He was only three.

If you asked him he would hold up his hand showing you four of his chubby fingers with the widest smile on his face. 

It sort of hurt me to have to fold down one of his fingers and watch as his face became quizzical, as if questioning if he got his age wrong once again. But it always happened. He was never really too good with numbers and thinking about it, they were the only reason my little junhong got mad. 

Not because he couldn't have desert, not because he couldn't watch television, not because he couldn't stay up later, no, all of those things he didn't mind. But numbers were his worst enemy.

In the end I decided to make a game out of numbers, to see if it helped him learn.

---

"Okay Junhong, how many sweets do you think are under my hand?" We were sat at the dining room table, well I was sat, Junhong was standing on his chair with his hands on the table trying to peek into my hands.

"Fowa!" He yells out confidently as he climbs off the chair and onto the table as he waddles ever closer to my hand, sitting down in front of it and brushing his button nose against my fingers.

"Now remember the rules junhongie." I warned him.

He nods his head and backs up a little bit while he watches my hand with the eyes of a hawk as I slowly lift it up, making sure he doesn't just swipe the sweets and leave.

"Do you want to count them out by yourself this time?" I run my hand through his short locks as he sits mesmerised by the sweets, but as soon as he hears my question he is nodding furiously.

"Wunnnn..." He places his pointer finger on one of the sweets and moves it closer to himself, his face scrunches up and his mouth opens, showing his little baby teeth in the process. He always makes that face when he was having an internal debate with himself, wether he should try and push his luck for another story at bed time, wether he should ask me for the cuddly toy that was double the size of him, or on this occasion, if he should just try and take the sweet and run.

"Come on now Junhong, you just have to count out the rest and they're all yours." I move my hand that had been running through his hair and instead rest my head in it as I watch him carry on the internal debate with himself.

Slowly his little finger moves from the first sweet and goes to the second, "Tuuuu....... Fweee......... Fwee?" He looks at the sweets in his hand and then up at me with a questioning gaze as he repeats the number again.

"Yes Junhong that's right! There are three sweets! You've done so well!" I move to ruffle his hair again but he ducks his head away, looking at me with his eyebrows knitted together, tears in his eyes and his lips in the form of a pout. "What's wrong Junhong?" 

"Fwee..... Fwee is littler than foor." I sigh.

He knew what he wanted.

I knew what he wanted.

And as soon as I stand up and open up my arms for him, he knows he'll get what he wants.

He shuffles as fast as he can towards me on his knees as he holds out his own arms, mimicking me, as I bend down and scoop him up from the table into my arms, attaching him to my hip.

"This is only because you've been such a good boy this week okay? Don't go telling daddy I gave you all of these sweets."

"...Wai not?"

"Because daddy will get mad and tickle you so much!" I keep one hand on him while my other hovers just in front of him as I wiggle about my fingers and slowly creep my hand closer to his tummy. Needless to say he starts squirming around in my hold, trying to do anything to get away from my fingers.

"'KAY, 'KAY, 'KAY I WON'T TELL DADDY!!!"

And just like that my hand drops back to hold him again as he buries his face into my shoulder, my smile being too wide because dammit my Junhong is such a cutie.

It was a short trip to the kitchen and I place him on the counter in front of me as I reach up above the cabinets to grab him another sweet. I brought the jar full of sweets down to his eye level as I picked one out.

"Dey're all foor me?" He asks as he points to himself while staring wide eyed at the half full jar of sweets.

"Yes Junhong, they're all for you, but not all at once so you can forget about that idea."

Just as I had put the jar back up on its shelf I felt small tickling sensations on my sides. When I look down I'm met with a tears eyed toddlers face scrunched up in mild annoyance as he tries his hardest to tickle me.

"What's that for?" I ask, giggling and moving away from him so that I was out of his reach.

"Mummy wunt gimmi sweeties. Junhong mad." 

Looking at him closer I could see his little smile, the one that he always had on when he looked at me and his father, the one of love, the smile he wore because he was just happy to be in our company, there was no way my baby was too mad.

"I am so sorry darling, if I give you this sweet will it make it better?" I hold out the sweet on my palm and watch it as it gets swiped up by Junhong and stashed with the other sweets in his pocket.

"Nu-uh." He shakes his head and lowers his gaze.

Oh I know what's coming.

When he looks back up at me the tears are back and worse that before, he just keeps up eye contact as the tears start flowing down his face.

I huff and pick him up by the waist only to deposit him on the floor in front of me, before I start walking away towards the fridge to grab some food.

I can hear Junhong shuffling along behind me as I walk towards the dining room table, yet again, and sit down with my food, still in its packaging in front of me. I try to put on my best sad face as I stare down at my food, waiting for Junhong to do what I knew he would do.

It only takes a few more seconds for Junhong to struggle to pull out the chair next to me and clamber onto it, leaning onto the table so that he can get a good look at my face.

"Whut wrung mummy?" He asks, placing his tiny hand on my arm as he tries to inch ever closer to me. Once he deems himself close enough he moves his hand and pats my head, much like his father would do to him when he was upset.

"Junhong is mad at mummy and mummy doesn't know what to do..." I reply and decide to add a sniff afterwards for added effect.

"Junhong not mad with mummy!" He says as he flings his arms around my neck and scoots himself into my lap. "Junhong lub mummy." He states.

"But-but still I should do something for my little angel... So that I can make sure he really isn't mad with me anymore... Hmm... Do you want to share my food?"

Junhong turns his head around to look at the table as his eyes zone in on the food like object, and with perfect pronunciation he says,

"CHERRY TOMATOES!"