When somebody cares... (a re-post from Malakai's Pages)

                                   Often, we take the little things for granted…
                              …and sometimes, it also takes a little to
                              snap us back into reality.

In truth, I dreaded going to Bali with Malakai last week along with my hundred-something officemates and their special peeps: daughter, wife, father, mother, wife and kid/s, and in my case, my son.
This is the first time in 3.8 years that I’ve been left alone to care for Kai…ON MY OWN. Yaya Osang was always around to get him when I get tired of playing with him. Or if I brought him in one of my shoots, there was always somebody to get him and play with him when he gets cranky. He can be a handful when he wants to and more often than not, he wants to be extra difficult.
But, brat that I am, I insisted.
Max: Are you absolutely sure about this? Cause I’m going to wish you luck…
Perhaps i should have listened to more to Max.
In Bali, Kai was snarling at everybody we were there with. His greeting was a snarl, his answer to a simple yes-or-no question was a snarl, his response to a pat and handshake was a pout. Needless to say, I wanted to fly my yaya in as soon as we took off in the Cathay Pacific flight for HK last April 16th. I couldn’t leave him alone with any of my P&G team mates for even a second. I hid from him, ran away from him, rested when he was asleep in the bus (though I knew the little monster was going to be back when he woke up!). Even the bathroom was no solace for me — Kai sat on the cover of the toilet bowl while I showered.
But one time that I was washing away my fatigue, he peeped on the glass door dividing us, his forefinger raised to call my attention, beckoning me to hear him out. Yet I was shouting at him to close the door as I didn’t want to bathroom floor to be wet.
And he persisted and when I heard what he had to say, my anxieties were washed away.
Kai: Mommy, careful ha? Wet yung floor, careful…
Haaay, doesn’t that make you melt? I could not quite capture the feeling, but its that moment, that realization when you’re brimming with happiness…
…because you know somebody cares…

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