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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06 Jan 2012
by angkuletin Musings Tags: new year, resolutions
It is the first week of January 2012 and I find myself sitting on a stool, typing away on my laptop which sits atop a plain white wooden table, glancing every once in a while at three other big monitors on tables on my left and right in front of me, music playing, while people walk up and down the wooden steps of this urban minimalist office I happened to have found myself in this Londony afternoon (read: umbrellas) - contemplating on some statements slash accusations hurled at me on the phone by some Neanderthal (oops livin high and yu-uh, takin it easy). Strangely enough, this office reminds me of some bar called S. Yes, bright white lights and walls and bookcases (real or imagined) always remind me of offices. Maybe that is the reason why I wouldn’t want to hang out at Bar S. Who wants to hang out at the end of a work day and still feel like you’re still at the office? Regardless of who owns this bar or that bar, I have a predisposition for dim lights.
A predisposition to never be that exposed, but maybe only by a tad? A desire to not be too seen, to be there, but not really be there, a choice to be social or anti, aloof or otherwise. Yes, dim lights.
What am I doing here, really? I’m here because the beach is here. The beach is calling me (cue in: All Saints’ Pure Shores). Arriving at the grand terminal two nights ago, with the weather comparable to that of windy, rainy, minus snowy, Chicago in February, with my evergreen everbright big backpack heavier than mine and Lia’s combined weight and an overnight bag packed with all that I might ever need, including cottonbuds, I asked myself that question. What am I doing here really?
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29 Nov 2011
by angkuletin MOMents Tags: Lia, milestones, MOMents, pre-school
At least once a week, Lia and I go out for a day – just the two of us. We’d take public transportation and just enjoy ourselves. She loves pedicabs and tricycles. She loves looking out of the bus window, with her hair blowing in her face. She also loves to take off her footwear and get on an utterly “relaxing” ride.
We usually hang out at various stores. The local department stores are so fun. They have a lot of cheap stuff that Lia and I just adore. We go home with either nothing or just about the weirdest stuff, like a big orange strainer that she insisted on putting on my head, like a hat, and a salt shaker.
We’d walk down the streets hand in hand, buying little trinkets and munching on fruits and other food bought from sidewalk vendors. Sometimes its maruya or puto bucayo and sometimes its lollipop or gummy bears or popsicles.
Yesterday we went for a little walk in Naga and passed by a preschool. I have long thought about taking Lia to school but could not find one that accepted toddlers her age. She saw the slide and see-saw and insisted on coming in. I grabbed the opportunity to inquire at the office since we were already there. Lia would be spending half her time in Manila and half her time in the province so I needed to know the possible arrangements, and of course, costs.
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08 Oct 2011
by angkuletin Musings Tags: boots, musings
The only bus at the terminal when I walked in at four in the morning was a Florencia line with a sign to Nato Port – Sagnay. I boarded it with a smile and thought how nice it would be to actually get off at the port. I told the conductor I was getting off in the town of Pili, some fifteen kilometers and thirty minutes away, and paid the fare of P15. Oh how I long for the beach, I thought as I closed my eyes.
I woke up to peer through the stained glass windows and the pelting rain into the dark of what looked like vast expanses of watery rice fields and I knew instantly I had slept too long. I checked the time – five o’clock. Sleepy and not knowing where exactly was I, I decided it was best that I get off in the town proper, whatever town that happened to be.
I entertained the thought of getting off at the port but I looked at my boys and decided, maybe next time.
I got off the town proper, still not knowing what town, and walked under the eaves of the line of sari-sari stores shut at five past on a rainy Saturday morning until I found a sign. It read:
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06 Oct 2011
by angkuletin Family Tags: family, Halloween, Trendville
I am blogger no more. Or at least that’s what I feel since I absolutely feel no inclination to blog the past days. I used to blog like crazy.
This afternoon, as I was passing through an empty lot on our way home from spending time with my dad, I saw the annual “perya” being set up. It made me miss Lia so much, even though it’s been barely a day since I last saw her. Crazy Lia will surely love that perya. I can just imagine.
Today I got this email. Halloween is nearing and I am so looking forward to it, not for me but for my crazy little Lia. She loves scary stuff so much!
This is the poster for this year’s company Halloween and Family Day. The poster hardly looks scary, but I am sure as hell that Lia would love to be there. I am so excited for her!
03 Sep 2011
by angkuletin MOMents, Musings Tags: elephanty, MOMents, plastic flowers, silly panty, silly stuff
After a long day of going everywhere with Myx – local high schools, the Pili Municipal Hall, my friend’s house, the airport, the Cam. Sur Water Sports Complex, Ateneo de Naga University and San Miguel Corporation office, the last thing I wanted to do was go back to Wharf, even if I have been missing Tanikala Tribe for a while now. I made it home in time to take Lia out for a little trip outside!
We took a pedicab to we didn’t know where…. until I had this funtastic idea!
“Is that store in the old Benjie cinema still open at this time?” I asked the pedicab driver. He said it closed at eight.
When we got there, the guard was already closing some of the display windows. Apparently, they close at seven thirty, and Lia and I barely made it!
We walked in and Lia and I went silly crazy! Coz we’re silly crazy like that!
By the entrance was a row of colorful plastic flowers! Lia loves flowers. Actually, she only loves them because she loves giving them to me. Flashback to that fight she and her cousin Marielle had over these plastic flowers on a vase at my dad’s house. Lia has made a habit out of taking the flowers out of the vase and giving them to me. She wants to see me holding them with my hands, and preferably near my chest, if not on top of it when I am lying down.
So on this one afternoon when my eldest sister and her daughter were at my dad’s house, Lia took the flowers and gave them to me. Her cousin took the flowers, which were lying on top of my chest, and says, “This is mine!” Lia ran to her and tried to take the flowers back saying, “This is my Mama’s flowers! My Mama’s flowerrrrsssss!” and thus began a screaming, crying match with a tug-of-war for the beloved plastic flowers. I looked at my daughter’s eyes, her face streaming with tears and saw the struggle for “her Mama’s flowers” and I didn’t know whether to laugh or stay mum. Half of me wanted to just take the flowers away from my niece and tell her, “Yes this is MY flowers!” but I’d like to believe I’m the kind of mother that lets my daughter fight her own fights.
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