Life, Day by Day

While we were browsing at a bookstore, my son who was a pre-teen then found this little story about a mother and her son, and showed it to me.  It was a touching read but looking at the price, I thought it was too expensive for a children's book...so we put it back.  But I never forgot the story.  As my son grew up, I would remember the story and wish that I bought the book.  Last February, I was tasked to give a talk on "honoring our parents". As I was preparing my slides, I thought about the message of that book and how apt it would be for my talk. However, the only thing I can remember was the story line, the picture on the cover and nothing else. So I started searching on the internet...and many hours later, I found it...Thank God that today everything is in the internet!  The book is " Love me Forever " by Robert Munsch .  Here is a video presentation taken from YouTube. After my talk, I showed this video and needless to say, there were not a ...

Technology has advanced so fast in the last 20 years, putting the world in a digital age that has changed the way many people parent their kids. It was not so long ago that life in this world was so much simpler, less complicated compared to what we have now.  While it is true that there is such a thing as "the generation gap" a term first used in the 60's,  when the younger generation seemed to go against everything their parents had previously believed in terms of music, values, governmental and political views as well as cultural tastes, this "gap" is more pronounced in this present generation, among the so called  Millennials, or th ose born  between the mid-1980's and early 2000 .

The widespread use of the internet has given rise to the emergence of internet-related crimes such as rape, theft, bullying and piracy which made the public, especially the youth, very vulnerable. I have a nine year old (soon to be ten) daughter whose online presence is growing day by day. This is something inevitable and so, for my peace of mind and for my daughter's online safety, I have established a set of rules regarding internet usage.

Last Sunday, December 4, 2016, through SM Kids and SM Accessories , the Princess Academy came to the Kingdom of SM City Bacolod. We got an invitation to attend as guest and this will be the first time that Preemie girl will be attending, so you can imagine our excitement!   But with the school intramural just finished, the  on-going practices for her First H oly Communion, and as a full-time working mom nursing a bad cough, I simply had very little time and energy left to prepare. In fact by the end of the working week, I was trying to convince Preemie girl not to attend anymore.  However, unlike in the past where my little girl was not that interested, this time she really wanted to go.

On my son's (aka Big Brother) 25th birthday... He ate like a Viking! A few days before that, I was lucky to be invited together with some blogger friends on the second opening day of Vikings SM City Bacolod and simply put...it did not disappoint. The buffet spread is a gastronomic delight, worth every penny and more!   I thought to myself, my son would love it here!  There was something for everybody, young and old and so, I immediately made reservations for our family to celebrate his 25th birthday here.

Aging is an inevitable fact of life , but it does not have to be burdensome or problematic. Just because a person is aged does not make him or her useless. My mother turned 80 years old in May but she continues to live a purposeful life. She has been suffering from osteoarthritis for the last 8 years or so, but it was not until 3 years ago that she began using a walker due to my insistence, primarily for her safety and my peace of mind. Last year, she developed adverse drug reactions resulting in gastrointestinal complications and lately, she gets tired more easily.  And so, as much as she would like to remain as active as she used to be, it is no longer possible and she has "retired" from most of her parish volunteer work and advocacy.  And rightly so because I believe that our elderly parents and relatives deserve to be worry-free, to be taken cared of, and comfortable in the remaining years of their lives. In 2011 I wrote an essay for EzineArticles on how to ...

Mother's Day has come and gone, but the day before that a little girl asked me a question that needed an answer.  She asked me, "are you Preemie Girl's real mother?" Now, I don't know why little girls would even think to ask such questions, but I would make a smart guess that they learn about these words and ideas from the adults around them.  I don't think an innocent child would know that there is such a thing as a "real" mom (or dad, for that matter), if they are not made aware of the difference or this was not pointed out to them by...yes, adults. But that is another story.

I hate pink.  I would never consciously wear pink except if I really have to.  The very first time I did was during my high school prom and only because I was a junior and pink was our assigned color (blue was for the seniors).  The second and third times were the occasions when I was a wedding sponsor.  I avoided this color like the plague, mainly because I thought that being fair skinned, I did not look pretty in pink. Besides that, I associated the color with sweet and girly things, both of which did not appeal to me.  And so, you can just imagine who, what and why my world suddenly turned all shades of pink! photo retrieved from http://www.squidoo.com/celebrationofpink

My children Big Brother and Preemie Girl had their graduations this year.  Big Brother finished his Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies last October 2012 yet, but he is included in the 2012-2013 annual yearbook since there are no semestral graduations at the University of St. La Salle.  He no longer joined the graduation ceremonies last March because he has started working last January and could not get time off. I am very proud of him and so grateful that God has blessed him with a well paying first job :) And my daughter Preemie Girl?  Well, she also had her culmination ceremony, with a recognition award.......from Kindergarten! Hahaha!

Have you ever experienced being lost as a child or perhaps, your own child? When I was a little girl, I got lost not once but twice, or rather my mom lost me. The first time was in the old La Salle Bacolod gym when she brought three year old me to watch the Bayanihan Dance Company. My Mom who was an alumna and student leader of the Philippine Women's University (PWU) was so excited to see familiar faces and teachers, that she promptly "forgot" about me.  There I was standing behind her holding the tickets when a well-meaning usher took me to our seats, so that when my mom turned, I was no longer there.  Did she panic?  You bet she did!  She felt terror in her heart and was near hysteria.  She was about to go up the stage to make an announcement about a lost child when she saw little me sitting comfortably and fanning myself with the tickets.   Lesson No 1 - watch the children carefully!  But it seems that this was easier said than done.  Becaus...

I rarely watch TV but the other day while waiting for dinner, I sat down with my son and daughter who was watching Kung Fu Panda 2 on HBO. Although I saw the original movie, this sequel for me is a much better one. The adoption part of the story appealed to me being an adoptive mother of 2 kids, my now 21 year old son and my 4 year old daughter.  Needless to say, I sat through till the end of the movie. 

The weather this past week tells me that summer has arrived albeit a little late.  I was up and about early in spite of the fact that it was Sunday, because of the sweltering heat.  And to add to everyone's discomfort, there were several blackouts ranging from 15 to 30 minutes duration that went on the whole day.  As the day went by, I saw my son getting the inflatable pool out. The fact that he was too big for it did not discourage him from having a cool dip together with my daughter and niece. I was very tempted to join them but as you can see, there isn't much space left...hahahah.  It was a fun thing to do on a really hot summer day.  

To be or not to be...concerned, worried, bothered, involved on one hand, or indifferent, detached, uninterested, uncaring on the other.  That is the dilemma I face now-a-days with regards to my brother's almost 15 year old daughter.  My brother who is a single parent lives next door with his two kids, a son and a daughter.  The son started college last year and comes home only during breaks while the daughter is still in high school. My brother works in another city four days a week. He goes every Friday afternoon and comes home early Tuesday morning, leaving my niece whom I shall call Aloof Girl with their househelp cum nanny during those days. Her mom usually comes to pick her up on Saturdays unless something comes up and brings her back on Sunday afternoon. Her relationship with us has been good until last year when her brother left. Since her dad and brother weren't around, I would watch out for her and she did not like it. She felt it was enough that her father knew...

If only I could hold it off a little bit longer but Preemie girl is turning 4 in July and yes, I know...she needs to start school now. So it's off to summer classes for our little girl, in preparation for the regular school year this June. I enrolled her in our local parochial pre-school which has been putting out graduates who easily get accepted into the first grade of the big schools. I am hoping that if she does well, she can get accelerated to Prep school by the time she is 5 years old since the government's primary and secondary levels will now be 12 years all in all (K12), as compared to the old curriculum which took only 10 years. That means Preemie girl will graduate from high school at 17 years of age (I was only 15 when I graduated from high school) and if she takes up medicine, that will be another 10 years!. It's been 2 days now and so far, so good. She seems to be enjoying herself in the 2 hours that she is in class and made friends with another ...

It's graduation time once more and many kids in the provinces will be moving to Manila for college. Parents are busy preparing for this move emotionally and financially. Thank God, I did not have to do that as my son chose to go to a university less than 25 kms from our house.  Last year  however, I was asked by my brother to assist my nephew for his move to Ateneo de Manila, where he was going to be enroll as a college freshman.  Why me?  Well, I think it's because I am most familiar with Metro Manila and I continue to come and go for seminars and other work related events.  Like me, my brother also spent his 8 years of schooling there, but for the last 15 years or so, he rarely goes there and he says he does not know how to get around anymore.  So last June 2011, I helped my nephew settle in his student residence outside campus. The whole experience of helping him move was I think, not much different to my own experience in the mid-70's when I went to US...

Last week, I wrote about Preemie girl and now it's Big brother's turn. My son whom I raised since he was 5 months old is now 21 and hopefully will be graduating from college this year. Unlike my daughter, I had no behavior issues with him when he was growing up. He was such an obedient child that it was easy to bring him along with me to public places because he was very behaved. It was when he started school that problems started. Although he was a sensitive and intelligent boy, he did not like studying. Unfortunately, I did not have the skill nor the inclination to instill in him good study habits because I too did not like to "study". Therefore, I could not teach him what I did not have, which is weird because I was and still am an avid reader and a life-long learner. It is not the learning part that I hated about school but the process of teaching of what must be learned that was being used by traditional schools. I was the type that needed teachers who ...

I used to think that bringing up kids wasn't all that hard. My parents raised us their 3 children (1 girl and 2 boys), fairly and without biases. We all had the same privileges and got the same kind of punishment when we did wrong. I never felt any more special than my 2 brothers. But when I became a mother to a 3 month old baby boy in 1991, I realized that it was not easy at all and that parenting is the hardest job in the world where there is no retirement ever. And so when I took home a 5 month old baby girl (who was born severely premature) for Christmas in 2008, it was an act of faith and trust that this too is God's will for me and my family. You see, raising my son was a relatively fun task for me, maybe because as the eldest in my family and the oldest grandchild, I grew up looking out for my brothers and playing with my cousins, majority of whom were male. I have always been partial to boys, even as a child. I remember each time my mom became pregnant, I would al...

My little girl's nanny whom we call Tata' asked permission to go for a day off last Tuesday November 1. She never came back. I hate it when they do this...she has been with us since May and although I can sense that she was getting tired of taking care of my active 3 year old daughter, I thought she would at the very least inform me that she was leaving before actually doing it. Oh well. Our 2 other househelp are now taking turns watching my little girl during the day while I take over after dinner to put her to bed. It was different with my son because I was much younger then and he was basically a docile (not exactly true anymore, but that is a different story), obedient child, quietly playing with his toys as long as he can see me within his range of vision. My little girl is different...she is adorable but she needs constant attention, talks incessantly, is very curious and gets easily bored. There is one thing my 2 kids share in common though...both of them won't go t...

I bought my little girl the DVD of the animated musical fantasy Tangled a few weeks ago and since then, it was the daily movie staple every afternoon......up until yesterday.  Why the sudden change?  When I bought it, I knew it was a Rapunzel story but I did not know that it was a musical.  Now, my little girl is three and very bright.  As I was trying to explain the relationship of Rapunzel to the witch by saying that the witch was not Rapunzel's real mother, my 3 year old disagreed and kept insisting..."No, she is her mama".  I then realized that in the song "mother knows best", Rapunzel was an adult and my daughter could not relate this young woman to the baby that was kidnapped by the witch. That song showed a loving, concerned mother who wanted to protect her child.  And so to a young mind, theirs was a mother-daughter relationship.  Where is my problem in all these?  You see, my daughter is adopted and when I said that the witch was not...

There are many suggested methods on how to tell a child about his adoption.  Based on others and our own family experiences, it is a proven fact that not telling a child about his adoption brought about dire consequences for everyone involved especially if the truth is found out from people other than parents. In the case of my aunt, she found out when she was already 10 years old  from well-intentioned relatives who wanted to help her parents resolve her habitual lying when she got caught doing something she shouldn't, like playing hookey from school, for example. Needless to say that was the start of her years of rebellion.  I heard other "horror" stories so when the time comes, although I never really thought about it, I knew that I will tell my child the truth.  My turn came around the time when my son was around 4 years old when out of the blue while playing in my bed, he reached out to my stomach and said..."I came from here".  My initial reaction was to ...