Some Serious Sulking

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For the most part of the ride he sat in his Lola’s lap, ignoring me. He is a serious sulker, this Jeremy.

Backstory:  In January of this year, I had to leave Jeremy with his Lolo and Lola, because I couldn’t find a yaya for him. Jethro has Yaying, so he came back home with me and we had to leave manong behind. It wrenches my heart to do this, but I have to work and one yaya cannot take care of a baby and a toddler. But try explaining all this to Jeremy; he just knows that he was the one that got left behind.

Not that staying with the grandparents isn’t fun—Jeremy is the boss at home, hands down. It’s just that, I think when he saw me he remembered that I was gone again for some time. We last saw each other in January, and now we’re back for a Holy Week visit—it is March. 

So we sat side by side in the car in the hours-long drive to my parent’s house. Jeremy is hard to win over. I tried smiling and holding his hand, but he takes it back. He says emphatically, “No, no, no.”  I wait patiently and continue to talk quietly to him, even though he appears to be ignoring me.

After a while, his Lola hands me a bag of caramel puffs, and says with a wink, “Jeremy must be hungry.”

Aha, a break in the case. I pop open the bag and Jeremy sits up, interested. I hand him a caramel puff. He looks at it, looks at me. I smile. He looks at me, a grave, thoughtful expression on his sun-browned face. He gets the puff and puts it in his mouth, not looking at me. I eat a puff and grin at him. This time he smiles, a tiny, impish smile. Soon we are caramel puff conspirators, munching away. A few mouthfuls later, he’s warmed up enough to sit on my lap.

Surreptitiously, I tighten my hug. I lean into his shoulder and kiss the back of his neck. I always, always, always miss this boy.

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Comments

[petite]

Awww, this post just tugged at my heartstrings. I can relate to your baby - I was also the one that got "left behind" with my grandparents (I just wrote about that a bit in my blog today, too :-) ).

But you know what, growing up, I never doubted that my parents loved me and that they did what they had to do with my best interest in mind. Pero shempre, I missed them a lot and would have spells of homesickness that turned into sulking (a child's way of coping, no?).

I'm sure you'll be able to make Jeremy feel that you love him just as much as Jethro. That's what really matters. :-)

[AnP]

one day, he will understand why.

(((hugs))))