Hold Me Till I Fall Asleep

Whenever we are sleeping over at Maktok’s or Nenek’s house, we always sleep in the same room, all five of us. At our little apartment, Nuha would be sleeping in her own room with her soft animal friends while the twins would bunk with Abah and Supermama.

The thing is, whenever we are sleeping over at Maktok’s or Nenek’s house, Nuha would insist that Supermama hugs her to sleep. It is very seldom that she would go to sleep on her own. And it’s even rarer that she would ask for her Abah instead of Supermama to comfort or pat her until she falls asleep. I’m not being jealous or anything but sometimes I do wonder why Nuha always chooses Mama over Abah. I don’t think I smell that bad. Well, I do smell but surely not as bad as the ultra horribly stinky ikan pekasam. In fact, I try very hard to shower at least twice every day though I know I can never smell as nice as Supermama. There must be other reasons but they all don’t matter anymore because last night she asked for Abah.

That’s right. She asked for her Abah to hold her until she falls asleep. It was a happy moment for Abah indeed. Nuha actually asked for Abah. It didn’t matter that she actually asked for Mama first but Mama had to clean up after Raisa who had just vomited on her pillow. It didn’t matter that Nuha was actually begging Mama to let Abah handle the vomit instead. It didn’t matter that she was left with only two options: to sleep on her own or to let Abah hold her until she dozed off. What mattered was she chose Abah over her soft animal friends. So there we were, Abah comforting her eldest princess to slumber.

Nuha is the type that would wake up every few hours at night.. sometimes she would even suddenly sit up-right. I suppose she wants to confirm where she is or probably to check if her parents have turned into Sasquatch and Unicorn from Animal Mechanicals as she would like to. But she would only do this for a few seconds and then she would fall right back to sleep as if nothing happened. So, last night she woke up as expected. She sat, opened her eyes and saw Hero Abah by her side, protecting her from naughty bed bugs and monsters (mosquitoes mostly). Then she leaned towards me, probably to say thank you Abah for holding me like I’m the most precious jewel you’ve ever held. Maybe she was a little groggy so things came out a little differently from her mouth... because just as her head touches the pillow she asked me… “..mana MAMA?”

Abah's most precious jewel