It seemed only yesterday that my son was covered in slime and looks like a really gross ugly old man, emerging from a person, with a tube connected to its stomach and the person it is coming out from. It's like a scene from a really gross and scary alien movie. I remembered one night Melissa woke me saying her water bag broke and she needed to go to the hospital. I don't care how many times you practiced it but when that time comes, a male Chindian brain will go into almost total shutdown.
I was running around looking for the bag of clothes packed in advanced like a refugee waiting for the boat, which has mysteriously hid from my sight. I believe at times like this, the Humour Fairy comes around and plays these tricks on you so that you will remember the incident more and build up your sense of humour.....that is if you don't turn into some psycho first la!!
So after many minutes (which seemed like eternity), I finally find the bag and accessories and Melissa is back in bed!!! I literally screamed unintelligibly though, about why she was in bed. Cooly she said, it wasn't water bag. She just peed in bed. WHAT??!! She said "No vagina, no opinion!". Oh...ok...back to bed.
It was the same the following night and this time for real. We rushed to the hospital and she was put on drips to rush the contraction and it finally came 10 hours later. I was sleeping on the labour room floor all this while and it felt like sleeping on a block of ice.
So Michael Sean David finally came...with all the blood and water gushing from Melissa onto the floor! How can a person hold so much?? How can she lose and leak so much blood and still be alive?? That is why I always believed that women are somehow aliens or something more sinister. How can you leak for 5-7 days every month and still be alive??????
The doctor looked like a fisherman in the market, dressed in a white apron and galoshes. All that water, blood, clots and stuff I don't wanna know flowing on the floor I was sleeping in!!!!
When the nurse brought my son to me, I thought he was the ugliest bean I have ever seen, like that alien from the movie "Total Recall"! He was crying blue murder maybe because we DRAGGED him out of this comfortable,safe, warm swimming pool he was in; but when I called out to him, he stopped, cocked his head towards me, listened for a while......and continued crying. I read to Melissa's stomach every night so I guess he recognized my voice even though it must have sounded funny and muffled through the stomach, water and placenta. How cool is that!!!!!
And so begins the journey of my son Michael Sean David. It's so hard to believe that was 11 years ago. Now he has girls writing him love letters, hanging out with him, wanting to come to his birthday party and giggling at him when he walks pass. At one time, we were called to school because he had 4 girls (that the teachers know of) sending him love letters, saying they love him and drawing pictures of them together with child and the teachers just wanted us to be aware of it. What scares me even more is that I have a daughter growing up close behind.
He came back one day asking me what he should write back to a 7 year old girl, who wrote to say her 9 year old sister loves him? I asked if he liked the girl as a friend and he said yes. So I told him to go ahead and say he loves her too. There were notes of happiness passed to him and it was kinda funny to see that they didn't really knew what to do next.
Then a classmate hears about it and says that she too has always loved him but too shy to mention. When he asked me what to do, I asked if he likes her too. He replied he did and liked her more. I asked if the girls knew each other and he said no. So I said, tell her you love her too but make sure they never know each other or become friends.
Then girl No.2's best friend who was always secretly in love with Mikey, decides to let her best friend be happy with Mikey and refrain from telling him that she loves him too. Instead she draws a picture of the both of them holding hands and a baby in the middle. The teacher saw, freaked out, asked her why she drew that, she told her everything and we were called to school! And that was when he was still 9! What drama! So typical of a Chindian boy when you have Bollywood and Hongkywood combined!!!!
He is in his tweens now and will be a teen soon. He is starting to show some teen angst and frustrations with adult authority and I have always tried to remember what it was like to be 11 and hopefully with that, I am firm but fair. He is starting to stay over his friend's house (all boys, no girls), going on class trips, participating in camps and sports, getting involved in supporting football teams and even growing a pimple!
I am also glad that he is building a close group of friends in school and from our neighbourhood. He is closest to 2 of them, Brian and Shane. Shane is my god-son, his god-brother who has migrated to Seattle for the last 5 years but they keep in constant touch and are best friends whenever they meet once every 2 to 3 years. It is hard to maintain a good friendship at such a young age and when you are growing at light speed but these 2 seem to keep very good at it. I hope that they will stay best friends always.
Brian is his cousin, my cousin Loke Yew's son. They have been best friends since they started school together. The cool thing about them so far, is that they always seem to find a common ground and compromise their ways. Brian is very athletic and lanky but he is able to bring Mikey into his circle and this ensures that they spend most of the hobby and free time together and helps improve Mikey in his sports. Interestingly in school, they have their own friends and grew up quite differently, with a different circle of friends but they managed to maintain that bond and share their different personalities to perfection. Today, they are very inseperable.
Recently, Mikey went to Malacca on a school trip, which is not too exciting but what was eye opening for me is that the came back with souvenirs for everyone. He bought me a beautiful boat model, my wife a coin pouch, his sister a bird whistle and my mom a pair of "Prada" sunglasses. And he kept it within budget. I never, never expected that of him as I don't even do that NOW let alone when I was 11.
It is more signs that he is growing up and there is nothing I can do about it. As parents, our only hope is that we are able to lead and show him different paths that he can choose from. Hopefully it will be a path that brings out the best in him as a person, is less painful, least resistant and guided by the Holy Spirit.
I only hope he grows out of his sleep talking soon before the scares the hell out of his school mates in camp. He can get up, yell, talk gibberish or even talk very intelligently, go back to sleep and have no recollection after.
If you think I am getting emotional, wait till my daughter's turn comes! Oh gosh, how I am dreading that day!!!!!
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