First exhibit

His is the still life in the upper right-hand corner. Not bad for a six-year-old, but then mommy has a lot of inside knowledge on the trade.

We never missed a single art lesson and religiously did all the homeworks. Mr. Sena gave him a grade of 97 and told him that he was going to get a trophy. We were glad, although at first we told ourselves that maybe everybody gets a trophy.

On graduation day, a LOT of trophies that were given, although I finally understood what they meant. I like the way Mr. Sena explained it:

"If you get a trophy, you are most outstanding. If you get a medal, you are outstanding. If you get a certificate, you are only standing." Mwahahahaha!

A lot of students got trophies, but not everyone. However, one girl went away with a trophy plus 3 gold medals: one for best in homework, one for best in group work, and one for best card. Those were the additional awards that distinguished the truly excellent ones. This girl, only in her tweens, had a one-woman show that summer and even donated a big amount of the sales to art scholars. She deserves every bit of praise and encouragement.

Another award I enjoyed was one that Mr. Sena made up on the spot. When Miguel's twentysomething classmate Kathy was called to the stage, she came went up in cropped jeans, a brown cotton blouse, and accessories worthy of a gimmick at Greenbelt. Mr. Sena commended her for her outfit and instructed one of his assistants to give her a gold medal for "Best in Costume."

Love that man!

Seriously, he's the best art teacher around, for kids and adults alike. Let me give you another insight as to why:

During his speech, he asked us if we wanted to know the secret of being a good artist. It was so silent, you could hear everybody pricking up their ears to hear a nugget of wisdom from a great master. And he said, "Mahalin mo ang magulang mo. (Love your parents.)" Huh?

"Dahil sila ang magbabayad ng materials mo at magpapaaral sa inyo. (Because they will pay for all your art materials and pay for your lessons as well.)" Wahahahaha!

He really brought the house down.

Disgraced tooth fairy

I blew it.

This morning when Miguel woke up he went to my room carrying a tiny ziploc plastic and asked, "Mommy, why didn't the tooth fairy leave me a gift?"

I blinked. I froze. I didn't say a word. I really am so lousy at lying.

Looking at me straight in the face, he clambered up my bed and asked, "Mommy what are you hiding?'

...

He asked me the same question over and over again, and I looked at him, asking myself if he was ready to handle this. Well, more like I was thinking of how to get myself out of an embarrassing situation. First attempt: "I guess the tooth fairy forgot. Why don't you write her a note and put it under your pillow again tonight?"

But no. He kept asking me the same question, "Mommy, why are you smiling? What are you hiding?"

Sigh.

I hope you other tooth fairies out there won't get mad at me, but I actually told him the truth. Didn't seem like a bad thing to do either because more than once he's already asked me if I was the tooth fairy. But the only bad part is that I didn't just get stripped of my fairy badge; I busted my mom as well. Because she was the one who provided me with a Sudoku book for Miguel one time when he lost his tooth.

For a moment tears welled in his eyes and I asked him, "Are you sad because there is no tooth fairy or because you didn't get a gift this time?" He paused at first, then replied, "Because there isn't a tooth fairy."

"Tell me the truth," I asked.

"Because I didn't get a gift this time." We laughed.

Just like his mom, he's a lousy liar too.

Finally!

Or should I say, finale! After weeks and weeks we finally watched the season-ender for Heroes volume one. I've been addicted to this series ever since my officemate started downloading and sharing the episodes on a regular basis.

For the season ender, we booked the conference room for lunch and connected his laptop to the big screen. Turn out the lights, cue in some chips, and voila! Forty-five minutes of sword-slashing, cranium-slicing action. The most common observation is that the last episode was a major cheesefest. My personal favorite was Ando's parting line to Hiro, "You look badass." :)

Nothing beats episode 20, as in HANEEEEEEP! GRABE TALAGA! This one was just, ah, okay.

But I will always be grateful for episode 20, so yes, I will watch volume two when it comes out. Someone in the office will be downloading it for us; I'm sure of it.

Best Mother's Day gift yet

I gotta hand it to my son, he knows how to make a girl happy.

More than a week ago, he already told me what he wanted to give me: "Mommy, for Mother's Day I'm going to give you a realxing spa." He figured that he can borrow Ninang's foot spa and let me have a treat. No way was I going to stop him.

On the day itself, while the rest of the family was either munching away or swimming after our big Mother's Day lunch, he organized the spa for me. What a delegator! After asking for Ninang's permission to use the foot spa, he asked Aida to get the spa, Yaya to get the hot water, and then asked for a glass of grape juice for me.

And what, you may ask, was his contribution? "It comes with a free car show!" he said. Which meant that as I lay back in his bed, my head propped up with pillows and my feet in a warm foot spa (his is a trundle bed, which is quite low), I watched as he played with his remote-controlled car. After the car show, there was a robot show too - meaning that he tied some ribbons around 2 robots and I watched as he made them fly and crash through the air.

And oh yeah, after my feet soaked for 20 minutes, he handed me a towel and then gave me a foot massage! That was the cutest foot massage I've ever had, if you can call it that :)

By the way, his original plan was to give me the foot spa in Lola's room, so that I can play PS2 while I relaxed. I nixed the idea, but it was a charming thought. I enjoyed the car show much, much more.

Oh, and I know you're going to ask anyway: he got the idea from Cartoon Network, which had a Mother's Day promo, and one of the prizes was...you guessed it...a relaxing spa.