Brother, You are My Hero!

It’s amazing how Adik mimics whatever Abang says and does. If Abang does a silly spinning dance in the middle of the lounge, then Adik wants to do it, too! If Abang screams at the cat, why, Adik will demand to be reprimanded as well. Why should Abang have all the fun, eh?

Adik is only now beginning to make some semi-recognisable sounds, like “meow” without the “ow” sound so sounds more like a “me-aa” when he sees the cats (funny how my son’s first word is a actually a meow – Harun’s mummy would be pleased!). So, when Abang says something interesting Adik tries to say it too. He usually gets the intonation spot on but the words get a bit jumbled up.

Since Abang is, well, the Abang, he has no Abang of his own and so his heroes are his cousins. Whenever he’s with Cuz I can be rest assured that as long as Cuz is well behaved (which he is 90% of the time), then Abang will be too. If Cuz asks nicely for some French toast and eats it all, then – wait for it – so does Abang. To top it off, Cuz’s politeness has really rubbed off on Abang!

Just the other day we went to fetch Cuz from school and they were chatting in the car, like usual, about school and stuff. Cuz was telling how he got all sweaty because he had been playing outdoors all morning.

Then Abang asked, “If I’m all sweaty at your apartment, will your mom let me play in the shower with you?”

“Um, yeah,” replied a rather reluctant Cuz. I guess 9-year old boys are more particular about privacy than 3-year olds are!

After about 15 minutes of their chatting, I noticed that Abang would repeat, almost word for word, whatever Cuz said. Then, as if reading my mind, Abang himself piped up, “Hey, I’m following everything you say!”

I laughed so loud that both boys were wondering if I’d gone cuckoo. So I said to Abang, “Yes, you do, Abang! Why do you do that?”

“Because I am friends with Cuz.”

AJ has the same effect on Abang. No matter what AJ asks for, Abang will ask for the same thing even if he has never heard of it before and hasn’t a clue what it is!

AJ: I want ice cream!
Abang: I want ice cream also!
AJ: I want solaris (or something that sounds like that, apparently a type of ice cream)
Abang: I want soo-loar-aa also!

Maybe I can teach (or bribe) them to say things like, “I want vege! I don’t want sweets! Eeee-yuck, no chocolates for me, please.”

Let’s see if that works.