The Road to 40 Day 192/365: A Mommy Sendoff

Che has a workshop in Indonesia for the next week, and her flight leaves in the evening. Naturally, Vino and I were going to see her off.

Vino started the day really early, since he fell asleep earlier than usual. I wasn’t even ready with his breakfast and lunch just yet. Since he had a bit of time, we decided to let him do his homework first.

When asked about vowels, he wasn’t able to answer straight away. These are things that he already knew back then, but are not natural for him now. I got a bit frustrated again, because he’s in Year 4 now, and simple things like these shouldn’t be a problem for him anymore.

He loves to play and interact with his friends, which is ok; it’s him being a kid. However, if being a kid interferes with some of the basics in school, then we are going to have a problem.

I had to remind him sternly – with Che shooting lasers at me early in the morning – that studying should still be his priority. Che and I were talking about his school fees, and he wanted to know how much it was. When we explained how much we are spending for his school, I had to tell him again that that amount of money is not for him being good at Roblox games. He should be learning.

We rode the cab without speaking, with Che urging me not to fight with Vino again. I told her I wasn’t, and I never really do. It’s just me going on dad mode.

Che went to the office but left her luggage at home. We were to bring it later when we pick her up.

Left alone, I chilled on the sofa for a bit and caught up with some basketball. Luckily, there were exciting games on.

With my PS5 and NBA subscription, I could do multiple streams at once. How it works is that whichever game I highlight will be the only one with audio. This way, I can surf to other games if the game I’m watching calls a timeout or something.

On this day, I got to see a few buzzer beaters and some nail-biting finishes.

Needless to say, my morning was a bit non-productive. I had to rush a couple of things before I went to pick up Vino from school.

There was heavy rain, but it died down bit by bit when we left the school. We had to wait a long time for our buses, so we arrived home a little past 4pm already.

Vino said he was hungry, so I let him eat for a bit, and asked him to get ready so that we can go when Che says she’s ready.

We left home at 5pm, picked up Che and went to Jewel for an early dinner.

She has a workshop in Indonesia until Friday, so we wanted to spend some quality time together. Che told me about her day, and I felt her joy when she shared her experience earlier in a meeting she wasn’t really prepared for and didn’t know what the expectation was.

Thankfully, everything turned out well. It felt like the old days when she would just share her day, no matter how hard or how fun, and I would feel what she felt because of the way she told it. It’s how I got to understand a lot of terminologies and ways of working of people back then that friends in the same industry are surprised that I could relate to them when they talk shop.

We walked around for a bit before Che went ahead to the immigration counters. While she was in the queue, Vino asked to have a photo taken at a display.

Che was randomly asked to have her bag scanned, and it looked like she was a bit stressed about it. Vino wanted to wave, but Che wasn’t able to notice as she was rushing. Vino ran to the other side, hoping Che would see him, but she didn’t look back.

I guess since it’s our (Vino and I) thing, he wants to make it our family’s thing. He was fully expecting Che to look back, and when she didn’t, he gave me a soft “aw,” and a sad face. It was like a forced sad face, but it also felt like he was a bit disappointed by it.

I had to tell Che, who immediately called and said sorry for not looking back.

We went home soon after, and he wanted me to play with him. I said I would, but the games he played weren’t the games we talked about.

There’s this game in Roblox called Brookhaven, which is a simulator game. You basically take on a role and just do what that role does. For example, you can choose to be a doctor, and be in the hospital. But you don’t really have tasks. It’s basically a dress up and pretend game, but online.

He was playing with friends, so I said he can just have fun with them. I said this with no ill feelings, just to be clear. It’s just that I wouldn’t want him to force his friends to play a different game just so I could join, when in fact, they have been playing already.

We turned the lights out at around 9:30pm, but Vino was still watching TV and asking what time Che would land. I told him a little past 10pm. Che messaged that she landed, so I asked Vino to take a photo with me.

After the photo, he handed me his glasses, which meant he was ready to sleep. I guess he knew that Che already landed, so he was ok. He tucked himself on my arm and was asleep in less than five minutes.

I noticed that when we’re outside, Vino has no issues holding hands with his aunts and uncles while walking. However, if it’s with me or Che, he would hold our arm with two hands and kind of give it a hug.

I think it’s his safe space. So at night, especially when Che is not around, he’d tuck himself like that, grabbing onto my arm.

I hope it will never grow old for him, because it certainly won’t for me.