Ilham's Psyche

Mood: Lazy Playing: Pearljam's Long road, sung by Michael Stipe

I'm kinda lazy today, so I'm posting something I wrote on www.ummikusayang.com on March 16th 2004.
____________________ ________

Last weekend I had a peek inside Ilham's psyche.

On saturday I was feeling kinda down for some reason. I was making myself a drink and he came to me and asked,
"Bonda, I have something, and you can smile, what do you want?"
I was like "huh?? I dont understand your question.."
He frowned and looked at his glass of ribena and said "I'm not good in English",
so I replied "then tell me in bahasa malaysia".
He said "Kalau Ilham ada benda yang boleh buat bonda senyum, bonda nak apa?"
[ If I had something that can make you smile, what would you want?]
I was stunned.
After a while watching him drink his ribena, I finally answered him
"If you have something that can make me smile, I would want a hug"
He gulped down his ribena and then came up for breath (you know how kids get when they drink too fast and for too long) and breathlessly said, "okay" and gave me a long hug.
I hugged him back and added ".. and also if you want, you can help me wash the dishes.."
which he did. tee hee hee. Sneaky, but hey.

On Sunday we attended a birthday party at McDonalds and they were having games. Knowing that Ilham can sometimes get easily frustrated when he loses, I stayed close to the kids. First they played a version of 'hot potato' with a burger box. Ilham was one of the last few to get 'kicked out' of the game and he went "Arrrghhhh", so I ruffled his hair and said "Hey, that was fun! Let's see who wins!"
and he sportingly watched the rest of the game.
Next game was the ever popular musical chairs and I asked him whether he wanted to play and
he said "I want to play but I'm afraid I will lose".
So I had to convince him that it doesnt matter if he wins or loses, as long as he tries and that he has fun. His eyes lit up and said "Yeah, like Samurai Jack!"
and jumped in to join the game. And he won the game!! yay!! he joined in the other games after that and it looked like it didnt matter to him when he lost.

*sigh* Kids grow up fast, don't they? It felt just like yesterday
when Ilham was teased in school for calling his mom 'Bomba'.

[Note: The kid's call me 'Bonda' which is 'Mother' in classical malay. 'Bomba' is malay for 'Fire Department'.]