaze me! May you use all of your gifts and talents for God’s glory.