SUPERHERO

Our home has been pretty quiet for the past 2 days. TM, our resident superhero is away on holiday with my brother and his family. From the time she was born, she has been nothing short of SUPER! Let me share some general information on her. She is our second child and first daughter. My first baby was born by emergency c-section after 18 hours in labour as he was in distress. So, when the time came for my second child to be born, I wanted a natural birth (of course with the epidural). After 20 hours of full labour, my waterbag finally burst and I was put on the epidural. By the time 24 hours passed, my cervix was tightly shut eventhough my little superhero was firmly in place. There was no way she was getting out THAT way so my doctor did an immediate c-section. Throughout her difficult journey on the "road" to nowhere, the nurses informed me that her heartbeat was as strong as a horse (incidentally she was born in the year of the horse). Now, when she did finally emerge, I was under GA which means I didn't get to see her until almost 2 hours later when I was wheeled b ack into my room. My husband, meanwhile who was anxiously awaiting the birth of his little princess (we already knew) was told to wait "here and there" because the hospital's new wing had just started operations and there were not sure about where the father should wait. So finally, he was told to wait in the room which I had been booked into. Almost 1 hour passed and still no sign of our new baby. He was of course anxious and a little miffed but the joy of welcoming a new bundle of joy kept him on track. The aim was to find his baby! Finally, another nurse came in and "admonished" him for waiting in the room while his newborn was alreay in the nursery. He rushed to the nursery to find our little princess with "cat eyes". If not for the fact that she looked so much like her brother as a baby, we would not be too sure if she was ours. Anyway, hubby found her crying loudly and her face red and all wrinkled up (not from the water in the womb but from her fiery temper).

In the next few minutes, I was being wheeled into my room. My first question was whether the baby was alright and whether she looked like her Koko (term for brother in my mother's mother tongue. My wonderful hubby said she looks beautiful and she seems really healthy from her cry! Things that make her super (in a good and bad way):

1) She only wanted her mother (me) for the first 8 months of her life for every important event in her life (sleeping, drinking, bathing. Miraculously, she was alright when she was with the caregivers during office hours!
2) I learned the art of folding clothes, cooking, peeling, dishing out food, making milk etc with her in one hand. I even developed "tennis elbow" because of her and I actually told the doctor that I don't play tennis. He was tickled to say the least!
3) If her father put her to sleep, she would cry loudly for at least 30 minutes before falling asleep refusing milk and would wake up with a vengence. She would just continue where she left off!
4) We were supposed to be able to gauge exactly when she wanted her milk before she "asked" for it or we would be "punished". She would refuse milk if it was late (by a few seconds) or milk not at the right temperature. She wanted it just right. Repurcussions would be the same, she would go to sleep crying and wake up crying! Today, she is still a milk guzzler and is able to finish 250ml of milk(in a bottle, of course) in less than 3 minutes and is not afraid to sleep on her own.
5) Putting her to sleep meant, standing up and swaying her gently from side to side for at least 30 minutes and only her mother (me again) could put her to sleep peacefully. The minute I sat down, she would scream and I would have to get back on my feet! But the great thing was, she would sleep early (by 8pm) and would only wake up at 6am the next morning. No feeds in-between. Till today, she looks like an angel when asleep!
6) At 4 weeks, she managed to roll over on my bed where we had left her at the centre of th bed "knowing" that babies only roll over at almost 2 months! The beginning of her superhero days.
7) She was crawling at 4 months and walked at 8 months!
8) By the time she was 12 months, she was only running.
9) She spent the next 2 years of her life (age 1 to 3) in a stroller everywhere except for confined areas which we knew she could not get out of. It had to be full-proof because she could climb out of anything! Poor thing, everytime, we let her go "free" without stroller or a hand leash (yup, we got lots of stares and reprimands from "well-meaning" people who couldn't look beyond the leash and why we needed it!)
10) The entire household could be sick and she would be OK :-)
11) Even if she had a fever of 40 degrees, she would still be running around and the only thing that would give her away would be rosy cheeks!
12) She was not afraid to pick up insects as "instructed" by her older sibling (who is a scared of his own shadow. Her bravado amazes and frightens us!

Finally, why is she my ultimate superhero? She was the one who put in her entire arm into the gutter(in my bathroom) to pick up my very precious SKII cleanser (travel size) which had fallen into the gutter when the bathroom was washed.

What am I missing about her? Her beautiful smile which can charm the pants off even the grumpiest, the twinkle in her eyes when she smiles, her off-beat and sometimes very embarassing one-liners which are so honest but so not politically correct, her non-stop chatter about everything in her life good and bad, her iritating "Mama, can I tell you something" which drives me up the wall because she doesn't care what I'm doing, how tired I am and how nasty a reply I give her to get her off my back, she wants to tell me something come what may!

Of course, I don't miss her fiery temper, the way she rolls her eyes whenever she gets iritated with us (?!), her Disney channel accent which is so fake it drives me crazy sometimes, the way she speaks under her breath just loud enough for one to hear when she's not happy about something and I really don't miss her imaginary friend, Melissa who spends half her life in our home and follows us all over Malaysia whenever we travel. As much as I don't miss all that, my heart aches for my superhero to be right here infront of me just being herself. We love and cherish her for who she is. Period. Nothing else matters.

Oh, by the way, TM is five years old. The only reason she is on holiday without us is because our extended famiy is very small and therefore extremely close-knit. She has always been very close to her uncle and family especially her cousin SD who is 4 years old. They've been best friends since forever!

Her famous last words just before she left on Saturday, "I'll miss all of you but I want to go. Don't worry-lah, I'll be back in 14 days".