My God , my family and my travels: Bouncing Baby Boy

This day the 4th of August in 2006 the Shanmugam Family was blessed with the first grandchild for our generation. My second brother Mohan and his wife Devi welcomed their first grandchild Mikkel Rahul Chen born to his parents Sangeetha Mohan and Alvin Chen. Mikkel very quickly became the apple of everyone's eyes and the talk on everyone's lips. He was baptised on the 5th of September 2006 in Kuching and sadly on that day he lost his grandpa Mohan to a massive heart attack. My brother only got to hold him for 2 days before he went into a coma following the attack. And this boy Mikkel has every trait of his grandpa Mohan...from his temperament to his walk and talk. He is also adored by his paternal grandparents Cyril Chen and the late Eileen Chen .But I thank God my brother was able to see him and cherish him those two days.

Mikkel is 5 today and I went down to Kuching to celebrate his 5th birthday which was a Pirates of the Caribbean theme...his 4th was a Spider man theme...his 3rd was an Animal Kingdom theme...his 2nd a Dinosaur theme and his 1st was a Mickey Mouse theme. This boy is very fortunate as his Grandma Devi bakes all his themed cake and his parents celebrate his birthdays according to the theme he wants. And by the way he calls me Granthei..short for Grand Athei...Athei is a term used to address your father's sister...so Sangeetha and other nieces and nephews call me Athei and I am Mikkel's Granthei.

He is a very intelligent lad and could differentiate the word hot from spicy at the age of just 2.....and he could put a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle at the age of 3...now he is into computers and stuff. He goes to Smart Readers Kids at Tabuan Jaya and he is adored by all his teachers...and his fellow classmates for his humour and wit. His parents are both lawyers and there's no doubt this boy will grow up with an analytical mind.

I cherish every moment I can share with this young lad as I know he will outgrow his childish ways and soon enough become a young man with whom I have to argue my points with. Mikkel we love you dearly and we pray for God's endless blessings to be upon you and your parents always.