This is Jai Matangaro Nooroa. She turns six in August this year. She is a dreamer, loves to sing, has discovered that when you do the Cook Island dance you can get money, (she got $45 when she danced in the Uapou the weekend just gone) which has been put into her piggy bank.
She has an affinity to music and picks up tunes, jingles, words to songs, beats and rhythms real quick. She also marches to the beat of her own drum!
I remember her birth, we went into the delivery suite at about five o'clock in the morning, only to have to move towns and hospitals and wait until 7 that night for her to come. (and even then they had to pry her out of her mother using a huge suction cup, 2 nurses, 2 doctors, the anethetist, and an intern) along with Jono, Ula, Mum and Dad - eleven in total awaiting her arrival. This set the scene for Jai in later years to come, when she did something, it was done big , nothing done half way.
Club feet in both legs (the worst of 2 kinds the Doctor said), regular visits to the hospital, corrective surgery at 6 months, having to be put under anaesthetic to remove 5 milk teeth, surgery to put pins in her arm when she fell off the monkey bars at school, and having to be admitted to hospital in Auckland for a few days when an abcess caused the left hand side of her face to swell with infection. When she does something, it is done big, nothing done halfway.
Despite all that, she is a happy child, she is not scared to take a risk, but can get shy when having to be the centre of attention. She loves her brother and sister with fierce abandon, she is happy to play with others, and is equally happy to entertain herself. She has a twinkle in her eye when she is happy, and can cause clouds to gather when she is not, she loves to fill her collection of bags with all kinds of trinkets and absolutely loves crowns and tiaras.
She goes to my school and with gay abandon will run out of her class line when she sees me and run and give me a big hug. I love that!
How do you tell someone so young that they mean the world to you? That in the short time they have been around that they have made an impact on your life that has changed it forever?
You tell them you love them more than the stars!
What does she reply?
At her tender age, in her short life, she knows just what to say...
Mummy, Daddy, Brother, Sister, Nanny, Papa, Mama, Aunty, Uncle... I love you up to the Moon!!!
When Jai does something she does it big, nothing done halfway.
No comments:
Post a Comment