to Truett with love

Dear Truett,

Happy birthday, you’re 6 today! I thought I’d write you a letter before you get too big for letters from your mom. Wait, scratch that, momma’s going to write you letters till you turn 18 25 45… for as long as I can write so I guess you should be prepared for that.

The past 6 years has been quite a ride.

Thanks for being the best first kid a mom could ask for. I was such a rookie when you were born and we’ve had to make most of our parenting mistakes with you. Sorry about that. You were our first experience with an infant, the terrible twos, the rough toddler tantrumy phases, the food battles, the meltdowns, the separation anxiety, the preschool jitters, the stress that a 6-year-old has to go through.

You’ll also very likely be our first kid to become a teenager, fall in love, have your heart broken, grow up, change the world. Along the way, you might start to suspect that mommy doesn’t have the faintest idea how to deal with all of that and you’d probably be right. Although I’ve had to go through some of those things myself and having come out the other side, I’m guessing the best thing I can do for you is be here for you when you need me to be. Which I will always be. Mommy’s always just a hug away.

If I haven’t told you enough, we are really proud of you. Watching you grow up has been such a privilege.

I love how you make being a big brother look so easy. All the times you’ve had to suck it up and give in to your baby sister and brother because they’re little, I know it’s not always fair. The way you rush to their rescue and watch out for them to make sure they’re safe (not attacked by ducks, not left in the elevator, not drowned). The way you pat them on the head and tell them that “kor kor loves you”.

I love how you’ve grown up to be a confident little boy. You used to hide behind benches to avoid interacting with people but these days, you hold your own in a conversation with practically anyone. That’s really cool.

I love how you’re not afraid to wear your heart on your sleeve all the time. You give out hugs and kisses and you say “I love you’s” loud and proud even though your friends giggle in the background.

Of all the things I’ve done right in my life, one of the right-est is having you.

Have a wonderful day, my son. Daddy and mommy loves you more than you’ll ever know.

This has been a crazy, crazy week. With the trip coming up, it has been a mad rush to pack and run errands and get some work stuff sorted before we head to Sydney tomorrow. And like all that wasn’t enough, we also decided to put together a small party to celebrate Truett’s 5th birthday in school.

Initially, it was supposed to be a simple, fuss-free affair – I had planned to pick up a small cake from a bakery near my place, pack a few goodie bags for the kids and be done with it. But I should have known that there’s no such thing as a fuss-free kids party.

Truett requested for an Angry Birds cake so I set about looking for a (relatively) cheap option. There were none. The ones that didn’t cost over $150 were really tacky ones where they printed a low-res Angry Birds image and stuck it on top of a standard round cake. Tru was so sweet and he was all like “it’s ok, it’s still quite nice, I will like it, I promise.”

Then I figured, what the heck, I might as well make one myself. It’ll already be nicer if I just buy a cake and pop on a couple of Angry Birds toppers. And then I thought, since my mom makes a really delicious carrot cake, I’d do the whole thing on my own from scratch. So Truett helped my mom to bake the cake and I did the decor by piping some green cream cheese frosting, throwing on 2 Cadbury Marvellous Creations bars as the pigs’ fortress and sticking some figurines on top.

Behold, Truett’s homemade Angry Birds cake.

For the goodie bags, I found some brown paper bags, filled them with treats, wrote a small note and sealed them with tiny wooden pegs.

I just need to pick up a couple of Angry Birds mylar balloons and we’re all set for a squawking good time tomorrow. Sorry, bad pun but I’m exhausted and my brain is fried.

Sometimes I wonder why I kill myself doing all this but then I see the look on his face and I’m like, “you know what, so worth it.”

It was Truett’s birthday on Saturday and like with all of my kids’ birthday, I feel a little sentimental.

4 years ago, he popped out all shiny and suave, with his slicked-back, Armani-styled hair and soulful eyes. Even covered with the layer of gooey tau huay bits, we could tell that this one was a looker. And then he let out the most heart-wrenching yell we’ve ever heard.

We were equal parts terrified and in love.

Since then, I’ve been crazy about this boy. He’s nothing like what I expected but everything we could possible want.

He’s affectionate, not in the overly kissy-huggy manner, but in the depth of his expression. When he hugs me, he looks at me like I mean the entire world to him.

He loves french fries and Transformers and scary roller-coasters.

He’s big-hearted and compassionate, giving in when he doesn’t have to and always trying to rescue his sister when she’s in trouble.

His favorite word is BALU. Don’t ask me what that means because apparently, it can mean a variety of things, ranging from smart to funny to boring. It can be a verb, a noun, an adjective. It’s basically like a wild card for when you need a word to describe something you don’t have a word for.

He hates vegetables. Except potatoes. That are fried crispy and golden brown.

His secret talent is in building airplanes. He can do it with any sort of building blocks and in any size.

He’s unbelievably awesome and he’s all mine.

It still feels like a dream knowing that we’ve been able to love him for 4 years and we intend to love him for a gazillion more.

Happy Birthday, my boy!

Truett turns 3 today and I am missing 2 already.

2 was a good age. He learnt to blow raspberries and button his own shirt and poop in the toilet and perform surgeries on my head with a (toy) fruit knife. He made me imaginary presents using only vigorous hand gestures. He even let me kiss him 50 times a day and stopped wriggling when I hugged him several seconds longer than I should have.

In the past year, he’s lost the baby blurness that I was so fond of. Instead, he’s taken to being the grammar police around here and I can’t get away with smoking my way out of explanations. His favorite question these days is “for what?”

Me: Tru, it’s time to bathe.

Tru: Bathe for what?

Me: Bathe so that you’ll be clean.

Tru: Be clean for what?

Me: Be clean so that you’ll smell nice.

Tru: Smell nice for what?

Me: Smell nice so that I won’t pass out while taking care of you.

Tru: Take care of me for what?

Me: Gah! Just step into the shower, young man.

He’s also grown to be quite the charmer. I finally chopped off my hair yesterday and when I got back, he ran to the door and said “wow so pretty!” Or he’ll pat his sister on the head and say “love you, mei mei.” Or give us a giant hug out of the blue just because.

3 years ago, I had no idea what it was like to have a little man in my life. Now I can’t imagine what it would be like without him. This boy makes my world complete.

I asked him what he wanted for a present and he said a robot. So I made him one with special robo blasters and a little robo friend. Meet bobo and bobot.