My Happiest Moment

This is Mommy's favourite photo - the photo that captures Mommy's happiest moment.

It was Juan Or's infectious laughter and giggles that makes Mommy's happiest moment - something that Mommy wants to capture forever. Well, you may be wondering now what made Juan Or so happy that made Mommy so happy too. It's none other than seeing monkeys swinging around at close range in Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor!

Though this happiest moment was just as simple as watching the monkeys swinging around, nevertheless, this is the story behind Juan Or’s infectious laughter and giggles.

 

Juan Or was about 1 year 1 month old when his walking ability became somewhat established. What started to be like the Frankenstein walking style.....

(animation credits from Animation Playhouse)

......improved by leaps and bound to be more and more like how a human kid walks. With his walking skill getting more and more polished, so did his appetite for physical adventure. He began to explore (and imitate) jumping, skipping and whatever ‘funny’ leg movements that he saw both on the television screen and also in real life.

One ‘leg activity’ that Juan Or particularly liked most was jumping on the bed, most probably because of the springing sensation it gave. Mommy had warned him countless times before not to get too carried away with ‘the activity’ lest he falls down and hurts himself. However, the countless warnings all fell on deaf ears. Mommy even resorted to teaching him about the consequences with the nursery rhyme on monkeys jumping on the bed which sounds like this:

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said

"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Or if you prefer to hear the nursery rhyme in the form of song and video, here is one from You Tube. 

As if to mock Mommy, Juan Or would merely laugh out loud and parrot the nursery rhyme as he continued his jumping. Mommy wondered when he will ever learn. *Sigh!*

Then, one day, in the midst of feeling high from the springing sensation, sure enough, true to Mommy’s word, Juan Or tumbled down the bed. Crash, boom, bang! – he fell down just like nangka busuk (rotten jackfruit)! If falling down the bed (and landing on the hard floor) was already bad enough, nothing could be worse than having to fall onto a kiddy stool just next to the bed and getting a cut near the lips before landing on the floor! 

There was blood all over his mouth, both Juan Or and Mommy went panicky but luckily Mommy managed to control the situation. Mommy carried Juan Or to the bathroom to rinse away the blood stain and then used handkerchief to press on the wound to stop the bleeding. 

Many weeks went by since the bloody incident. The wound healed, but the ‘wound’ in his memory did not! Whenever Mommy read him the monkeys-jumping-on-the-bed nursery rhyme, Juan Or would cringe his face and shouted “Scared! Scared!” Whenever Mommy showed him pictures of monkeys in his kiddy books, he would give the same reaction. Poor boy! Now he seemed to associate monkeys with bad fall! *Sigh!*

Then one day, Papa took us for an outing to Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor. Our main reason for going there was to get up close and personal with the real monkeys, but of course knowing that Juan Or was phobic towards monkeys, Papa and Mommy kept the monkeys a secret. Instead, Mommy told Juan Or all about the tram that ferries visitors up and down the hill – the one children would prefer to call as choo-choo train! Boy was Juan Or excited to ride on the tram!

Well, we reached the part of the hill top where trams would normally stop the visitors. As expected, the monkeys came in flocks to ‘busybody’ around because the visitors had food to offer. Bold ones would openly come forward and ‘beg’ for food whereas the more timid ones would merely swing around or watch from a distance and only pick up food that were thrown to them. 

What about Juan Or? Much to Mommy’s surprise, Juan Or seemed to have ‘forgotten’ about his phobia for monkeys! Was it because of watching the cute monkeys swinging live? Or was it because of the natural beauty of monkeys that can be seen so up close and personal? Whatever the ‘magical factor’ was, what was clear was that Mommy did not do anything special to break his monkey phobia and that Juan Or was obviously enjoying watching the monkeys! Maybe something in him realized that it was not the monkeys that caused the bad fall, but rather, it was recklessness and getting too carried away. 

Whatever it was, Mommy was happy that the mental wound is gone for good and that Juan Or is able to enjoy the beauty of nature without associating it with his past traumatic experience. Seeing and hearing Juan Or laugh and giggle are the simple things that make Mommy’s life so happy, beautiful and rewarding. When Juan Or is HAPPY, Mommy is HAPPY too! 

By the way, all the photos here were taken using Mommy’s handphone camera. Mommy has long been yearning to upgrade Mommy’s photography tool. So this “Happy Photography  Contest” held by Olympus and Nuffnang is a good chance to make the yearning a reality – a chance to win Olympus’ new range of PEN Lite.....

and PEN Mini digital cameras that come with high DSLR image quality.

So here it goes:  

HAPPY Juan Or = HAPPY photography = HAPPY Mommy!