Bobo, at an age when he's most adorable and most terrible

I opened my eyes after another restless night. was I seeing doubles? It's two sets of little faces next to me, but, that's impossible? There was only baby with me last night.

The brain has finally caught up with the eyes, and it clicked. Ah, Bobo had slid into my bed again. He does it quietly every morning without fail. Sometimes he would paused at the doorway, peeping cautiously just to see if I'm asleep or awake. Sometimes I opened half an eye, hearing his footsteps.

Sometimes he caught me by surprise by whispering right next to me, "Mami, can you help me take off these bed clothes?"

Today he's just there under the blanket, squashed between baby and the wall. My brain registered his presence and I rolled back to sleep.

The torrential rain for the past 2 days has brought on cabin fever.  Bobo is bored. He left the bed and carried a bundle of "train station master" clothes into the room.
"Mami, I want to wear this now."
"Huh? This? Not now, I'm sleeping."
"Mamiiiiii..." I can hear the urgency rising, "I want to wear this now."
"Nobody wears this thing early in the morning. I'll put it on for you later."
"I want to wear this now."
"Go to daddy, he can put it on for you. I'm sleeping."
"MAMI I WANT TO WEAR IT NOW. WEAR IT NOW. WEAR IT NOWWWWWW"

Two year old tantrums at 7am in the morning, while everybody else is still asleep, that's more than I can bear. I dragged him into another room, shut the door, and went back to sleep.

The whole house can hear him wailing loudly, "I want to wear it nowwwwwww"

The damage has been done, everybody woke up to the commotion, and I felt a slight tinge of guilt. He was making only a simple request, after all. Why didn't I just put that costume on for him? He'd look very cute in it after all.

*******************
It continued to rain even more this whole day. After sending cola and EggEgg to school, Bobo was bored. I was bored. Ladder was bored. Bobo wanted me to play boardgames with him.  Baby Ladder wanted me to carry him all day. I just want to sit down and be left alone.

By 1pm, after 3 rounds of boardgames and 4 tantrum meltdowns later, the skies cleared. The air smelled wonderfully refreshing after a fortnight of bush fire ash in the air. The sidewalks were carpeted in a deep shade of purple, those fallen petals from my favourite jacaranda flowers. Such was the lovely sight as I opened the doors. In the veggie patch, there were even two large juiciest strawberries, the last of this season, glistening with cool raindrops, as if saying, "eat me!"

Bobo and baby were asleep. I could finally rest before the afternoon pick up and homework rush hour.

*********************
The big brothers are home, Bobo has perked up like the grass after a heavy rain. Alas, Cola and EggEgg were too engaged in their own games, their usual guns and soldiers stuff, that they hardly notice Bobo at all.

Bobo climbed on the plastic chair, used all his might to pull open the boardgames cupboard, carefully took out his Zingo game. He put it on the coffee table, in front of his two brothers, and suggested, as polite as a 2 year old can be. "How about we play this game? 不如玩呢個game加？" (Bobo has an endearing manner of using a suffix 加？to end each question)

Cola and EggEgg didn't hear him. They were too involved in their own world,

"How about we play THIS game?" He suggested again. After all, Zingo is his favorite game.

I sat at the dining table, feeding baby, watching from afar. Poor bobo, he has nobody to play with. All day, he clamoured for attention, yet he received none.

****************
"I want that!" Pointing to Cola's new Peso the Octonaut figurine that he received as his birthday gift.
"No, that's gor gor birthday present from his friend at the party."
"Mami, I want a birthday party too."

Bobo has figured out a party is the best way to get toys.

Cola interrupted, "But nobody will come to his party, because Bobo has no friends at school!"

"How do you know that he has no friends?" They attended the same pre-school together: Cola at the senior ("Moonlighter") class, Bobo at the junior ("Sunshiner") class.

"I know. Because I always see him play by himself [at outdoor play time]. Or if he sees me, he always want to follow me. Today, I hid somewhere so that he can't find me. All the other kids tried to tell him where I hid, but Bobo didn't understand them, so he couldn't find me. Har. Har. Har."
Children can be so mean.

I continue to ask Cola, "So, Miss Jo told me that Bobo doesn't talk at all at school. Is that true that he doesn't talk?"
"He has talked! I heard him talking to other kids. He always says, '哈囉,你喺度做乜嘢？'"
No wonder no other kid talks to him! He didn't realise that everybody else speaks a different language.  At least, he made an effort, unlike EggEgg or cola at the same age...

My cute, gentle Bobo. Always curious yet cautious about new adventures.

******************
As the big brothers are taking their showers, Bobo helped setting up the dining table. He pulled up a chair and placed a fork and knife onto each persons placemat. Forks and knives for Mami and Daddy. Plastic cutleries for his big brothers.  And he's only 2! We've never asked him to do that, it has always been big brothers task. He really deserves some attention from us.

Luckily Tonton played throw and catch with Bobo after dinner as I tried to put baby to bed.

**************
It's 1:26am now, I'm writing about him, I'm missing him already.



It's morning I open my eyes and everything's still the same
I turn to the guy who stayed last night and ask him: What's your name?
This seems to happen more and more
I love those men one and all
Each new one I meet makes heart beat faster
When I see them so strong and tall
.
So many men - so little time. How can I lose?
So many men - so little time. How can I choose?

(From "So Many Men - So Little Time" by Miguel Brown)