First things first…
I’m baaaaaaaaaaaack!
Ok…now that we’ve got that out of the way…let’s talk about the thing that made me want to blog again. Parenthood.
I’ve read about Ridj having a baby (congrats again!) and I can’t help smiling as I read about him being sleepless and all that. Brings back such happy memories. I’ll be the first to admit that my wife takes most of the burden of waking up in the wee hours of the morning as my baby breastfeeds throughout most of her current life. She only stopped at 1 1/2 years old. So…it was my wife who had to wake up whenever my baby needed some fuel. However, since my baby enjoys a cocktail of breast milk and formula milk, I make the formula milk (sometimes hehe).
A little sidetrack…
A friend of mine (A fellow father. I really can’t remember who) was having a conversation with me about his baby. It went something like this…
Me: So do you get sleepless nights?
Friend (the father): No. My baby’s great! She never wakes up in the middle of the night!
Me: Really?! No way! So damn lucky sia!
Friend (the Mummy): Excuse me! She wakes up at least TWICE every night. Its you who never wakes up!
Friend (the father): Huh? Really?
I couldn’t stop laughing back then. His baby was at four months old!
Well anyway…back to my story. Being a parent is seriously the most wonderful event in my life (apart from being married and having a wonderful wife). It gives you something to look forward to. You are given a very important responsibility. This little bundle of joy depends on you. Really, really depends on you. She needs you there to feed her. To clothe her. To make her laugh (this one I’m really good at!). To hug. To kiss. To talk baby talk to. To smile at. To smile with. Unrequited love cannot completely exist between a woman and a man. That stuff is just for fantasies. It can only exist between a father/mother and his/her baby.
You give her everything you’ve got. You buy her clothes even though you need to buy new ones yourselves. You buy her toys just to see wide eyed appreciation. You show her new things / animals just to see her stare at it in amazement. You go out of the way to bring her to a playground just to see her light up and shout "Play! Play! Play!". You carry her in your arms even though you’re so damn tired after a hard day’s work. You feed her and she sometimes spits it out, but you still do it. You clean her up after she soils her diapers (I really do it, ok). You do silly dances (till you’re out of breath. Sometimes I end up hurting myself when I trip or knock onto something). You make silly faces. You make funny sounds. You discipline her. Then you feel bad for disciplining her. I remembered my cikgu telling me that it hurts our parents more than it hurt us when they hit us. I didn’t understand what he meant back then. But I do now.
You feel so happy whenever she learns something new. A new word. A new bodypart. Head. Hair (She will say haaair whenever she is asked to point to her hair). Shoulders. Eyes. Nose (crinkles her nose). Ears. Teeth. Tongue (sticks out her tongue repeatedly). Chin (chhhh…). Stomach. Hands. Fingers (wiggle her fingers). Elbows. Knees. Toes. She can smile on demand now. She can wave to others. She can blank kiss. She can jump (without jumping). All numbers are two. Draw any number and she’ll say two. When she wants to fall onto her bed she’ll say two…two…two and then jump. She knows cat. Dog. Bird. Fish (fffshh…spitting saliva all over the place). She goes all soft and loving whenever we sing "I love you" as in the Barney (I HATE BARNEY!) song. She actually pulls us (me and my wife) together close to her and hugs us as we sing the song.
Well…if I’m going to write about every single enjoyable thing that a parent feels watching his/her baby grow up then this post will never end. So I’ll wrap it up now.
Having a child is a blessing, a gift from God. It brings more happiness and meaning to our relationship. We truly feel that we share our lives together. Nothing in this world compares to the joy that a child brings. Sure…everything is getting more and more expensive as time goes by. Life can be difficult at times. But this little bundle of energy and joy makes living a whole lot better 
This message was brought to you by: MCYS (haha…just kidding!)
