Baby Baby

Children or babies are like a change of new batteries. They are a source of renewal when we feel tired and worn-out. At the ripe old age of 40 i became the father of a bouncing baby girl with a tendency to regurgitate milk every time after feeding. She vomits like me, maybe. I remember years ago before children ever came into our family - one day while i was driving out with Mom on a warm dry Saturday afternoon lesiurely looking out at half empty streets in Malacca heading to the pasar malam, just me and Mom the two of us. Mom said that she was sure that the Chinese fortune tellers were wrong, they had predicted her to be "Lao Shui Man Soon" (having many many grandchildren in her old age). Here she was, already past 60 with nary a baby/grandchild to hold. My brother then had been married for a few years but my sister-in-law was at the time still working in England. I was still single with no steady girlfriend or prospects in sight - still working for the family business, still dependent on old Mom and Dad. And fast into my 30s. Fast forward 9 years later Mom and Dad have 6 grand kids to date with 1 more on the way next month from my sister. That makes a grand total of 7 grandkids next Chinese New Year, with 2 oxen being born in 2009 alone. How things change. Now whenever my brother and sister come home with their kids, the house is full of children's laughter and tearing around all over the place. I remember feeling old, tired, worn-out during that Saturday afternoon drive to pasar malam with Mom. On 1st September this year, after I had been married for almost 2 years Hannah was born. Now that I have my own child, my wife and i are getting used to waking up in the night to tend to Hannah, to burp her after each feeding, to cradle her to sleep (she hates to be put in the cot to sleep on her own), to bath her, to clean her. It's a demanding job perhaps moreso for my wife than for me, but i'm not complaining over the sleepless nights i have had to endure. I've just changed new batteries ;-)