To the baby of the family, who turns two

Dearest Baby J,

You arrived, just three days before Mama's birthday. You, looking tiny next to your older brothers. You, the one who learnt to sleep through the chaos of two little boys always poking you, or creating a ruckus around you. I cannot believe the baby of our family is now two, and you always remind me "I'm not a baby, I'm a toddler". But for now, I'm still calling you "baby", since you are still the baby of the family, at least for a little while more. And you'll always be the baby boy of the family. 

I've always marveled at how wonderfully you got along with your biggest brother. Both of you have a special bond, and he's always been extra patient and loving when it comes to you. These days, you still fight a fair bit with your second brother, but you are playing a lot more with him too. Hearing the conversations between the two of you always makes me smile!

You're probably the only extrovert in this family of introverts. You love being in the thick of things, and love hanging out with your brothers. Being the youngest, you know how to turn on the charm, and you're generally a smiley, sunshiny little boy, unless you're having one of those whiny days. 

You want to do everything that your brothers do. You try to climb like them, scoot like them, and even want to play the violin. So much so that your grandparents got you a tiny second-hand violin, so that you would stop bothering your brother when he practices his cello. 

The terrible twos have hit, and hard. The days have been filled with tantrums. You've started sneaking off to play with water in the bathroom, and insisting on soaking in the tub every other hour. You play hard, and fight hard. You've been pinching and scratching, and then you would try to get out of trouble by asking the victim "are you alright?". But tantrums aside, you have this sense of humour and love making us laugh with the funny things you say:

You: Where does Papa work?

Mama: He works in the hospital. 

You: No... He works in the watermelon, so I cannot eat up the watermelon!

~~~

You: Watermelon, watermelon, what do you see?

I see a J3 boy, want to eat me! 

~~~

You are just crazy about watermelon, and call yourself the watermelon boy. You also love pandas, and your brothers are always very excited when they spot a picture of a panda, and would point it out to you. They also help you to make a baby carrier out of your singlet for your baby panda, whom you call "Bamboo baby", so that the Mama panda can carry him. The thing is, you call the Mama panda "Bamboo boy", which makes me smile!

You are still a much better eater than your brothers, and love trying everything on our plates. You love chomping on fishballs, and you look a little like a fishball yourself. You go crazy when there's chocolate cake, jelly or seaweed snacks, and are always bugging me for "nack nack" (snacks). 

I feel a little sense of loss that my last little baby boy is growing up so fast. But we thank God for the little ray of sunshine that is you. Happy birthday, my little watermelon boy!