BINTULU 4

Bintulu 4 – February 19th to March 23rd 2005.

Thursday 24th February. Babang woke up early. Noticed that he did not sleep well the previous night. He woke up many times but slept again each time without much ado. I guess he missed his parents. On the way to school he asked whether the parents will be coming home today. When told that his mummy may not be strong yet to travel he remarked, “Why Daddy cannot come back alone first for awhile and then bring Mummy home?” We replied that Daddy has to help Mummy look after the baby. When asked whether he likes a baby sister he replied, “Yes yes yes! I like baby sister” Dedek on the other hand was just unconcerned.

The past few days, on fetching Babang from school, the first question he asked was whether Mummy is already home. Today was no different, except that today he showed a disappointed face. However, using diversion tactics and the playful antics of the brother helped eased him. He was laughing and singing the songs he learnt in school and we sang along with him. At one stage Dedek yelled stop stop. When we stopped and asked why, he said, “Now, everybody sing A B She” So he sang, “A B She G F F E, H M nn nn L L Peee”. When we corrected him he said, “Now everybody sing winkle winkle star”. When we again corrected him he started pointing at the school bus, lorries and trucks passing by. See see, garbage quackter!! He said. Ha ha!! that’s his diversion tactics!!

On arrival home I received a sms from Shaffik that they are about to leave Miri for home. So I told the kids that if they wash up, sit nicely and eat lunch, go to sleep after that, then when they wake up Mummy will come back from Miri with the baby. Surprise, surprise. They were very good, and dutifully followed directions and had their afternoon sleep without fuss.

Mini’s mother had baby Haadieya Hasya in her arms when they arrived. She passed the baby to me on alighting from the car and with the baby in my arms my first impression was Hifzhan when he was a baby, fair skinned and fair complexioned, soft but light hair, except that Haadieya appears to be a little longer, and her fingers were rather long too. She was, at 3.5 kg., heavier than the two brothers at birth. The thought that ran in my mind then was what a wonderful living being I have in my hand. This creation, this gift, this endowment from The Almighty is something we should always cherish. Something for us to treasure, to behold and to take care. Gender is then not a concern but just a preference and not something to fret about. We are thankful though that after having two boys, Shaffik and Mini now have a girl.

Babang was very cautious when approaching the little sister to the point of being shy, but Haziq was boisterous as ever. He touched Haadieya’s cheeks, held her arms and quite roughly too. When I quickly took the baby away he shouted, “I want to kiss the baby”. He kissed the baby on the forehead. Hifzhan, when asked to kiss the baby would smile shyly and approach the baby with a lot of caution. I asked Haziq, now that he has a younger sibling he cannot be called Dedek anymore but he insisted that he is still Dedek and that is ‘baby’ not dedek!! Very firm indeed.

The rest of the evening the two boys were just noisy. I read that as a sign of protest and I took time to keep explaining to them not to ‘shock’ the baby, that the baby need a lot of sleep, and that their mother is still not well and need a lot of rest too. They say yes each time but soon after they were up to their tricks again right until bed time. Its normal behaviour though and we will have to continue psyching them up every time.

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu