Elmo came as a zombie to his school's Halloween party. I don't know if he quite pulled it off. He would lose his favorite toy in a matter of hours.
This was taken in Trinoma in mid-September. For several weeks Elmo asked to stop by at some toy kiosk where he just ogled the robots. He waited a month before I surprised him with his wish. In turn, he promised to smile for every picture I took of him.
Bumblebee in all his glory.
Last week at Robinsons after watching Real Steel. Elmo loved his dinner companion, who could only look on.
Today our first stop after his tooth extraction was to get a vanilla ice cream cone from 7-11.
The weekend started off well enough for my little guy, Elmo. He went to school Friday for his Halloween party in his PE uniform (I refused to spend a centavo on a silly Halloween costume)but I drew some blood stains on both sides of his mouth with an old lipstick. He brought a taisan loaf and a big bag of popcorn -- his "food to share".
When I picked him up at noon, however, he did not look too happy. He started to tell me how many of the third graders lost their money/ wallets. There was a thief at school that day, he said.
"Pati si Bumblebee..." he said, his face crumbling and his eyes filling with tears. This was as we were crossing the street back to our apartment.
Bumblebee, of course, was the Transformer toy, alternating between robot and car, that I had bought for him -- at the princely sum of P700 -- less than two weeks before. I don't usually buy toys for the children, but on this one I relented because I had noticed how Elmo stared longingly at the same model every time we passed by a store. And, kulit (harmless mischief) aside, he had been a good boy.
He had been scared I would be angry. Of course I was angry, but I figured his grief was far greater than my anger. He told me he had left the toy on his desk when his class went to another room to see a movie. When they returned, it was not there.
(This morning, our exchange:
E: Sana mamatay na yung kumuha ng toy ko. Madami pa sya ibang kinuha. [I hope whoever took my toy dies. He did many other bad things].
A: Anak, maghunos-dili ka! [Son, don't take it to that extreme!])
I felt sad leaving him when I went to work. After a few hours, he chatted with me on Facebook to tell him that he was being fetched to spend the night at his father's house. I felt my heart tear a little. I missed him already.
And I was glad he asked to be brought to me early Saturday morning. His violin class for the day had been cancelled, but he had an appointment with the dentist for a tooth extraction. We were supposed to go after lunch, but we went at five pm instead because it was just so darn hot outside in the early afternoon (actually it's after midnight, and it's still hot. And it's late October???)
What a traumatic experience he and I both had at the dentist's office! I could not bear to see him in pain and hear him crying out. The dentist said the problematic tooth was attached rather deeply to his gum.
I was holding his foot the whole time (the dental assistant had his head locked in place). My eyes were closed, too, and I wished our point of contact would transmit the pain so I could feel it and he could not.
We were supposed to go to the mall after, but Elmo needed to rest. So we just ate ice cream at a 7-11 and went home. I simply gave him unlimited play time on my computer.
We then talked about "serious" things -- what ifs, what nots. I asked whether he still wanted me to return to the big house. He wondered how a child would feel if his parents had other partners already. I told him I did not even conceive of the computer when I was his age. He wondered what things would already be possible when he's as old as I am. Teleporting, maybe? Type "SM" into your computer, press your head against the monitor, and step out into your desired destination?
He fell asleep, finally, beside me, with a pack of ice still pressed to his left jaw. Oh dear, I love this dude. I remember the grand time we two had just last Saturday, watching a movie, eating Mongolian food with kwek kwek, killing time at Cinnabon, him holding his then-one week old Bumblebee everywhere he was, talking, leaning on each other's head during our two-hour bus ride home.
Tomorrow, he's going with me to my office. I look forward to another day with my bunso.
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