that’s dadam singing a loud birthday song to his baba and blowing out the candles prematurely on his behalf. and the little kepo naniq next to him just had to follow suit, blowing out the already-blown candles. there’s something about cakes and candles that make children of all ages terribly excited, isn’t there?
till now, i’m still amazed at how my mum could pop my brother out exactly on their first wedding anniversary, right on the dot, perfect timing. i’m sure she didn’t consciously hold him in, or talked him into waiting it out. i believe it’s just a darn good case of coincidence at work.
maybe i should ‘engineer’ our next offspring to come out on our anniversary too. it’s also the Husband’s birthday, so it’d be kinda fair, since aniq’s a decemberian like me.
let’s see… august 30. *counts backwards* oops, shoulda done it last november. we’re five months too late!
oh wait… *counts forward* that’s another seven months down the road. aniq would turn two while i would turn thirty the following month. which means, aniq would be four months short of turning three years (and i, a wrinkly, saggy, energy-sapped thirty-one-year-old coot) if our plan works out beautifully!
*nervous giggle*
erm, i think all this math is making me dizzy.
i’d better go layan aniq. he’s hurling wood blocks all over the room and i think he’s targetting at me. (meanwhile, the Husband’s in the kitchen making fish & chips with some weird stuff in the batter. ouhh!)
some time back, mum asked me to find for her some fake spiders and other creepy-crawly insects.
no, not for halloween decorations, or for a strange fetish.
she wanted something to ‘scare’ the little ones into submission.
:D
her grandsons – well okayyy, particularly one aniq izhan, is fearless of almost everything, and while some may see this as an advantage or a trait that should be encouraged, it also means that it’s harder for his caregivers to prevent him from doing something mischievous, or worse, hazardous. because granny’s scoldings are among the things that don’t faze him. (it also doesn’t help that a while after committing the crime, he’d push his face into hers and put on his most earnest “mmmaaa!”, subsequently liquifying her into mush.)
he bulldozes his way around recklessly despite prior warnings of impending danger.
“aniq!! jangan main dengan pintu tuuu, nanti tersepit kaki kauu!”
“aniq!! keluar dari bawah katil omaa, terhantuk kepala nanti!”
“aniq!! berapa kali oma cakap, kau gedebang-gedebung cermin tu, nanti benda tu jatuh pecah kan!”
etc.
he even knows when he’s doing something undesirable, purposely looking at us while waiting for admonishment for his misconduct. testing the waters, seeking attention, or just plain being a child, call it what you may, but it drives mum up the wall having a double dose of them in the house! (dadam being a whole other set of “pe’el”, heheee.)
so she feels that a temporary solution would be to scare the kids with those toy creepy-crawlies.
this is not to say that it’ll be a foolproof plan.
for dadam, there’s a chance, coz he’s the “penggeli” sort.
as for naniq, sure, he’d go “eeee!”, shake his head, and press his chest with his hands when we mention ants or spiders or ladybugs. (mum would occassionally capture live specimen for the boys, so you can say she’s kind of their science teacher, lol! but live ones don’t live long, and they scuttle off upon release.) he’d do the same when he sees them in picture books.
but curiosity would get the better of him and he’d inch closer to the scene (like that line of marching ants), observe in awe, point and look at me, then try to prod it. if given a chance, he’d even do a ‘nunu’, who was recently known to pick a dead roach with her bare hands to show her mum. (heck, he’d probably try to taste it too, lol!)
i think i may soon enough transfer my paranoia of lizards to him though, coz everytime i see one scampering away, i’d give my almighty scream and jump up and down like a hysterical baboon, much to his fascination. so he may just do the same some day, not for actual fear or ‘geli-ness’, but from mimicry. who knows?
meanwhile, we finally found a bag of fake ‘scary creatures’ (i swear it says that on the label) at one of those neighbourhood shops this evening for a bargained price of $2.30.
i’m not sure if i should allow this ‘fear factor’ tactic to take place. what if he REALLY gets scared of cockroaches and spiders and lizards and millipedes and bugs? he IS a boy after all, these are naturally creatures he SHOULD embrace and befriend!
and besides… if he becomes scared of them… who’s going to catch and kill them for mummy in her defence should she cross path with any of these offending creatures??
(by the way, let me tell you about my mum’s ophidiaphobia – yes, SNAKES! she’s so terrified of them, just the mention of the word will send shivers up her spine and turn her off her meal completely. i swear! i tried delving into her psyche and personal history, but she can’t seem to provide an answer to the root of her trauma. and no, desensitising never worked on her, coz the more we showed her pictures or shows on snakes, the worse it got.
BUT! she is a terror when it comes to lizards! so… my theory is, she kills lizards, and i’m scared of them. maybe her mum killed snakes, that’s why she’s scared of them.
ok. i’m doing it again, over-analysing, aren’t i? boo.)
“let’s gang up on oma and give her the heebie-jeebies, what say you?” “ok… but first, get your hands off my spiffy elmo garb, yo.”
i alarmed my Nanny when she released me at the playground the other day. she’d never seen me go down the slides or run across the rickety bridge all by myself before. huh, serves her right for not bringing me to the playground more often.
but i guess that’s coz most of the day she’s not my Nanny. by the time she comes home in the evening from her other job to be my Nanny, it’s too dark to go to the playground.
there! the playground’s THERE, i say! now stop taking pictures and take us there, you lousy nanny you…
i hadn’t seen dadam for a while, so when i did on friday, i patted his bum, and to my surprise, my hand did not meet with the familiar impact of a puffy diaper.
“eh! where’s your pampers?”
he grinned and promptly pulled down his pants.
“dadam nak kencing! aunty nana cebokkan!”
and my eyes promptly grew wide like saucers.
“HA?!”
thankfully, i managed to escape from THAT. i’ll cross the bridge when i reach it with aniq.
i’m glad he’s trailblazing the way to aniq’s own toilet-training in months to come. if we follow dadam’s schedule, it’ll be in exactly a year’s time. *gulp*
oh, and he puts on his own pants after that too. how can i not be proud of the lil guy?
i hope aniq will quickly learn to say “nak berak/kencing/makan/tidur!” too. senang sikit. (though his squatting down and patting his tummy while doing the do is a pretty good system for now, hehe.)
dadam’s also started going to a daily playgroup for a few hours in the morning, and as soon as either his oma or his dad slips away, the waterworks begin! we call it, The Crying Game. i hear that the wailings can be heard all the way from one end of tampines to another. :D
when i ask him in our teleconversations (coz he’s always the first to pick up the phone when i call home) how school was, he’d tell me, “dadam nangis!” mengaku pun.
his mum and dad are hoping he’d learn to socialise better with his peers. for a long time, he’s been the center of attention, and with the arrival of his younger cousin, he’s had to adjust to sharing the limelight with him.
he still shoves and snatches and pulls and shouts at the lil fella, though the latter is pretty hardy and ignores him or at most, pulls away or fights back, hehe.
sometimes, he’s all lovey-dovey and kisses him, and retrieves whatever the little one throws on the floor. tapi tu bila mood baik lah, ie. depan mak bapak dia. lol!
my abang dadam had something called a “febrile fit” on friday, which sounded reaaally scary. he’d been feeling feverish on and off lately, but i guess his temperature spiked up suddenly that evening while his mummy was sponging him, then his eyes rolled upwards and his body made jerky movements. brrr…. :(
so we all went to visit abang dadam at the hospital. seems quite fun, this hospital place, i don’t know why he kept saying “dadam nak balik”. look at that funky curtain! mummy was tempted to steal it and bring it home to put up at my new playroom. my mummy ah, closet kleptomaniac, i tell you.
“saaayang… saaayang..”
his cot bed though, i didn’t like so much. reminds me of that show i always watch on thursday nights, Prison Break. do you watch that? mummy likes it coz of that skinny bald guy with lotsa tattoos. my mummy ah, closet nymphomaniac, i tell you.
abang dadam didn’t seem so sick leh. he was yakking away as usual, telling us about the cool “ambulance” he rode on, and how “cold” he felt. mak long said that he was asking the nurse for something, and then said to himself, “cerewetnye aku”. HA HA! he is such a mak nenek. i must learn from him.
did i tell you abang dadam is OBSESSED with shopping centers? he kept wanting to follow my mummy go to a shopping center, but you wanna know a secret? he’s scared of “mannequins”! HA HA! he’ll cover his face when he passes by a mannequin, while saying “mannequin! TAKUT!” he is so weird. i must learn from him.
daddy brought me to the hospital’s “play area”, which, according to my mak long, is pathetic. i concur. but i’m not one to complain. i like this beaded maze thingy vair muchly, so much that i *think* someone’s getting it for me sooon. eh, how did i get hold of such classified info ah?? i must be psychic. heh. ;p
“good for fine motor skills, mum? whatever! i just wanna godeh godeh the thing.”
i think he’ll be fine and fit as a fiddle, my abang dadam. wrestling sessions will resume… soon. :D
“goody! he’ll be too weak to beat me up during recovery, hur hur…”
ps: just heard that my brudder naufal is in hospital for stomach flu too. oh no! get well soon, brudder! you gotta make it to you-know-what this weekend, ok?
so dadam’s mummy got him an elmo cake. with eggs. and chocolate to boot, hurhur.
i asked him if he had some. “makan, SIKIIIT (with great emphasis) ajeer! tak makan manyak-manyak!”
adoi. cuteness to the maximus si mak nenek berbual. i cannot tahan. i want to makan him manyak-manyak. you wouldn’t think he’d talk like that by looking at that fair-skinned, sepet, made-in-china exterior.
he went “present!” (tau pulak benda tu present) and promptly proceeded to peel off the wrapping bit by bit, with great and utter care.
his cousin, si mat kepo kenit also tried to join in, happily trodding on the wrapper and plastic and everything else he could trample on like the potential Toddler Giant that he will be (watch out, ajab!). but not before PLONKING his entire grubby hand on a piece of stray chocolate cake left on the table. he was so intrigued by the squishiness of the cake in his hand that his daddy managed to quickly wipe it off before he could incur more damage (eg. by eating it).
his royal keponess also shared one leg (tumpang sekaki) and fiddled with the wooden knob puzzle i got for the birthday tot. it managed to capture dadam’s attention for all of three, maybe four minutes, (“G is for… LION!” hehe – ok, the giraffe underneath the letter G did look dubiously lion-like) before he got distracted by the more pressing demands of playing with a balloon.
he made me huff and puff into the balloon (“aunty nana, blowkan!”), and being the adoring superaunty that i am, obliged the nephie-poo, at the same time tried to eat and ward off si kepo kenit from the said balloon and cake.
hey just WHAT IS IT about Bob the Builder that has captured the hearts of many a male two-year-old, i ask you? well, i suppose it IS more, erm, macho than that *cough*gay*cough purple dinosaur we all love to hate.
so do all little boys aspire to be construction workers when they grow up? are they more interesting than white-collar professionals? why isn’t there a Derek the Doctor cartoon? or Larry the Lawyer? or Cedric the CEO? or… (ok, i could go on and on here, you get the point.)
he hasn’t gotten into thomas the train yet, which i suppose is another, erm, macho symbol (achtung! phallic alert!) of some sort.
ok. i seriously gotta stop thinking too much. (NOT.)
“eh, anak kau tengok tv ada siti nurhaliza nyanyi pakai kebaya hitam, dia tunjuk-tunjuk dengan jari dia abis dia nangis! dia ingat tu kau! mummy, mummy… ha haha hahaa!”
i don’t know if i should be flattered… or worried.
on one hand, my son thinks i look and sound as FABULOUS as the famous datin. woohoo!
on the other hand, he can’t tell the difference between his croaky-voiced, craggy-faced mummy from a silky-voiced, smooth-skinned stranger?? uh-oh.
nevermind lah. at least he thinks of (and misses me?), amidst his jam-packed, activity-filled, ever-so-busy life at home. (eg. watching TV! hmph.)
and it’s a vast improvement from the days when i used to be mistaken for – get ready for this – ziana zain! and i’m talking of the period when she (and i) looked uber kental, way in the 90′s era. i used to have a friend whose little nephew would point at ziana’s picture on a magazine, look at me and go “aunty nana!”. so yeah, me and ziana. must have been the evil-looking eyebrows, i don’t know. bizarre.
my last boyfriend (ie. the Husbern), he had a thing for sheila majid back then. short and petite, just like hmmm, who ah?? unfortunately, the sheila majid he found and married cannot sing to save her lagenda.
on another note, hey hey, it’s dadam’s second birthday today, and i’m the ever-excitable aunty! i’d been looking for an eggless elmo cake (coz he’s allergic to egg white and he likes elmo, duh), but was unsuccessful in my search. bah. eggless cake. what’s the point of cakes without eggs, i ask you?
anyway, i’ve lovingly wrapped his pressies last night, and hope to see him rip it open later. seeing what an intellectual boy he’s turned out to be (he recognises alphabets and would open up newspapers to read them – or rather, point and say out the big alphabets in the headlines… that’s reading too, ok! and he has a thing for tucking a book under his armpit when he goes out, like a security blanket), i got him a big wooden knob puzzle with alphabets, and three dr seuss books for early readers.
we were at borders late on monday night and i was so taken by the silly, snappy word play and quirky storyline and illustrations in those dr seuss books, i swear.
UP PUP. pup is up! CUP PUP. pup in cup!
alamak, damn catchy, i tell you.
ok, that reminds me… there’s another birthday coming up (more lovingly-wrapped pressies!), you knnow, aniq’s brudder who’s turning one. which means… aniq will also be turning one soon. which means… preparations for a party should commence. mak macam nak buat kerje kawin, you!
and don’t worry, i’ll make sure the cake has eggs.
you gotta wonder, are they really hugging out of brudderly love, or are they about to attempt another body-slam? lol!
i was just looking at the raya pics last year – dadam was a year old, chubbier, and had the same fascination as aniq does now with my uncle’s motorbike.
now he’s turning two, skinnier, taller, and not too impressed by the bike anymore.
what will aniq be like next raya, i wonder… will he be talking like a mak nenek the way dadam is now? will he be a whole head taller too?
oh gosh.
i GOTTA savour his littleness as much as possible NOW!
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