Questa è Enida

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The birds outside the school compound seemed to chirp a little louder than usual that quieter-than-usual Wednesday morning. Loud enough for Monchies to hear them from inside the closed-window CRaVy. There was one bird calling that sounded very familiar to my ears but all I could think of was the ‘taptibau puyuh padang’ pantoum (pantun).

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Edrick: What kind of bird is it Mom?

Mom: I’m not sure, sweetheart.

Kitreena: You can find it out on the internet, Mommy.

Mom: Well, I need to know what the bird looks like, at least.

Edrick: Oh! I know! I know! We can catch de bird. Den we put him in a clear plastic bag. And den we plug him in to de computer. And den, and den… de bird will make a sound. And den de computer can tell us what kind of bird he is.

Kitreena and Mom: *have a five-second silence and…* Hahahahahahaha!

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Kitreena and I are still wondering to this day why the bird had to be put in a clear plastic bag. We asked Edrick, but he was not going to answer us any more because of our ‘ Hahahahahahaha!’

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De boy turned into an Angry Bird – Unplugged.

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Mommy: Okay everyone. Go wipe your face, let’s get ready. We’re going to KLCC in half an hour.

Edrick: Okay Mom. I’m gonna get going here. Because I gotta do what a man ‘s gotta do.

Mommy: Pardon me? You gotta do what, Monch?

Edrick: I gotta do what a man’s gotta do, Mom.

Mommy: Oh wow! Good! And what is that?

Edrick: A man’s gotta do what the woman tells him to do as a pet owner.

Mommy: As a what, pardon me?

Edrick: A pet owwwwwnerrrr!

Mommy: I’m sorry but I don’t get it.

Edrick: Responscelebrities, Mom. Responscelebritiiieeesss!

Mommy: Ohhhhh! You’re my man!

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Disclaimer:
Enida owns no pet although she is the woman of her Mesra house. On some bad-mood days, she does wish for a pet-man, if there is such a pet to get at Pets Wonderland, Great Eastern Mall Jalan Ampang. Otherwise she is just happy scooping up after no one.

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Bedtime at yee mou (Aunty) Mas last night was a bit settled than the night before. And Edrick was just rolling in the seven or eight pillows, on a stack of four or five comforters, until he found one pillow that he fancied.

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Edrick: Oh Mom! This pillow is sooo fluffy I can feel the glory!

Mommy: You can feel the what, pardon me?

Edrick: The glory!

Mommy: And what does glory feel like? I am curious now.

Edrick: Glory feels like the fluffiness of this pillow.

Mommy: Mmmmmmhhh how did I guess.

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I should have known better. Some pleasures are simply indescribable.

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“There are two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children.
One is roots; the other, wings.”
~Hodding Carter

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Monchies were grounded for two full days recently. Seriously grounded! And that means no iPod, no TV, no PS3. And the worse was, no Table Soccer! Worse because I just got them the Table Soccer – merely ten minutes before they got grounded!

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The salahlaku was fighting in public. Fighting to open the door of the shop where we went and got the Table Soccer. Apakah!

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The story is, both of them have not been in school this week. The cough, the lungs infection, the temperature, you name it. Luckily it is the final week of Term 2 and the exam, for Kitreena, is done and over. Though I don’t like them being absent, I know the coughing can be really tiring. I have been having the same package deal since the first week of March, for goodness’s sake. I know!

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And with the bugs going around, I wanted to make sure Monchies recover steadily at home as much as I wanted the bugs to not spread to other kids. It could be nasty in this kind of weather. Anyway, Monchies have been taking it easy at home. So much so that we were like a bunch of house-arrested ex-cons for three days! Yeah, I arrested myself as well.

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So on Tuesday I took them out to get some sunshine, while I had to go out to get some food supply (for some reason I’m making it sound like I live 3 days horse-cart-ride away from the nearest Prairie town). And on the same day, lunch was at a good restaurant. Nothing fancy, just good. Anything that was not  in our kitchen was supposedly ‘good’ after three days of home-cooked food.

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Done with the grocery, done with lunch, and on our way to the parking bay, I remembered to get me a new peppermill. The old one lost its screw and like some good ole things that are not worth repairing, I accepted the fact that I had to find a replacement. I had to move on. I mean I didn’t have to move on. I just moved on, for peppermill’s sake.

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Edrick was the happiest because he knew we were going to the House of Presentation where he wanted to go for the ‘table soccer thingy’ the last time he seriously merajuk (because I said no). So we went in this time. And so, other than the peppermill thingy for me, I got Monchies the table soccer thingy, and also the lesung batu thingy to replace the old one – also broken. There! All was supposed to be well in the House of Mesra. Or so you think?

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But noooooo! Some munchkins had to be monsters at the end of the day by fighting in public. Great! Excellent! Do it again, people! I dragged Monchies, Bibik, the peppermill thingy, the table soccer thingy and the lesung batu thingy quickly to the parkade, paid the ticket and got in the car. There they had it! My peace talk! Even Bibik got her little jentik for not stopping Monchies from bercekau.

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Lucky no one got burried underground. Just grounded! (And not pounded either.)

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Glossary for Neil:

salahlaku = wrongdoing

Apakah? = What’s with that?

lesung batu = mortar and pestle

jentik = flick

bercekau = row

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This is fresh from the oven! I am still frowning and my brain is still hurting from squeezing the juice trying to figure out what is going on in that handsome little head.

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Edrick just had his morning shower. And on his way down he stopped on the landing to ask me this…

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Edrick: Mommy, when you marry another husband and get a baby girl or a baby boy, could you please get me another bunk bed so I can have the top bed?

Mommy: *looks at Bibik, looks at Edrick, looks back at Bibik’s wide open mouth, and has troubles finding  words to respond to this sudden attack*

Edrick: Mommy, please?

Mommy: But why do I have to marry another husband and get a baby to get another bunk bed? You can just switch with Kitreena if you want the top bed.

Edrick: Yeah, but what if Kitreena wants the top bed, and I want the top bed? If you get another bunk bed, the baby can sleep on the bottom bed of my bunk bed so it won’t be empty.

Mommy: *is shocked but has to say this anyway* Wow! That is very advanced thinking Monch. But I think I can skip the husband and the baby part. It’s much easier to just go get another bunk bed.

Edrick: So can I have my own bunk bed now?

Mommy: Go deal with your sister. *is going online-shopping for a husband bunk bed*

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Edrick: Mommy why do you have that pretty blue thing on your forehead?

Mommy: Pretty blue thing?

Edrick: Yeah, that pretty blue thing on your forehead.

Mommy: Ohhhh! You mean this bindi?

Edrick: Yeah, that pretty blue bindi thing. Does it make you pretty?

Mommy: What do you think? Does it make me pretty?

Edrick: But you’re already pretty, Mom.

Mommy: Oh you think so, hah?

Edrick: Yeah. But I think it makes you prettier, Mom.

Mommy: *feels like the world’s prettiest Mommy with that pretty blue bindi thing on her forehead and thinks her son would make a good United Nations Diplomat soon*

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It was still drizzling as we were nearing the school, my Booty and I. Five hundred meters from the school gate, the traffic was a lot more ridiculous than just ridiculous. So Kitreena and I sat in the car holding hands listening to Miley Cyrus, track number seven on repeat, looking out to see nothing much except for a gentleman and his daughter walking in the rain.

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When they suddenly stopped in their track, Kitreena and I almost synchronously sat up to see what they were going to do next. The Korean Daddy handed the umbrella to his girl and almost effortlessly swooped her off her feet and carried her across the street with one hand, carrying her school bag with the other. Miss Princess helped holding the umbrella for Mr. Daddy. And when they got to the other side of the street, Mr. Daddy put the girl down and they carried on the last few hundred meters hand in hand smiling.

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Kitreena looked at me and I pretended not to see the tears in her eyes. For a few seconds that felt like one complete circle of four leap years, I took a deep breath and bent down looking for the Kleenex box. If it wasn’t because of the closed windows, I would have thought it was the rain that drizzled on our face this morning. And so I had two pieces of Kleenex in my hand.

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All I could think to say to Kitreena was, “I can love you like that, Monch.”

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