Mak and Huzaifah

Mak has been here for a month. If not for her, I would be in real trouble. Having two babies quadruple the tasks of having just one. So, I feel blessed having Mak to do the cooking, the dishes, the laundry and to take turn looking after Huzaifah and Humaidi.

Mak being here for a month means we get to do a lot of catching up. I’ve learned some stuff I never knew before. Likewise, Mak too just learned of a few things herself. But all is good – after all, certain things are meant to be learned by our dear and loved ones not immediately, but over certain period of time…

Mak being here too means I get to hear a lot of advice – whether sought for or otherwise. But I tend to agree with whoever that said that we tend to listen more to our mothers as we grow older. Not that I agree with all that she has to say – but I pay more attention now than I did, say ten years ago. And definitely thankful that I still have a mother to turn to for advice.

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Prior to experiencing it herself, Mak had no idea how active Huzaifah actually is – running here and there, climbing here and there, moving stuff here and there, never still for a moment except when he is sleeping. Alhamdulillah Huzaifah does not show any signs of jealousy towards his new adik – in fact, adik gets to be kissed all the time where else he would just shake his head vigorously upon any plea for a kiss from Ayah, Ibu or Embah. On the other hand, we have to monitor his movement more carefully since he might unintentionally hurt adik.

But Mak would never forget how disorientated Huzaifah was the morning hubby and I were away at the hospital. He woke up and ran to look for me in the kitchen. When he did not find me there, he returned to the bedroom, and looked for his Ayah. When he realized that he could not find any of us, he started crying while tossing the futon, perhaps thinking we were hiding from him. He ran to and fro the kitchen and the bedroom, he even knocked on the toilet’s room, all the while never stopping crying. His Embah tried to console him, and when that did not work, distracted his attention by persuading him to watch the television. He cried himself to sleep as he kicked the futon in frustration. He was not his normal active self the whole day until his Ayah returned late that evening.

Mak is worried that Huzaifah is a little bit too small for his age. At 19 months, he only weighed 10.8 kg and 79cm tall. Mak complained that we do not feed him enough and she’s especially worried that Huzaifah has not start talking properly, still babbling in his own 'bahasa mongol yang telah pupus'. The thing is, he has always been a bit advanced physically; at 18-months he could do what is expected from a 24-months old - he can walk up stairs, walk down stairs, kick ball forward, take off his own clothes, open door – and if he could talk properly, he could probably start potty training already since he takes off his diaper and pants whenever he feels uneasy.

Mentally, he is doing fine too, since it is obvious that his mind keeps working as he keeps exploring stuff. He understands and responds to requests and questions with signals, exhibits temper and frustration, laughs at funny things and loves when we babble back to him. But his progress is slow when it comes to language skills. While most toddlers his age are able to say about 20 words and make 2/3-word sentence, the only word that he uses frequently that we could comprehend is ta-ta (as in bye-bye). The doctor I consulted for his 18 months check-up advised me to spend more time teaching him new words and practice using them so that at least he could make 2-word sentence by the time he reaches 24 months.

Still, with Huzaifah being so difficult to stand still even for a minute, I wonder how on earth am I going to pull that off…