My big, jelly like pot bellied stomach was constantly abused by my 3 daughters. It started right from the day they were born and lasted until early this year.
Perhaps I may be at fault here too since the thing was, I love to cradle my daughters, in their infant and toddler years, on my big belly, lulling them to sleep. Each one of them.
Growing up, I think they sort of adopted my belly to be their plaything. They jumped, pinched, hide their fingers inside my deep belly button hole, bit the poor thing when they were teething, and did all imaginable things as toddlers would have. They jiggled and rearranged it so it become an angry ocean in a violent storm. They pretended that its a quicksand, swallowing their little fingers to its depth, shrieking and giggling a sigh of relief whenever their tiny fingers survived the horrific ordeal. They turned it into an imaginary birthday cake or a big jelly, enough to serve everybody at their parties.
I did get angry at my daughters sometimes for their abusive behavior. But always only for a short while.
And then there were those times, when they were upset and crying, they would crawled up the belly mountain and somehow they were calmed down by just lying on it. It became their own comfort zone, land of peace and security. They slept on it with their mouth opened wide and I am sure they dreamt of the nicest dreams. They told their mother that my big, great belly is the best thing in the world.
One night last May, the youngest one with her sleepy eyes came to take her position on my belly, as usual to sleep on it. I could see she was restless and forever trying to adjust her little frame to a comfortable position on my belly. After a little while, frustrated, she sat up suddenly, looked me in the eyes and said;
"Abah, I dont like your tummy anymore, its not the same like before, and I cannot make it into a big jelly like always".
I told her that it has since shrunk because of I lost weight.
"Can you exercise and keep your big tummy?"
I didnt say anything, and shushed her to sleep. I suddenly realize that lately, their favourite thing in the world was not given enough attention as what they usually did. Perhaps they grew out of it.
That night, looking at her face, while she shifted endlessly on the once great belly, I suddenly felt I was missing something.
I miss those belly time with my daughters.
Perhaps I may be at fault here too since the thing was, I love to cradle my daughters, in their infant and toddler years, on my big belly, lulling them to sleep. Each one of them.
Growing up, I think they sort of adopted my belly to be their plaything. They jumped, pinched, hide their fingers inside my deep belly button hole, bit the poor thing when they were teething, and did all imaginable things as toddlers would have. They jiggled and rearranged it so it become an angry ocean in a violent storm. They pretended that its a quicksand, swallowing their little fingers to its depth, shrieking and giggling a sigh of relief whenever their tiny fingers survived the horrific ordeal. They turned it into an imaginary birthday cake or a big jelly, enough to serve everybody at their parties.
I did get angry at my daughters sometimes for their abusive behavior. But always only for a short while.
And then there were those times, when they were upset and crying, they would crawled up the belly mountain and somehow they were calmed down by just lying on it. It became their own comfort zone, land of peace and security. They slept on it with their mouth opened wide and I am sure they dreamt of the nicest dreams. They told their mother that my big, great belly is the best thing in the world.
One night last May, the youngest one with her sleepy eyes came to take her position on my belly, as usual to sleep on it. I could see she was restless and forever trying to adjust her little frame to a comfortable position on my belly. After a little while, frustrated, she sat up suddenly, looked me in the eyes and said;"Abah, I dont like your tummy anymore, its not the same like before, and I cannot make it into a big jelly like always".
I told her that it has since shrunk because of I lost weight.
"Can you exercise and keep your big tummy?"
I didnt say anything, and shushed her to sleep. I suddenly realize that lately, their favourite thing in the world was not given enough attention as what they usually did. Perhaps they grew out of it.
That night, looking at her face, while she shifted endlessly on the once great belly, I suddenly felt I was missing something.
I miss those belly time with my daughters.
oh dear, so sweet your daughters!!! When I was young, I love meleser with my dad, tapi dia takder belly, he never had, hahahaha (tapi anak2 dia semua size XXL tak tau lah mana dapat tu, kekekeke)now dah tua-tua ni pun boleh tahan manja with dad
ReplyDeleteAida : Thanks. Heheh, my daughters memang manja. Tapi kalau buat silap BELASAH!
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