(this is written by my wife on the day I posted the previous post)

My husband is away again. But this time my little son noted his absence. On the day my husband left, my little son came to me and exclaimed “Papa’s birthday is coming! Let’s go and buy a present for him!”

HUH?! What does a barely 3-year old fellow knows about buying presents for an adult?

Anyway, I played along. We went to the shops to choose a toy because according to my little son, “papa likes toys”. He chose a red toy car. Toy cars, are incidentally my son’s favourite.

“If it’s for papa then you can’t open it”, I said.

“OK” came the reply.

However, even before reaching home, the little one changed his mind.

“Let’s open it and put it in the toy box”, he said.

I played along and the red car, which was meant for papa’s birthday, had its box torn open immediately upon reaching home. My little son has been playing with it in the last 2 days, bringing the car to his bed to sleep, something that he does with his “favourite toys”.

“Is this car yours or papa’s?” I asked.

“It’s papa’s. When papa comes back I will give it to him,” he said.

I can’t wait to see what happens to the red car when papa comes back.

(this is written by my wife, I wish she hadn’t!! haha)

As I read my husband’s post on how elated my little son was on seeing him at the airport, I must say his behavior at home during the 3 days when his papa was away was far from that. He didn’t ask “where’s papa?”, nor was there any hint that he missed his papa. In fact he acted as if his papa was never a part of his life. Which got me a little worried actually. My gentle prodding of “where’s your papa?” yielded no reply as he busied himself with his toy cars.

It was therefore not without reason that our little boy was super elated to see his papa. Just before picking his papa, we had lunch at one of the cafes in the airport. Halfway through lunch, a boy came in with his parents and they took up the table beside us.

Being in the “I don’t care I just stare” age, my little son stared blatantly at the happy family. The boy started to act up (probably enjoying the attention afforded by my son) and talked incessantly with his parents, stealing glances at my son occasionally to see if he was watching. As their food arrived, the boy’s father lovingly cut them into smaller sizes for his son and fed spoonfuls into his mouth. All through this my little son was watching. Then suddenly he turned towards me and said “My papa is coming back?”.

I guess that was when he “remembered” his papa. Seeing the boy and his father probably made my son miss his own papa as these realize his papa hasn’t been around.

But I guess if my husband had been gone 3 months instead of 3 days, the reception at the airport would have been entirely different. Out of sight, out of mind. My husband should be thankful if my son would even open his mouth to call “papa” then.