one month on ...

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Yes, Benji {Benjamin} has been with us for a month now… with relatively little drama.

3 days after he was discharged from the hospital, I had a momentary scare that he had jaundice and wanted to drive myself to the hospital. So much for "pantang"!

My mom of course, unbundled him and put him out to dry in the morning sun like dried salted fish!

After 10 minutes, she proudly proclaimed: "what jaundice? He's ok now" followed by the "during my time …" lecture. Sigh. Sometimes you have to give in. Natural and old fashion remedies do work.

The biggest drama would be the day my husband returned from work and said in a deadpan manner, "we can't name him Benjamin. We need to think of a 2 syllabus name that will also be his chinese name".

Our responses ranged from down right practical to ridiculous with the classic one that came from Penny: "you kid me not! I've got a Benji label in the blog"

So for a week we cracked our heads thinking of another name for Benji. 

My mother's were all food, nature and household related like Basil, Bread, Brook, and Penny's was what else but political leaders, poet and geographical places. Thank God, my husband's weren't names of drugs or diseases! Mine, oh mine … it really didn't have any pattern to them.

The toughest part about renaming Benji was almost everyone  knew him as Benji, including the 3-day old classmate of Becks in school! And we kept referring to him as Benji. Lucky us, we were finally allowed to name him Benji - as Penny puts it:

 

"it had nothing to do with the Heavenly Gods smiling down at us on that day, rather the religious bloke relented at the sight of the entire family's presence and unison question of "why not Benjamin?!??""

Anyway, that reminded me of how superstitious we can be and how multi-religious we all can be… from naming, to food consumptions, to "do not go out - it's Hungry Ghost", to "ikat" and "urut" {traditional massage} … etc. It's rather fun being Malaysian.

As for all the supporters who have reached out with their well wishes {and nagging me about my non-adherence to the "pantang" regime} … thank you so much. Yes, Benji is well and stronger. Becks is deliriously happy at the arrival of a "new toy" and her relentless "when is he going to be able to play with me Mummy?" question. Bryant is surprisingly aware of Benji's presence as his roommate and whenever I place Benji beside him, his eyes gets larger and he quietens.