Hello, Singapore!

Tonight, MM arrived in Singapore with his parents and yaya!

My brother, whom I'll call H, and I were so excited to see them. Ok, if I'm honest, we're excited to see MM mostly. We stuck our faces on the glass and craned our eyes toward the Immigration area where they'd come from to go to the baggage claim area.

Finally, there he is! Holding his mother's hand as he came toward us. He stared at us through the glass, an expressionless stare as his eyes gazed and assessed us. I wonder what he was thinking then, of this aunt and uncle that he'd so far only seen in pictures. (We flew back to Philippines when he was but a month old, then 3 month old, then 9 month old and finally for his 1-year-old celebration, but I doubt if he'd remember.)

From pictures, he's tall, near to his mother's waist, but in reality, he's so small, so cute! (He's barely two, after all. But he's tall for his age.) I stare at this wonder who's my nephew and I can't stop grinning. He's finally here. I can't wait to get to know him.

I knew it'd take some time for him to warm to us, since we're practically strangers, but in no time at all, I was holding his hand as we walked to the restaurant for dinner. Of course, his dad or mom had to say to him to hold my hand, but that's fine. We're just getting to know each other, after all.

During dinner, he sat far away from me, but that's fine. I don't have much exposure to kids recently or that small and I wouldn't know how to interact with him. As much as he needs time to get used to me, it's the same for me.

After dinner, when we're going to the car, I held his hand again. At one point, he did his "point and point and point, twist twist twist, and jump!", something he learned in his baby's gym. I was half afraid he'd fall or something, but to my relief, he didn't.

On the way, something funny happened. My brother G (MM's dad) related that when they went to dinner with our parents and grandma, MM did a funny thing. He imitated how my grandma walked! So, G told him to do it again, which he started to do, but it seemed he couldn't do a perfect rendering, coz he stopped, then handed the stuffed toy he was carrying (baby Pluto) to his mother. Then, he bent over (quite low, even lower than our grandma's hunched back), put his hands in front of him in a clawing gesture and started to walk. All this he did with a little smile on his face, telling us that he knew he was putting on something that's guaranteed to make us laugh. Which we did, and something in his performance tickled me so much I laughed so hard I found it hard to stop. That should've told me this kid has a mischievous sense of humor, which he showed over the next few weeks.