one is enough

As the mother of one, I get a lot of unsolicited "friendly" advice to have more
kids. "Kahit isa na lang", I am told followed by a 1. pitying smile  2. an added comment like, "sayang naman", and,  3. ang tipid 'nyo naman.


       My usual reaction is to smile back.
       My practical reaction is to answer, "mahal masyado ang bilihin para magpalaki pa ng isa...." 
       My most violent reaction is, "ayoko na, no!"

       Of course, the violent reaction is only when I get an overdose of my
smart alecky son. Why do I need another child when I have four rolled
into one? See, there's  a little of Calvin, Dennis, Garfield and Jughead
in Naki. No, my son's not Sybil but the way he devours his comic
books, it's like he's been possessed by all four.

       Naki/Dennis (the Menace by Hank Ketcham) likes to play outside with his wagon and scooter and gets into  fun-loving scrapes. Though he has no Mr. Wilson to challenge, he
does get plenty of hollers his way because of his profound love for clutter and disarray, in short "makalat siya". He's also had his share of time standing in the corner.

       Naki/Garfield (by Jim Davis)  is the lasagna-loving, milk-drinking, always hungry
individual. He's the one who informed me quite matter-of-factly that he is "all about food". When a lightning storm hit Quezon City the other day, all of us scrambled to turn the electric appliances off and pull the plugs out of their sockets. My son? He ran screaming with his plate, shouting, "Protect the food!"

       Naki/Jughead (of Archie) is the slouch who loves hamburgers and will have nothing
to do with girls. The other day, I asked my son over a hot burger who his partner in their special number  in school was. He didn't answer. I had to spend precious time convincing him that I was in no way going to tease him, that I merely wanted to know because I didn't know who she was. "Patricia", he  finally said under his breath,  after I   threatened to cut off his TV viewing time. "Eh sinong girlfriend mo??!!" I quickly followed up.
( Hey, I couldn't help myself. It just came out naturally. Sayang naman kasi ang opportunity.) Of course, he clamped up and threw me a very violent, "I hate girls!" (including my mother) look.

       Now, Naki/Calvin (and Hobbes by Bill Watterson). I am quite convinced that Naki is Calvin. He may not drag a Hobbes all over the place but he has a whole cabinet of
stuffed toys to choose from. He loves dinosaurs, he loves to experiment, he's afraid of the dark, he sees monsters in shadows and he's a smart aleck. You'll never win an argument 'coz he has an answer for everything.  

       Example: After an hour in the bathroom, we discovered that he still
had not wet his hair. "Ba't di ka pa nag-shampoo," I screamed. "Tuyong-tuyo pa 
ang buhok mo!"  Without blinking, he looked up at the light bulb and remarked, "Hmmm..the light must have dried it." 
        Grrrrrr.

       Oh yeah, Naki/Calvin has great vocabulary. While  cleaning his ear,
Naki protested sleepily, saying that his Tatay was pulverizing his ear.
       "Pulverizing??!!" I bet you don't even know what that means," I teased.
       About to close his eyes, Naki opened them wide and mouthed, "Powdered, 'Nay."

        Now, you tell me -- do I really need another child?   


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Update: 
Written when Naki was still in grade school, things haven't really changed. My son
is still a melange of four of his favorite cartoon characters and yes, I would rather borrow than have another one. One is surely enough :)