SIX MONTHS

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Today Malko turned six months old. He began celebrating early, well before dawn, with his favorite drink: milk, straight up. While he drank, his eyes rolled back in his head and the milk dribbled down his chin. When he was done, he burped and smiled.

His mother fell back asleep and after sucking on her ear for a while he practiced crawling. His sister, who was supposed to be watching him, was distracted by breakfast, so he crawled unobserved to the edge of the bed and right off it, landing on the tile floor. He cried a little, but stopped as soon as his father picked him up, and when he was placed in his walker the celebrating began again.

"A-da a-da a-da," he said, "a-ya a-ya a-ya!" He threw his arms up over his head and brought them down, hard, on the tambourine his sister had put on the walker's plastic tray. The tambourine jangled loudly and his sister laughed. The noise woke his mother, and she stumbled from the bedroom, one arm outstretched for a cup of coffee. She joined his father at the kitchen table and they watched him, careening around the room in a diaper and knee-high socks.

Mid-morning, Malko went to the beach. After sampling both wet and dry sand and his hat, he rubbed his eyes, yawned, and passed out on a towel. He slept there in the shade of the palm trees while people around him cracked open coconuts. He slept through the horses that went trotting by and the sound of the incoming tide, and when he started to stir his mother lifted him up. Still half asleep, he blinked, stretched his legs, and stuck out his tongue. He looked creamy and delicious, like a little suckling pig.

The party picked up back at the house. He went skinny-dipping and did some Extreme Splashing in the pool, and then he sidled up to the wet bar and guzzled to his heart's content. When he was done, he looked at things--at the green leaves and red flowers, the blue water, his sister's shiny black shorts--and he listened to things--his father yelling at the dogs, a truck rolling by, his mother humming Happy Birthday. He swung in the hammock and was offered a taste of watermelon and then white chocolate. When his grandparents called, Malko was at the very top of a wave of happiness; when the wave began to crumble, a warm bath was waiting.

He wasn't done celebrating: he reached out his hand to touch the running water and pulled himself up on the side of the bathtub. When he slipped and fell, landing on his back in the water, his mother took advantage of it and washed his hair. She washed the creases behind his knees and between his tiny toes, and then she wrapped him up in a towel and carried him to the bed. She managed to dry him and put his diaper on, but his sister came and lay down beside him. Malko felt the warmth of her body and closed his eyes. Soon he was asleep.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

TOO CUTE! I want some of that six month old love!
XO
Nobby noopers

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