Dear Nina,
It’s been almost a month since my last letter for you here. So I thought of writing another one now.
Before I forget, you have 19 baby teeth and 1 permanent tooth that erupted few weeks ago. You have lost one baby tooth and it had been taken away by a tooth fairy (aka Daddy) who had exchanged it with six shiny coins under your pillow. This tooth fairy business is getting worrying. I need to prepare 114 shiny coins for all your 19 baby teeth now. I should have started with only 1 coin. 
On the education front, you are now having two enrichment classes. Chinese class every Saturday noon and the ballet class every Sunday noon. We signed you up for the Chinese class because both your Daddy and Mommy are useless in Chinese language. We should also attend the class ourselves I think. We signed you up for the ballet class because you have always wanted it so much even since our days in Manila between 2006 to 2008. Every now and then you would ask to wear your tutu inside our apartment even though you were just watching TV. Remember that? And we thought it’s good for you to have more friends outside of your school and at the same time to exercise during the ballet class.
But most importantly, we want you to have the most important enrichment class, which is to learn about basic courtesy, to smile and to love. We are teaching you this ourselves. Life is not all about competition that you can do this, you can do that, you attend this class, you attend that class, you need to be better than your friends and need to be always number 1 in everything. While I understand that life is tough and you need to have the ability to be competitive and to have a good sense of survival during tough times, life is also about smiling, loving and being courteous.
No matter how tough your day has been, you have no right not to smile at other people, especially when they smile at you. You have no right not to be courteous. Smiling is the cheapest way to make yourself look good. Forget about plastic surgery.
Learning how to smile, to be courteous and to show your love for others is as important as, if not more important than, the other enrichment classes you are attending. It will take you far and it will certainly make you a better person. Remember that.
Love,
Your Daddy
