Look who's coming over to stay...

My nephew (my sister's firstborn) had just finished his sixth grade final exams, and decided to put up at my place for a couple of days. His grandma (my mum), of course, is delighted. Standing at slightly over five feet and weighing about 110 pounds (he inherited his dad's heavy bone set physique), I can only wonder how much he's grown these years.

Back when he was just a newborn baby, he already weigh about 7.5 pounds (which is quite heavy for an asian). My sister used to deposit him at our place during the weekdays for my mum's safekeeping, as both she and my brother-in-law are working. I remembered rushing home from work just to take over the babysitting chore. Usually, I'd bring him out of the house just so my parents could enjoy some quite moments (he's a very noisy bundle then, but now he speaks little, engrossing himself with books or his favourite gameboy exploits - pokemon 'fireRed version', whatever that means).

I would normally choose a spot in front of shop houses, and let him sit on my lap watching all the bustling activities. He'd point at something that caught his attention, and I'd explain as best I could to him (I wasn't sure how much he'd understood, though, but who cares?). You may think that seemed like a waste of time, sitting there with a baby watching the crowd for an hour or so on ends. Well, maybe so, but hey, he's the first nephew I'd got back then, and nothing beats cuddling him close to me and observing his acute responses to the surrounding changes. At least it's better than letting the TV set do the babysitter's job, right? So it's no wonder that he's more attached to me than any other uncles he has.

And for that, I've taken a day off from work just so I can spend some quality time with him. I suppose that's the least an uncle should do, and he happens to be my favourite nephew (grin!).