At Home In PJ

It is our second day back in Petaling Jaya. The house is too quiet. Already we miss the three little kids in Bintulu. A consolation is Sita. She, Fahrul and Najla are returning tomorrow from Fahrul’s hometown, Perlis and will be stopping over in PJ for two nights, before proceeding to Kerteh. We also had visitors today. Two former colleagues, who sits with me in the committee of our retirees club came in the morning for a chat and to discuss some issues regarding the club. A little later, Ram’s niece came with her husband. She had just returned from performing her Haj. Hence our day went quite fast today.

We had our hands full all of two weeks that we were in Bintulu, especially with the two smaller kids, Haziq and Haadieya who kept on getting to each other, especially Haadieya who would go after anything that Haziq touched. She will disregard her own toys and go after the brother’s toys, and only the ones that he was playing. They were very noisy too. She is only 11 months old and she is already constantly annoying her brother. She does not bother Hifzhan though, maybe because Hifzhan is much older than her!! A respite for us would be the time when the two boys were at playschool in the morning. The house would then be very quiet.

Haadieya would scream at her brother, or cry when they quarrel, or just noisy banging the toys. Haziq on the other hand was noisy too. He kept on talking and he has a lot of ideas. He will put his imaginations into words and will loudly say them out. Once he said that there was this big car that talked to him. I said I have never heard a car talk. He replied, “Yes, Tok Bah. Big cars can talk”. I said, “Oh! Big cars can talk? Small cars cannot talk?” He said Yes. I asked him to show me a big car that talks. He said, “Ahhh.. Dedek hear the big car talk in Dedek’s dream!!”. I then asked “Oh! What did the car say?” He said that the car asked him to drive it to Tok Bah’s house in Kay Ell!! So, did you drive the car then, I asked. “Noh, he said, Dedek cannot drive lah Tok Bah!!” Haa haa, imagination and reality intermingling!!

Dedek has a new phrase. Sometime, while we were on the road, and amidst his talking and ‘yarning’ he will suddenly say “ooooh la la! never shee thing dat my life beforeeee”. I will then ask him to say it again slowly and word by word and he will say “oooh la la!, never see anything that in my life beforeee” I will correct him by saying “Ooooh la la! I have never seen anything like that in my life before!” He will reply yes. I asked what yes and he will reply yes like what Tok Bah said, refusing to repeat it! Hmmm…

Usually Dedek will go on talking or asking me things or just say whatever that comes into his mind. He does not stop. He will go on and on and on. Once I asked him to shut his mouth for a while, not to say anything until we reach home. No words should come out from your mouth from now until we reach home, can you do that? I asked. Babang said “Dedek, zip your mouth”. He replied, “ok, Dedek keep quiet”. A moment later he said, “zip my mouth eh eh” I said shhhhh! He responded ohhkehhhh! A few moments later he made sounds like ‘eh ‘eh! I asked what is wrong with you now? He replied, “Sorry Tok Bah, Dedek Hi cup!!” I said no Dedek, it is hiccup! He said heeecup and Babang then corrected him saying hiccup Dedek, hiccup. He said, “hiccup la Tok Bah, Dedek hiccup” By then we had already reached home and Dedek has had his say.

In the playschool the kids were once taken on an outing to the local fire brigade and were shown how to put out fires by using a water hose. Recently their grandpa (the other grandpa, not me!!) quietly went to the back of his house and prepared a fire to roast chicken for lunch. The two boys were playing inside the house then. As the fire was slowly building, grandpa went into the kitchen to prepare the chicken. From inside the house the two boys saw smoke at the back, shouted fireeee! ran to the back, grabbed a nearby hose and directed the water to the fire!!!!! What a riot. Poor grandpa had to build the fire again!! Dedek said that he washed the fire, proud that he has saved the day ha ha!
And Grandpa? Well! He is a man of a few words. He just rebuilt the fire and said nothing!! Looks like the grandkids can get away with anything…. Ha ha!

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya