Survival of the Cutest

Abang's moods have been swinging like a pendulum lately. They're worse than mine! The difference is nobody would say, "Aww, so cute!" when I snap out of my cranky mood and go back to my normal self. Whereas with the boys, they know how to switch on their Cute Switch that guarantees their survival.

Take Abang. One minute, he's all cranky and sensitive because someone had "moved his train set" or something mundane like that. And when he goes on and on, starting from the train set, to abusing the cat, to jumping on the coffee table (ensuring that Adik does too, because they are such a pair of Willing-Student Willing-Teacher) and other antics guaranteed to drive me up the wall, then I almost actually do try to climb the wall just to get away from it all.

But then, the pendulum swings the other way, and now he's all sweet and kind to Adik acting like a real loving big brother. He would take Adik's hand and they'd walk up the stairs together and declare, "Mom! I'm going to mandi with Adik!" At which point I scramble up the stairs and let them know that I need to be there when that happens.


Or, just the other day at my parents house, after a bout of running around screaming (for what seemed to me like no apparent reason), he needed a drink (you do get thirsty running around screaming for no apparent reason) so he got some UHT milk. Adik was eyeing it too, so I asked if he could share it and he readily agreed, and even held it for Adik to drink from it.

We all went, "Awww, so cute!"

Adik is learning the ropes too. Although generally more laid back and less sensitive than Abang, he's learning to show a bit of a temper. It's actually frustration because sometimes we don't understand what he wants.

So he will either bang a toy on the coffee table adding to the in-house design of dents and scratches or throw the toy on the floor. After a sharp reprimand, he usually has a thoughtful look - probably trying to decide whether to go all the way with a tantrum or take The Cute Way Out - and then bellows a heart-melting, cute-as-all-heck, "Mom? Mom?" complete with big innocent puppy dog eyes guaranteed to ensure his survival.

Over the weekend, Abang spent the night at my brother's house. Uncle Is and Ant G are obviously the flavour because this is the second weekend in a row that he's slept there. So much so that he has refused steadfastly to sleep over at Ant J or even Atok's house!

Anyway, during the half hour prior to sending him over he got a little excited and very revved up. Sprinting from one end of the lounge to the other (it's not a huge lounge so you can imagine how annoying it was) and "singing" at the top of his lungs. Then Daddy started the car to get him in it to go, and he started saying his goodbyes to everyone.

"Bye Wan! Bye Bibik! Bye Adik!" he said, and as he left he gave Adik a nice big hug and added, "See you tomorrow, Adik."

Aiyo, so cute. How la to strangle like that?