When you have to choose...

As introduced in my last post, Denephew, there is a little tyke in the household prior to Eva's arrival. He himself will be welcoming his little sister in mid-June.

In the meantime, since birth, he has always been close to his uncle (jiu jiu - brother to the mother) because jiu jiu has always been accommodating to his pleas for a playmate, one to carry him around or just one to manja with.

He would nuzzle up to his uncle who will be typing away on his linux-based laptop and calling him 'jiu jiu' repeatedly so his uncle will pick him up, put him on his lap and play dolphin clips from Youtube for him to scream in delight to. Yes, they are that close. The boy doesn't do that much with this own father. I never ask why. Some people are just better with kids, I guess.

The mother tends to all his needs, new diapers, food, milk, someone to put him to sleep... whereas I am the disciplinarian aka educator. He picks up words from me like xi shou (wash hands), zou kai (move aside) - actually I didn't teach him that, he just sorta picked it up after we say it to him... a lot of times - fei ji (airplane), fei gao gao (fly high high - the airplane flies high high), oh oh or shui jiao (sleep), tong tong (painful), etc.

To be fair, I'm not the only one who teaches him, but he takes it that words that are coming out of my mouth are those that he should be imitating and learning. And I am practically the only one who disciplines him since I'm more worried about him bleeding than about him resenting me. Thus, he doesn't come to me when he is in trouble or when he wants something because he knows I wouldn't tend to his pleas.

He goes to his jiu jiu who gives him the world.

So what happens when his jiu jiu has his own daughter to tend to? Sigh, the thought of breaking the two up is actually heartbreaking. It isn't because there isn't enough of the jiu jiu to go around. It's just that all this while, denephew has jiu jiu all to himself. So when jiu jiu is busy tending to a crying Eva, and denephew wants him to carry him to the balcony to look at the cars below, what would jiu jiu do?

I'm just glad I am not the one who has to do the choosing.

Signing off: Like Eva, waiting for the big day.