17 May 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: family, Lia, Tutu
Mama, look at me! I’ve got long hair, parading herself in front of me, wearing her towel on her head. I asked her if she wanted her photo taken, and she stood in front of me, as serious as she can get, with only the slightest hint of mischief in her eyes. The usual. I could only gaze at her and wonder how she can be so much like me, yet so much better.
This morning, when I ran my errands while she was at her play school, I chanced on a store that sold this plastic crown. Promptly, I took it to the cashier with me. When I showed it to her the minute she walked in the door, she exclaimed, “Oh wow, a crown! It’s mine! Oh my gaaahd!” and I had to laugh. I did not teach her to say “Oh my god” after all, and in that manner too. I get asked often enough where she gets her accent, and I should be excused when I shake my head in ignorance.
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12 May 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: goodies, Johnsons
I don’t know what I did but a package arrived today from McCann and J&J. Whatever I did, I prolly did it last year since they still had my old contact number. Nevertheless, it’s fun to get free goodies! Lia absolutely loved all these!
We currently use the Johnsons baby cooling bath and it smells so good! I myself use the top-to-toe wash for Lia and me. I actually use it on my face and I’ve been using it for three years. I love the fact that no matter where Lia and I are, I only have to have the top-to-toe wash and I got her shampoo and wash covered, as well as my body and facial wash. It makes for less stuff to carry in my always-heavy bag.
Thanks Johnsons for the goodies!
08 May 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: MOMents, mother's day, musings
My mom and I have never been close. She was never really active in my life. A long time ago, I came to a point when I did not care anymore about our relationship. I care now, but she is gone.
It’s been more than a year since her passing, and I can’t say I miss her as much as my sisters and brother do, for she was never really that big a part of my life. But when I come home to our house in Bicol, it feels ever more empty. Along with her absence came the feeling of our house being homey. She was truly what kept that house, home.
Some days I think about what I could have done to have loved her better. Some days I still fault myself for not having done more.
Now that I’m a mother myself and my own gone, never has it been ever clearer to me, that my mom, more than the mother I knew she was, was truly her own person, and there were so many things she had to compromise so she can be the mother she thought we wanted.
When I read this, how I wished I had read this before, so that I understood her more or better – or anything that could’ve made us closer. Now all I have are regrets, for things that were never done, things that will never be.
Letter from a Mother to a Daughter:
“My dear girl, the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. More
02 May 2012
by angkuletin MOMents
I know at one point I seriously considered homeschooling for my daughter and I still have not completely crossed that out for the future, but Lia was just driving me insane with our activities together at home, that one afternoon, I found myself going through and talking to three different schools that offered any semblance of a toddlers class.
I was forever looking at Twinkle Toes Ballet and Music Academy and their myriad of classes available for toddlers like Baby Day Care, Baby Ballet, Kiddie Yoga, Baby Hop Hop Storytelling, and Little Chef’s but the distance always turned me off. It’s in Fairview! I knew our chances of actually making it to class were slim.
Someone offered Pink Toes Center for the Performing and Musical Art, which had a branch in Marcos Highway and was considerably nearer; but I called and was informed the youngest they take in is 4 years old. My daughter had just turned three last April.
I kept looking for schools that offered classes in music and dancing because that is what Lia is most interested in but I was running out of options.
I stumbled on Kidz Art Philippines and thought art classes were good enough, good enough to get Lia off my back. “Mama, let’s play together!” “Mama, let’s do puzzle pieces together!” “Mama, let’s go to the playground!” “Let’s take a bath together!” “Mama, draw a cat! a dog! a horse! a frog! a pumpkin! a banana! bananas! a monkey! Draw Ewok! Draw ME! Draw YOU!”
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17 Mar 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: Lia, MOMents, mommyhood, parenting
What Just Happened Moment One:
Our bags were packed, the grandma is already at home ready to take the babysitting duties for the next three days, and I’m saying goodbye to the little one.
Mama: “Lia, mama is leaving.”
Lia: “Mama, are you going to worp? (her K’s are P’s right now)”
Mama: “No, but mama is going far away.”
Lia: “I’m going with you.”
Mama: “No baby, you can’t go with Mama this time.”
Lia: “No? Mama, stay here….” (pulling me over to lay down on the bed with her)
Mama: “Mama has to go, but Mama will be back very soon. And Mama Helen will be here to take care of you.”
Lia to her grandma: “Mama Helen, I want teem (teem is milk).”
Lia then goes over to me, puts her face very close to mine, holds my face in both her hands, looks into my eyes and whispers: “Go mama, go. Take care. Have fun,” and kisses me.
Wow. What did just happen?
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17 Feb 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: Lia, MOMents, parenting, rant
I found Lia this morning in the mood for, shall we say, a little photo shoot. She is more often than not reluctant for one. I was able to take about four photos, four photos with her doing her idea of a smile.
When I told her to do “a pretty smile,” that about ended it all.
Here is what I think the best of the batch (of four), in which, her father commented, “Is she laughing or crying? But I vote for constipated.”
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11 Feb 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: Lia, MOMents
Hi guys, I’m back. I guess I am.
From the posts on my Facebook wall, it seems that what will naturally follow is a resurrection of this blog. Yep, I ain’t busy no mo and because I ain’t I gots all the time in the worl’.
After dropping by the bar to put the glasswares away, in preparation for today’s Riot Show 3, a short stop at the mall, and a cup of coffee with some friends at Starbucks, Lia and I went home early. We also went to bed early, and as they say, early to bed, early to rise to catch the early worm. Or whatever.
We were up at five in the morning and since then I have been looking through photos and listening to music. As I was about to fall back to sleep, I saw my daughter sleeping with her hands under her cheek, like I do, and I just had to get my camera, dusty and badly in need of a visit to the service center, out and take a photo.
This is perhaps one of those precious moments that I might have missed had I been still at the bar. More
10 Feb 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: foxybingo, games, MOMents
These past days are relatively quiet days that Lia and I spend doing little errands here and there together. We are now becoming a common sight in our little town: the skinny mom with the English-speaking always-in-a-pair-of-violet-sandals little girl walking around, buying fruits at the sidewalk, bread at the local bakery, walking in and out of little groceries, going in and out of local banks, eating at the carenderia and basically hanging out.
Lia likes riding padyaks (bicycle with a sidecar used for public transportation) and giving instructions to the driver: “That way! That waaaaay! That waaaay to Lolo’s house!” and greeting everyone who greets her as we get nearer and nearer our house. A “Hi Liaaaaa! Hi Liaaaaa!” can be heard right and left as we pass by. Lia is popularly known in our place as the little Bebe, my own nickname in this neighborhood where I grew up and spent my days until I was sixteen.
Our days pass by, just spending time with friends – friends whom I have been neglecting because I was so busy with the bar; and spending time with Lia: reading books, making puzzles, coloring, singing, dancing and playing. We play hide-and-seek and all kinds of pretend-play like cooking and being Princesses. We even play games on the laptop, like Garden Dash because Lia loves flowers, and Farm Frenzy because Lia loves the farm animals. She sits in front of me while I surf the internet and randomly point out things she sees on my screen and says, “Mama, I like this,” – and that is how I got to click on that nice fox that led to this pink and violet site, Foxy Bingo, which Lia liked. Pink and violet happens to be Lia’s favorite colors as of the moment. Too bad we could not play anything on that site but by god, I was tempted to buy a perfume! Furever by Foxy sounds like it smells nice. Haha!
Except for the text messages I am getting from so-and-so people about this and that, that seriously, I think I should not have to deal with, I am liking these days. I hope for more of these in the coming months. These times are priceless.
15 Jan 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: friendship, Lia, MOMents
Lia is making me very emotional tonight.
To answer the question, “Where is Papa?” I had to say, “Papa is not here. You know he doesn’t live in Lolo’s house. Papa lives in Papa’s house.”
While hanging out in the balcony, where she chose to join me after seeing me sitting in the dark on a little step and after putting on her favorite pair of shoes from the shoe rack that now holds almost all of her shoes and almost ALL of mine, she looked up at the sky, held her arms over her head and said, “It’s raining on a starry night.”
Looking at her shoes, and remembering mine, I am reminded of what her Papa said this morning, as he was packing my shoes in a big box, “You’re bringing all of these shoes? Now, you don’t have any shoes here.” I said I still have about six to eight pairs of footwear in the shoe rack. He said, “But these are the shoes that you don’t wear anymore.”
Lia went up to me, holding a little doll dressed in pink that she found in my sister’s bedroom’s display cabinet and that she fondly calls Princess, asking me, “Where are her shoes?” I said, “I don’t know. She doesn’t have any shoes.” Then she picked up another doll, a doll from my childhood, a United Nations costume doll from Denmark, and looked at its feet. Seeing that the Danish doll is also barefoot, she told me, “Her shoes are also missing.”
A few minutes later, she came back to me, holding a little black piece of something that upon closer inspection was revealed to be a tiny shoe. “Look mama, it’s a shoe.” And she tried to fit it onto the Danish doll’s foot and lo and behold, it fit! I heard her exclaim, “Yaaan!”
Coming back to Princess and her bare feet, Lia held it up and said, “Her shoes are missing. I’ll go and find it?” To which I could only nod. Speechless.
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11 Jan 2012
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: Bicol, Camarines Sur, Caramoan, Manlawi, MOMents, more fun in the Philippines, travel
So I was busy being a mother and doing my “home-based business” in call center mode today when I check in to my Facebook and voila!
My friend and STS (Science, Technology and Society) favorite seat mate Miapurple tagged me in a post, saying, “See what I found circulating on facebook! This looks very familiar”
And lo and behold!
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