Mamu's Memories

Coming home on weekends during law school when I knew Aden was there - so I could see how much he had grown since the last visit.  He always smelled like soap because Mama would give him a kitchen sink bath.

I loved how he devoured mama fu noodles and I'd always let him run his little feet on top of my head while he ate in the high chair. 

I remember when Mia would put him on my back and I'd crawl around the whole house pretending to be his horse. 

I remember when he had a really bad cold, and he still kept trying to kiss everyone.  He didn't speak yet so he was basically just lunging at everyone without warning haha.  In the end, I think everyone caved and let him kiss us. 

When he was a little bit older, he would stomp his feet whenever he would see me.  That was our way of saying hello.  I'd stomp my feet and then we'd go to the basement where he would play with the VCR and keep putting cassettes in and out.  I'd always lay down on the floor and pretend to nap when he did that.  One time I watched his reflection in the TV when he thought I was napping.  He stared at my head for like 5 minutes and then patted my head making sure I was responsive lol.

We even stomped our feet in front of everyone at Mia's wedding (while he was holding his precious orange lota!).  My favorite memory with him is when he was trying to take my necktie off during the family photo shoot.  He kept grabbing my face to make me stare at him - probably to make sure I was the same Mamu he knew lol.

A few years later, I remember racing him back and forth across the rooms in the basement, and if he won he could pick which superhero characters we would play in our video game.  Our Batman fights were epic.  I loved how many questions he asked me about everything and when he would tell me what powers he wanted.  Whenever he would wanted to play a villain, we'd call him Aden Darkseid (after the superman character).

Aden calling mama “Mommy-Amo”

Aden kissing a photo of mama and a photo of daddy each time we went into the basement.  He couldn’t speak yet and he copied what I was doing so I would kiss the small framed photos of mama and daddy.  When he would pick up daddy’s he would just hold it after he kissed it for like 10 seconds

First time Aden wasn’t afraid of me:  he was taking a nap in mama’s room and I peeked in.  He was wide awake but scared of being alone so he tried to roll to his side and reached his fat fingers out toward me.  I gave him my arm and he just clawed at it with his little fingernails until he fell asleep again. 

Best of all, I loved seeing him grow over the years and become such a handsome young man whom I consider my brother.