That Time Senpai Spoke in Tongues

He turns 16 today, my firstborn, officially this morning at 4:45 a.m. Life since Senpai came along has never been dull, I'll give you that. From the high-risk pregnancy with gestational diabetes that developed during my first trimester to the 72 hours of labor on down to his first stitches before the age of one, yes, our lives have definitely been entertaining to say the least.

Last night at dinner while sitting across from this boy who, it seems like over night, has turned into a handsome young man, I started remembering all his escapades when he was little. From the time he punched me square in the nose after seeing a commercial for the movie Deep Blue Sea, I guess it must have scared him. Or the time he wanted to help me out by "feeding the goggies" and poured a whole pound bag of sugar in the dog's bowl. Oh, and the time that I thought he was convulsing on the kitchen floor, turned out he was pretending to be Frodo from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Then there was that time Senpai spoke in tongues. He must have been about five or six years old at the time. The Hubs and I were in bed one night, the boys had been tucked in their own beds ages ago. All of a sudden the Hubs heard a faint noise, listening carefully he discerned it was one of our sons talking. It was Senpai. The Hubs laid there when all of a sudden he felt the hair on the back of his neck raise, was our firstborn speaking in Hebrew?! Yeah, Hebrew! Amongst the gibberish that was being spoken, the Hubs heard Senpai say Adonai, which in Hebrew means master.

Admittedly the Hubs was a little more than freaked by this Audrey Rose moment. To whom was our firstborn conversing with and why did he refer to this individual as "master"? Inquiring minds really wanted to know. I mean, it's not every day that your child starts speaking in another language. The Hubs got out of bed and ventured toward the boys' bedroom door. Staring at the door, hand poised over the door knob, he was seriously creeped out by the scene he might find on the other side. As the light from the open door poured into the room, he saw Kohai peacefully asleep on the bottom bunk and there was Senpai on the top bunk, wide awake and singing to a song on his iPhone. Relieved and chagrined all at the same time, the Hubs told Senpai to turn his phone off and get to sleep.

That song Senpai was singing to was The Walrus Song by The Ponkies. It was and is a favorite of the boys. I don't know where the Hubs found it, but he thought it was cute and the boys would get a kick out of it. First of all it is a love song, a silly love that this guy has for a walrus, oh, and I need to mention here that it is also sung in Japanese. You see what the Hubs thought he heard wasn't Adonai, but Abunai, which means danger, watch out. Yeah, out of all that gibberish that Senpai was singing, the only words he could properly pronounce were Abunai and Aishite Imasu, which means I love you.

It blows my mind that it has been sixteen years since this interesting creature has come into our lives. Seems like only yesterday that he was being placed in my arms, little did I know what an adventure it would be. A dull moment, who needs 'em.

Happy birthday, Senpai. Aishite imasu.