Miguel

His high-pitch scream was heard throughout the house when I arrived. I called him out and that was his response. He was running towards me and calls me by my name, Armi (silent r). There are no words to decribe the joy I feel. All stress and worries are gone as I ask him to give me a kiss and a tight embrace. Doe-eyed and anxious, he could hardly wait for me to open my bag and give out my pasalubong. I have none, so instead I ask him, "Sinong may gusto ng ice cream, taas ang kamay!" His 2 hands shoot up and he almost jumps with joy. More laughter follows from his lolo and lola whose grin we laugh about, as mama has one more week before her new set of teeth is ready.
I remember how my sister told me she was pregnant. Recently married, and her husband off to the middle east, she took a pregnancy test and came out of the restroom to look for me. She told me,"I'm pregnant." Tears followed. I asked her why she's crying, to which she said, "Ang bilis. Akala ko after one year pa.." "I thought you were crying with joy," I chided as tears were already forming in my eyes as well (if you know me, you can almost tell that will happen). "Kasama na yun..," she said. From that day on, gone were the days when we'd poke each other on the bed until I fall off (I always fall off), nor the days when she'd pull the blanket from me and kick me (I'd kick her too, of course!). Memories flashed as I remember the days we'd fight and my mother would intervene. I'm still guilty of the peklat I gave her on the face because of sabunutan incidents when we were young. Those days were followed with love. Nothing but love. She is after all, my only sister, and her kids are going to be fabulous.
She gave birth on the dot, after only an hour and a half of labor time, and her son looked exactly like the close up shot taken by her ob-gyne on her 6th month. Round-eyed, big-nosed and healthy. I remember I worried about them staying with us and how that is going to interrupt my sleep (how selfish!), and boy was I wrong. Miguel interrupted my every waking hour. He changed his grandparent's lives too. Miguel is the first grandchild from both sides, and we'd borrow him a lot. Papa is his number one fan, though. And he loves his lolo as well. He'd change his nappies, feed him at 2 AM, cook for him, jog with him, put him to sleep, insert his Barney CD even if there's OTB on channel 71. After all, he'd ask his lolo repeatedly," Asan Barney, Lolo?"
I gave my Purefoods-signed basketball to him as a present, and boy, how he loved the sound of that. Ball is among his first words, I think. He thought everything round is a ball, and would drop it and assume it'd bounce. Calamansi, orange, Chinese therapeutic massagers, eggs. He loved the sound of the bounce, and is drawn to basketball courts. When asked where his baby sister Ysa is, though,he'd say,"office". That's where his mommy (mayee to him) is, so he just repeats what he hears. Ysa is a beautiful baby girl, already wanting to go out at 8 months, wanting to do everything in advance. She has huge eyes that are so pretty you'd cry. I know she'd make men cry one day. Haha, especially her father's.
How time flies. One of these days I will have children of my own, and I hope to give them as much love as I can. And of course, they will be fabulous too!