#1 fan

my husband showed me this scribble on two half sheets of bond paper, pasted together. obviously it was something from our six year old son, roque, seeing the writing and how the pieces stuck to each other. it read:

" i am your #1 fan ate, even if i am your brother. :) go ate!"

it was such a sweet thing to write, really. when i asked him when and what he wrote it for, roque said it was the day before, while his ate arianna was playing guitar hero on the wii. she was so good at it.

when i asked him what he meant by "even if i am your brother", he said "nothing". oh well, i guess he didn't really want to tell me or he didn't have any particular explanation. but of course, i figured that one out and knew exactly what it meant. i have two younger brothers.

though arianna would probably not admit it, as a brother, roque is really such a darling. when he comes with me to do the grocery - which he really loves doing - he never fails to throw into our cart a candy or chocolate (the kind he doesn't even like!) for his ate. he will excitedly do things for her as she asks him to, without even thinking that he is at times being abused - just like how younger siblings often are by the older ones. yes, i was guilty of that, too. but i wasn't too successful during those years... i remember one time, roque was saving his jolly hotdog to savor it when he gets home. to my pleasant surprise, he shared it with his ate that night. and it wasn't even because she asked to have some of it. it was he who asked her if she wanted some. :) and it was not even just a bite or two he shared with her. it was half of the whole precious jolly hotdog. :D

i wish my brothers were like him at his age. i'm your #1 fan, roque.