Monday, February 23, 2009

When my little angel speaks his mind


Faris Haziq : Mama, I think baby is sick.

Mama Adlin : Why Faris, tell Mama please?

Faris Haziq : Because Baby never speak. He never call Mama and Papa. Baby never talk to me.

Mama Adlin : So, what do you think we need to do with Baby?

Faris Haziq : We bring Baby to see the doctor. Doctor will give baby medicines. After that, Baby will be OK.

When my sister called me in the middle of the day, i got worried - are my nephews not feeling well, etc. Alhamdulillah, everything was alright with them. It was my sister, Adlin, who wanted to share with me the 'deep' conversation she just had with his eldest son, my nephew. I was close to tears (yea yea yea, i'm a cry baby).

Hariz Firdaus a.k.a Baby was diagnosed with mild autism late last year. Alhamdullilah, we managed to detect this early considering others were only diagnosed when they were 7 years old. After visits to see the speech therapist and behavioural management specialist, Baby can now look at you when you called his name - Hariz.

But, you see, we never tell Faris that Baby has autism. I guess he gathered his thoughts about Baby while doing his jigsaw puzzles this morning with Adlin. His Mama told me he had been at it all day long.

Do you know how it feels when a little angel like Faris can have that kind of thinking and reasoning ability. Mind you, he is just 3.5 years old.

Perhaps, being surrounded by adults make Faris thinks and acts like one. Unlike his Mama, i am his devil advocate - he can do whatever he wishes to put his hands into. I let him helped me with preparing the vege and fish for our lunch. One time, he was asking me for a toothbrush so he could brush the fish's sharp teeth. He will remind me whether i would need to use coconut milk for my cooking - maybe due to its similarity to milk, he is 'infatuated' with santan. When i was on 4-hari 'berjoli' aka away from office, we baked oat honey cookies and raspberry jam tartlets. When dealing with little angles, expect messiness to the max but when you saw that small hands turning this dough into yummy cookies and seeing them 'serious at work', i bet you would allow them to turn your kitchen upside down. Faris said to me, after we finished baking, "it's fun Mak Long baking cookies. We should bake more". Oh God, i really adore him.

Being so close to his Mama, Faris helps Adlin to hang and fold the clothes, tidy up his toys so Baby won't fall down, mop or vacuum the floor. To see him doing that, without us asking, makes me feel proud of him because he is selfless, unlike many kids i met who are self-centred, kiasu and kiasi.

We first introduce jigsaw puzzles when he was 2 years old and you can see how he loved 'analysing the pieces' before seeing the big picture. He is indeed a patient and attentive soul. We believe it is good to let him know, early in his life, that nothing is easy in life.

He has this tendency of opening his statement with "well, actually..." when having conversation with us. We wonder where he got this from - his favourite Playhouse Disney Channel? Maybe. Because he love Kung Fu Panda' Everybody's kung-fu fighting' song, he even asked his Mama to teach him word by word the lyrics to that song. I told my sister to google and since then, he will say "Let's Google Mak Long" when i can't find anything. OMG, another google maniac in the family? :P

So like me when i was a kid, Faris doesn't like to talk over the phone - call it low self-esteem but we don't feel comfortable telling people what we have achieved today :) For us, achievement is nothing to be proud of but a responsibility.

Our next step for Faris is to send him to a kindy. Based on recce done by my sister on S_R, their aim for 4 year-old kids is to get them to know their A to Z and count from 1 to 10. hehehehehhe..Faris can beat that anytime. So, insya Allah he will start his kindy soon at this english montesorri that charge half the price of S_R and 20% of S_R annual fees. I am perplexed to know this. I was reading books when i was 4 so what's so great about S_R? Hmm...so much about brand power knowing malaysians are freaking sentiment-driven lots - you go to that shop because they are simply more people eating there despite the fact the food isn't good.

Anyway, my little angle speaks his mind today and that makes my hectic day so wonderful! May Allah bless him always.

2 comments:

zewt said...

very touching, for someone so young. it's a good sign. i am sure faris will grow up loving "baby" and taking care of "baby". to faris, hariz will forever be his baby...

Fi-sha said...

Dear Zewt, indeed a promising sign that Faris has a good sense of compassion. As you can see from today's world, destruction of in many forms are created by smart people with no heart. May both of them grow up to be better, enlightened human beings. Amin...