October! It feels cooler outside but it might be because a typhoon just blew through. After the winds died down it rained all day yesterday. The rain stopped and today was just overcast and cool. I'm about to head out for my first ride in a week. Exactly a week ago I climbed the Yangmingshan loop for only the second time. Then I went to Kaohsiung, taking a few days off from work, and then the typhoon arrove.

My oldest brother had another kid a few days ago, but since they're touchy about personal information that's all I'll say about it.

While I was in Kaohsiung last week it happened to be Pie's (my cousin's daughter) 6th birthday. I took the opportunity to implement what I'm encouraging as a new practice in the family. I took Pie out to buy her a birthday gift, but that was only an excuse to more importantly help her buy a gift for her mother.

I told her that people buy her presents for her birthday, but on her birthday she had to buy a gift for her mother to thank her. My logic being that birthdays are too often just about the birthday boy or girl with no attention paid to what the mother went through on that day however many years ago.

It all went perfectly. Pie was totally into it. It took her less than a minute to choose her own gift, but then we spent a little more time for her mother's gift with the help of Pie's nanny, Faye, who was instrumental to this scheme. Pie also totally independently found a card which I sure hadn't thought of.

After we got back to my cousin's place, Pie wrote a message in the card using Chinese phonetics since she can't write characters yet. My cousin was thrilled even though she had an idea what was going on since I'm sure I mentioned this idea to her before and we weren't trying to be secretive or anything.

The only thing that felt funny in the end was having the appreciation solely towards the mother, who, after all, was the one who went through labor. When I mentioned this idea to my brother some time ago he asked 'what about the father?', to which I replied that he did his role 9 months earlier and likely had a good time with it. He didn't suffer through childbirth. Or maybe he did, but not in quite the same way (no one likes to hear his wife screeching like a harpy).

But it was a little strange that Audrey's husband wasn't in on it, and quite honestly I don't think I could have convinced him to implement it since it wasn't his idea (so he wasn't crystal clear about it), and he's actually very busy with work. But now that he saw how it works and how much Pie enjoyed it and how happy it made Audrey, I think I can pitch it to him to do it from now on, starting with Gracie (Pie's little sister) next year.

I actually wanted to do it with Gracie earlier this year but didn't get enough momentum from Audrey to go to Kaohsiung in June. But this way was better because I'm glad Pie got to do it first. As the older sister she's entitled to certain privileges and afterwards Gracie wanted me to take her to do it next year (mostly because Gracie is in an envy/jealousy phase and wants to be in on anything of Pie's).

But the father should totally be in on it. That was actually in my earliest draft of the activity – that it be the father who takes the kid to buy the gift and explain why. That makes it a family thing and doesn't ignore or leave the father out of it. So next year I'll encourage Eric to take Gracie. I hope it can become an annual thing. The idea not being the gift, but the appreciation. The activity was not really for Audrey, but for Pie – that she has this idea now to be grateful to her mother on her birthday. And actually I think Audrey was most moved by the card that Pie chose by herself and wrote on her own.

Pie's sixth birthday on Vimeo.