Questa è Enida

Edrick: Mommy, there are fourrrr things you can do with money.

Mommy: Oh really? And what are the fourrrr things, Monch?

Edrick: You can earn money.

Mommy: Yes.

Edrick: You can save it.

Mommy: Right on!

Edrick: You can spend it. Aaaand you can donate it, Mom.

Mommy: Wow! Where did you learn all this?

Kitreena: He heard it from TV, Mom. *rolls her eyes*

Read Full Post »

I let him play his Chop Chop Caveman game on my iPad for one afternoon to compensate for Kitreena’s hogging the computer. It wasn’t his first time, but he knows, and his sister knows that my iPad is not a toy. And Mommy is never that ‘generous’ with the things she works hard for. So, when the time was up — and that is 6pm every Sunday evening when Monchies’ playtime is over — he asked:

.

Edrick: Mommy, could you give me your iPad when you die?

Mommy: Huh? *thinks that this could be a do-or-die question*

Edrick: Could you give me your iPad when you die?

Mommy: But I am not gonna die for a looong time yet.

Edrick: But Mommm… I really like your iPad. It’s so cool!

Mommy: Yeah, but by the time I die you’re gonna have a good-paying job and you’ll get something better than iPad.

Edrick: But Mom… *he looks at Mommy in a slightly longer pause than usual*

Mommy: Uhummm?

Edrick: But Mommm, when you die… we have to get rid of all your clothes, right?

Mommy: Nahhh! Don’t just get rid of them. Sell them, Monch. Make some money out of it.

Edrick: Oh, okay!

.

I might be sending a not-so-nice message to me Monchies about money and death. But I believe that death is a part of life and the biggest lesson of letting go. Edrick remembers what I did with my Mom’s clothes two years ago. He was with me when KaCher and I sent those boxes to HUKM. He enjoyed sealing the boxes with packing tapes while I was busy sealing the memories with many many kisses.

.

To heaven.

.

.

Happy Sixth Birthday to My Six Million Dollar Little Big Man
on November 30, 2011.

.

.

.

.

Read Full Post »

Monchies were having a conversation about their Bahasa teacher and kept referring to her as “The Bahasa Teacher”. So I asked Kitreena what this Bahasa teacher’s name was.

.

Kitreena: I don’t know, Mom.

Mommy: How come? You took Bahasa last year. What did you call her then?

Kitreena: I asked, but she just wanted us to call her cekgu.

Mommy: Cekgu? You mean cikgu?

Kitreena: No!  Cekgu. *emphasizes on the sound: check-goo instead of chick-goo*

.

My KaCher and I exchanged that ‘oooohhh-so-classic-lah-your-bahasa-pronunciation’ look and I must admit, I had Cekgu Markonah in my mind.

.

.

.

Read Full Post »

We were just taking it easy on a cool summer morning, him working on the anger management of his red birds and me listening to the Country Road Take Me Home post on Facebook. I was lying on my back feeling a little miserable entertaining my imagination when…

.

Edrick: Mommy, I can hear my imagination on my left ear.

Mommy: Oh?

Edrick: But not on the right ear.

Mommy: Oh?

Edrick: I really can, it’s pretty clear on the left ear.

Mommy: Your imagination?

Edrick: Yeah,  I can hear it on one ear but not the other.

Mommy: Your ears are not talking to each other huh?

Edrick: Apparently not, Mom. And it’s a catastrophe.

Mommy: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

.

It really is a catastrophe when one ear is not talking to the other, I thought. Just like when I am not talking to you. The balance is just not there.

.

.

.

Read Full Post »

I was reading him a bedtime story, holding the book with one hand and holding his hand with the other, when he felt my ring.

.

Edrick: Mommy, why are you still wearing your wedding band?

Mommy: *feels ‘caught’ in a way and can’t answer*

Edrick: If you are not with any man now, you are not supposed to wear a wedding band.

Mommy: Okay. But I am not wearing it on my ring finger.

Edrick: Yeah. But you’re not with any man anymore.

Mommy: Okay, I’ll take it off. It’s only my engagement ring anyway.

Edrick: But Mom! You are not with any man now.

Mommy: All right, all right! I will take it off!

.

An explanation on why I was wearing my engagement ring on my middle finger would have taken too long. It was bed time anyway. Bad time.

.

.

Read Full Post »

.

Kitreena: Mommy, I’d like to donate this baju to the orphans now. I’ve grown out of it.

Mommy: Sure sure. Good thought, Monch.

Edrick: Mommy, what’s an orphan?

Kitreena: An orphan is someone who doesn’t have…

Mommy: An ophan is a kid that has no…

*Mommy and Kitreena pause to let each other speak first but Edrick butts in*

Edrick: An orphan is a kid that has no baju?

Mommy and Kitreena: Hahahahahahahaha!

Mommy: No, hahaha. An orphan is a kid who has no Mom and Dad.

Edrick: But why does Kitreena want to donate her baju to an orphan?

Kitreena: Because I can’t donate my Mom and Dad, silly!

Edrick: Haaaa haaaaa haaaaa!

Mommy: *sedikit kecil hati *

.

.

Read Full Post »

She had been a bit emotional lately and anything could trigger her to snap. This time it was her violin teacher. I was called in and we had a little talk. Mr. Rudy has been very gentle and understanding with this favorite student of his. But it was her who needed some extra TLC.

.

So I just went in and held her as long as she wanted to be in my arms. And I let her cry without asking why she had to cry. I know, sometimes we just have to.

.

“Sweetheart, you know what. We are all humans. And we feel. You’ve seen me cry a river, haven’t you. And you know what, the good news is… it’s perfectly fine. It’s perfectly healthy. But we have to learn to know when to do it. Okay?”

.

She just nodded her head that was hidden somewhere on my tummy and in my arms. I felt her and I felt for her.

.

Today when I feel like crying another river, you’re not here.

.

.

Read Full Post »

For the fear of forgetting, I am documenting this now, in the midst of the extreme busy-ness of my business.

.

This afternoon, Edrick came to me downstairs for his afternoon hugs. But then his feet all of a sudden got too ‘tired’ to go back upstairs. Well, that has been his way of hinting actually… whenever he wants to be carried up the stairs.

.

So I did.

.

I carried him upstairs. Because I could. And because I could never know when his feet would one day stop being tired to go back upstairs. I could never know when he would stop hinting for that little TLC. And because I knew my feet were fine. I could manage 28.7kg and 22 steps up. And so I did. And I will continue doing so until I can’t.

.

.

.

Oh… the things you do for love, eh?

.

.

.

.

.

.

Read Full Post »

.

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).

.

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!

.

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!’

.

De boy turned into an Angry Bird – Unplugged.

.

Read Full Post »