I love watching kids.  I always wonder how they think.  I get such a kick from watching kids.  My cousin always thinks I make stories about her kids when I am at her house.  So the love of my life, my six year old niece, Mariella finally gets a baby brother, Reuben, after a lot of praying and negotiating with God – yap that very one whom we called Baby Shaggy for a good while, before someone, it was the mother I believe came up with the name Reuben.

Many Sundays after mass, I always find myself at my cousin’s house, erm, “pretending” to be assisting in making lunch, while we all know that I welcome myself to a home cooked meal as well as love and laughter from my niece and nephew.  Okay, only niece as my nephew will not allow any human contact unless it is daddy, mommy, sister or nanny.

Yeah, that does not mean that he is a quiet, meek one year and four months old boy!  Quite the contrary!  It was one of those Sunday; we were lounging out in their garden having drinks after a delicious lunch. 

            “God, of all the babies in heaven, why baby Reuben,” I heard Mariella having a heart to heart with the Big Guy Himself.  I had gone inside for some ice cubes.  “I had asked for a baby brother, God, but why Reuben?  Why God?”

Reuben apparently has his own house rules.  Mariella is not supposed to touch anything that has the resemblance of being a toy – whether it’s pink or blue, she is not supposed to touch it.  She is not supposed to read, write or draw otherwise he takes the papers away and throws the crayons down.  Mariella is not supposed to play any kind of game, otherwise she gets pushed.  And she is not supposed to stand idle doing anything, otherwise she gets pushed again.

Now you can understand why poor Mariella was lamenting.  Interesting though, when Mariella is not in the house, Reuben is miserable.  After a few minutes of hugging and kissing when she gets back, the house rules are put into action.

Reuben has itching teeth.  He will bite, lick and eat about anything in sight as long as it looks appealing to him.  Whether it’s a lock of my dreads, his mother’s her extension – and he seems to love his mother’s nose too, his sister’s mouth, the floor if it’ nice and cool, grass if its lushy green, fingers if the nails are well manicured, eyes if well made up --- as well as cats’ and rabbits’ ears.

Last weekend my cousin, her husband and their two babies went to Zanzibar for the weekend.  Once again, nobody is supposed to touch Reuben.  At least not human beings.  So he goes off, playing in the sand, near the beach of the hotel they were at.  He sees this cat, baby boy was so happy.  Ecstatic even!  He quickly gets up and goes to the cat.  Picks it up by the ears, looks at it straight in the eyes and takes a bite at one of the ears!

One of our girlfriends, whose two boys are friends with Mariella, has rabbits.  The first time Reuben saw them he almost learnt how to walk in fright.  He wasn’t walking then.  When he had just started walking, he saw them again, he was so frozen with fear he just sat on the grass staring.  The rabbit was just as scared I guess as he just sat on the grass also staring.

Then finally Reuben started walking properly.  He sees the rabbits and decided these little furry things are not going to scare him.  He grabs a stick and starts slowly and carefully poking at the rabbit, while he stood back, ready to flee incase the rabbit turns to him.  The rabbit didn’t.

Now Reuben is more confident.  So another time he sees the rabbit.  He decides he has had enough of the stick.  He goes to the rabbit, picks it up by the ears – looks it straight in the eyes and bites one of the ears!

I think we should call him Rabbits’ Ears now.