Like Father Like Son

I still have to publish the post about Christmas Day, but that one will take a while 'cause it's got pictures to upload and stuff. I just want to jot this down when I now have a bit of time (while the little one is focused on performing a bodily function).

There was a time when I felt this sense of pride when my mother told her friends (and later my friends) how, when I was little, she'd have to chase me around the house at mealtime 'cause I just wouldn't focus on eating. I thought my mom should be proud of my natural inquisitiveness. I certainly did/do. Then I suffered from ulcers when I was 16 and learned the importance of having regular meals at set times, and I've been pretty good ever since.

Twenty years later, I married a man whose eating habits are just as bad as mine in my teens!!! He often skips a meal because he "forgot to eat." When I put food in front of him when he's working, he'd take a few bites and put the fork down. More often than not, once the fork is down, the half-full plate of food will be completely forgotten as he's slowly immersed in his work thoughts. That's when I hear myself saying to him the things my mother used to say to me, and now I'm telling you what he does just like what my mom did. And you know what? After he came over and read what I had written, he mindlessly tickled my tummy and said with a smirk, "Whatever".

Kai may not have to work, but he certainly has thoughts of his own. Ever since he discovered a whole new horizon with the turning of his head, mealtime has become a bit of a tug of war with mommy in which mommy wants baby to eat and baby just wants to look around. When he hears Bill's voice, he'd nibble a bit and push his body away from me to look for Daddy. It's worse at night when his favorite lamp is on. Kai not only looks at the lamp longingly; he talks to it and chuckles. The nipple, which used to be his favorite not too long ago, suddenly becomes secondary. Eating becomes secondary. When that soft warming light glows, Little Don Juan takes two quick sips and tries to sweep the lamp off of her stand with a silly toothless grin and a drop of milk slowly dripping down his cheek.

-- to be continued --