When I was in the clinic for my 2nd ultrasound, to check the 8 month old child inside my womb if it’s a boy or a girl, I had this anxiety enveloping my being. As a first time mom, I had so many uncertainties. When I was in the hospital bed and the machine was gliding through my huge stomach, the laboratory technicians ask me to talk to my child and ask him to open his legs so we can see his genitals. I was so skeptic about the idea but I followed anyway. I saw my husband’s awkwardness with the idea but he obliged as well. As soon as I talked to the baby and asked him to open his legs so we can see, he moved his legs and there we saw his privates and so we found out he was a boy. A coincidence perhaps but from then on I know I have this connection with him. That as his mother, he would understand me.
He had shown his intelligence at his early months, copying my hand gestures of itsy bitsy spider at two months which really awed his skeptical “Lolo” because he really can’t believe that a child that young would be able to do those things. AT 3 months, I found him “reading” a child’s magazine which I left beside him so I could pee. I was so amazed that instead of worrying that it might fall to his face, I had found time to look for my cell phone so I could record the scene. He was really amazing. Of course I am his mother so I would be really partial to him that all the things he did were perhaps taken as an overstatement.
Of all his accomplishments, awards and medals that he had been collecting since then, what really awed me is his resilience and respect for character. As we try our best to mould his character and build a good man out of him, we sometimes forget that he is just a child. Though I still think it would be best for him to be perceptive of all the things that are happening around us and to be aware of reality and truth of what really life is. Sometimes, I felt guilty. I was sometimes unsure if it was really necessary or I was just stealing the innocence out of him. He’s always perceived as mature for his age but still he is an empty glass waiting for the water of knowledge pour unto him. He accepts all our sermons and criticisms courageously without a blink of an eye and accepts his faults and without battering his eyelashes apologizes for his mistakes. He tells the truth without hesitation even though he fears he will be reprimanded later. He welcomes challenges and shrugs defeats. He tries to understand all my mood swings as I try to understand his. He is assertive enough to say what he really feels about some issues and brave enough to reproach anyone whom he think is doing wrong. Sometimes he was misconstrued as over bearing especially when he tells the truth. And the truth sometimes hurt. We always bring him to all the social gathering that we attend to and he always behaves exceptionally. He never persisted on acquiring anything but carefully implies if he wants something. He knows how to save his money and knows the difference between wants and needs. He spends his savings wisely to the point that he almost spends nothing of it. He guards himself not do the things he’s not supposed to do when he’s grounded even though I myself sometimes forgot that he is grounded. He remembers every little detail that happen in his everyday life. My promises and my rules which a lot of times backfires at me and I will be told of by my little gentleman. I was always been told that I am so rigid and a lot of times I ask my son if he thinks so too. But he never fails me and always answers condescendingly “I’m used to it already and anyway it’s for my own good”. And then after being reminded of how benevolent my son is I would go out and buy something that he really likes and surprise him when he came home after school. These are the small things that he would accept with a lot of enthusiasm like as if he was given a million pesos.
But what really makes me teary eyed is his sensitivity to our feelings. At his age he is the one who encourages me to do better and to be better. He influences me more than I influence him. I taught him values that are hard to comply with sometimes as an adult and he learned so well that it compels me to follow it too. He constantly reminds me of the virtues he was told at home and at school and reminds us, his parents to abide it also. As we see him grow to be a good man that we always wished him to be, he gifted us with his own self conceived knowledge with his childlike innocence and grace. He conquers the world with his purity of spirit and his unwavering faith. His brave little heart which warms everyone around him, serves as a symbol of his incorruptibility and virtue that would remind us all of the wisdom of our savior Jesus Christ when he told us to be like a child so we could enter the kingdom of heaven.
