Smart-mouth

Did I say that I'm deeply madly in love with my smart-mouthed fishball boy? He can give me such pert answers that stump me but gee, how my heart melts! The boy has me like putty in his hands sometimes.

On Sunday he and his sibs were arguing about the ball. It's mine, he insisted. Both balls in the house belong to him, he said. Squabble squabble squabble.

Tired of the whining and the arguing from both sides, I said share or else. Boy refused. So I eyed him in exasperation and said, since the ball is yours, and you don't want to share, you have to keep the ball with you ALL the time for the rest of the day. The minute I find the ball away from you, it's mine.

He good-naturedly agreed and for the rest of the day, kept the ball with him. But by evening time, his patience wore thin and he came to me as we were preparing to leave for dinner.

Mum, he went, a bit whiny. Could I leave the ball at home?

No. Its your ball remember?

But mu-uuuum...

He sulked for a bit and thought hard. Then he brightened, looked at me craftily and said: If this is my ball... then I can choose to do what I want with it right? ...And so I choose to leave it at home!

KH said he check-mated me lock stock and barrel.

When he's not being cheeky, he's so sweet. The other day Eileen called me and alerted me that Owain had burst into tears during dismissal for no known reason, and suggested that I check with him because he'd refused to tell the teachers.

I called home and asked him: are you alright?

He told me, quite matter-of-fact: Its okay, mum, I calmed down already from walking home from school.

So why did you cry?

Because, he said, it was Nathaniel's birthday and he had goodie bags. I asked for two bags, one for me and one for Trin and when dismissal time came, one bag was stolen!! Someone took Trin's bag! Thats why I cried.

Ah, but when he returned home, the goody bag was found in his school bag. Eileen had placed it there so that he would not lose it. Happy discovery!

It's so heartwarming to hear how thoughtful he can be for his pesky baby sister - even though she drives him bananas many times. According to Eileen, he always asks for two bags during parties, even when Trin is not in school. He can be such a giving, generous little soul. And lets not forget that whenever Trin cries in school, Owain would be the one she looks for and Owain would be the one sitting with her, patting her shoulder and telling her gently: its okay Trin, don't cry. Only when she stops and seems happy to be in class would he then slip away to his own class.

Oh and did I say the smartmouth already has decided that he wants to go to RI??? Few months ago when we were flipping through the book on secondary school choices, Owain spotted RI's table of achievements, which were of course dotted with many icons of achievement. He noticed that other schools had noticeably less and deduced that the one with 'more pictures' should be the best school around. He eagerly told his brother about this 'good school' and seemed visibly disappointed that Isaac's score could not get him in. And that was when he said that one day, he would go there. To which I said: over my dead body!

My smartmouth fishball... For now I can still hold him, he can still sit on my lap (fights with Trin over lap space!) and he still comes to me for his snuggles and cuddles and kisses. He happily gives me hugs and kisses, tells me I'm his best girl in the world. He thinks the world of me now. I wonder how long it will last. While I can't imagine a strapping man of 30 professing such love for his old mother, I do wish I could prolong these moments for as long as I can. He's growing so fast I'm already missing him.