Goal for the day

Yesterday.

Classes were called off for the second day in a row due to bad weather. Miguel's quarterly exams start the following day but by 9:30AM he's already reviewed all his lessons and done his piano drills. Nothing left for him to do the rest of the day.

Me, about to leave for work (ha! late!) : Miguel, I think that you should have a goal for today.

Miguel, playing while watching TV: What?

Me: I know! Why don't we ask Lola (Grandma) to teach you the rest of your piano piece? After all, you were supposed to have piano lessons today.

Miguel, self-importantly: I already have goals.

Me: Like what?

Miguel: Watch TV.

Me: That's not a goal! Okay, that's it...your goal for the day is to learn the rest of your piano piece.

Miguel: I don't want to learn the rest of my piano piece.

Me: I'll give you 5 extra minutes of Playstation time if you learn it.

Miguel, turning away: No thank you, I don't need 5 extra minutes.

Me: But if you don't learn it you'll lose 5 minutes.

Miguel, suddenly running toward Lola: Lola, can you teach me the rest of my piano piece?

How to make a strawberry-flavored cake

Cute, isn't it? That's what you get when you watch too much of Dexter's Lab and cartoonnetwork.com.

In his words:

You get a cannon, then take out the bullets, then replace them with strawberries.

Now that's what I call a recipe for world peace.

Just to enlighten you, the cannon at left shoots icing; the one on top shoots sugar; the one at right shoots strawberries; and the one at bottom shoots butter. The finished product comes out at the lower left corner. He was conscientious enough to draw two legs for the machine to stand. And of course don't forget the remote control!

He even drew instructions on how to set up the machine:



On my birthday, he wants me to make a strawberry-flavored cake using this diagram. Piece of cake, huh?

It rains, I sneeze

So it takes an allergy at 2AM for me to blog.

It's not unusual for me to wake up early in the morning just because I feel cold - even in the summer. What's worse is when I wake up feeling cold,and then I sneeze.

Once that happens, it's goodbye peaceful sleep.

To the fortunate, oblivious ones, it poured this morning - as in typhoon-grade downpour, the kind that makes you wonder where in the city it's flooded right now and whether classes will be suspended.

Checking at my cellphone, I saw a message from my co-parent that came in at midnight: classes suspended according to the news. Yahoo!

That means I don't have to get up early, my son doesn't have to get up early, he won't get caught in the rain, and more importantly - he has a chance to recover from his month-long cough.

We've been to the pediatrician 3 times in the past 3 weeks. My son was getting frustrated that his cough hadn't gone away. Since he had no fever and it's persisted for so long, the doctor suspects that it's brought about by allergy. Another possibiliy is primary complex, so we took an x-ray to help us find out.

And he had to prescribe stronger medication this time. He was even apologetic about it - I can see that he's not too keen about giving prescribing antibiotics and other such medicines.

So unlike Miguel's other pedia, who always brought out the big guns at the slightest symptoms. By age 3 my son was no stranger to corticosteroids; he was even taking puffs from a babyhaler. We were at her clinic once a month, without fail. That's why I left her.

When I switched doctors Miguel's visits were limited to maybe 3 a year. And I like Tito Doctor's less aggressive approach. That's why I'm still sticking to him.

During yesterday's visit, I frustratedly asked him why Miguel's cough won't go away, and he pointedly told me, "because it runs in your family." Well I am exhibit A right now, with my inflamed sinus and post-nasal drip brought about by a 2AM downpour.

I'm trying to comfort myself with green tea right since there's no Claritin in the house. It seems to be working. But more than that, my son is sleeping soundly. His medication seems to be working too.

Fingers crossed, please. And prayers.

Art attack weekend

Thanks to Neil Buchanan for the snake activity. Thanks to Ninang Aly and her Fun Factory book for the pull-down puppet activity.

65/100

Checkmate

Miguel hit the jackpot this weekend: 2 Superman movies, trips to Powerstation and Egg, coming-home gifts from my bro and his wife, plus his latest object of fascination - a chess set that he coaxed out of my sister-in-law G.

While we were eating a post-movie merienda he took his tita's hand, ostensibly to show her the baby grand piano that was playing on its own. Then I saw them heading for the arcade and the toy store, and I knew that my beloved sis-in-law was about to be hijacked. Or rather, held up.

They were in the toy store by the time I caught up with them, and sure enough, G had asked him to choose a toy. Well, she did miss his birthday so it was a kind of belated gift. He pointed excitedly at wooden box that had sported a chess board. I suggested that he get the classic "barrel of monkeys" instead. But he liked the box because it read "5 games in one." In other words, he wanted something for 2 or more people.

G gladly bought the set, which contained pieces for chess, backgammon, checkers, dominoes, and pick-up sticks. He was so excited that the moment we got home we played a game. Surprisingly, he was quite good for a first timer. And not surprisingly, I made a lot of mistakes. Much like my billiard and bowling games, I'm lousy at chess. But I discovered that it's so much nicer when you're playing just for fun.

I won in the end; it was probably the first time that I've ever won. But it was a good game. I've never really had an interest in chess before, but with Miguel's new fascination for it, I'm already looking forward to the next game.

63/100

Mr. Potatohead as you've never seen him before

Here, tucked inside Miguel's latest art attack...is Mr. Potatohead.

I really like it.

I know that my brother would be appalled if he sees this, it being so girly.

You can blame me for that, because most of the stuff is mine. And I was the one who gave Miguel the violet paper. He asked me for colored paper, and that was the only unused sheet that I could find.

The round box came from a craft project I made in one of Mama Aly's children's parties, and some of the beads came from a broken bracelet of mine. That's why everything looks so girly. And that's why I like it.

The earthworm, of course, is his.

But honestly, as an artist, I find it quite good. It's an example of unbridled creativity, and I totally support it. Except that I don't know if anybody will pay money to buy it off him.

Actually, you could call it a collaboration, because I was the one who wrapped and taped the potato, "so that you can see the shape," as he instructed. And I was also the glue gun operator.

The sweetest thing is that Miguel made it for Ninang, who just left for camp Friday night. He made it for her because he will miss her. Awww. Too bad she won't get to see it for 21 days.

I reminded him that since he has to keep it intact, he cannot play with Mr. Potatohead until she comes back. His response: "Grr. I knew that I should have put holes in it."

62/100

Die, varmints!

Okay, so I've been waking up around 2AM or 4AM for the past 4 days. And guess who's responsible? No, not my wisecracking, hyperactive, super inquisitive, ADD-suspect son. But scores of tiny, sneaky, stubborn, insiduous, stinging ants! In my bed!

What did they think I was, a midnight snack?

Lately ants have been invading strange parts of our home, like my mother's bathroom and the computer table. They must know something that we don't.

My guess is that they invaded my bed because I sorted Miguel's pre-school artworks there a few days ago. I suspect that among all those drawings, stained glass windows, mosaics and mixed media, there must have been some sugar. For the record, I do not eat in my room...and neither do I store snacks there.

I thought that vacuuming the mattress would do the trick, but apparently not. They may be tiny, but their bites really do sting! By the 4th night I had had it with the rude awakenings. So instead of brushing them off my bed or crushing the nasty biters between my fingers, I decided to be more methodical in my extermination.

No, I did not burn the mattress. I just got pieces of scotch tape and stuck them in between. A bit labor-intensive, but sure to get the job done.

By now you're starting to worry if I have a sick mind. But if you ask me it's more humane than what I did to that cockroach in my bathroom when I was in college. Never again! Besides, it would ruin the marble tile.

Now I've got a tiny collage of scotch-taped ants on my bedside table. I'm thinking of posting them on my headboard, just as a warning to other intrepid ants. Kind of like Vlad Dracula impaling victims in the front of his castle.

You can run, but you can't hide!

61/100

Portfolio

Woke up at 2AM, and as I sometimes do when I wake up in the middle of the night, I started to fix my room.

My first target was a clear book filled with a hodgepodge of stuff, namely Miguel's piano pieces and bits of my portfolio. It's about time that I organized it, since he practices piano every day. I keep forgeting to buy another clear book, so we'll have to share this one a bit longer.

Going through through my partial portfolio, I noticed that I had included a short story and a children's poem. Those were from the days that I wrote for children's educational TV. I looked at them side-by-side with my print ads, and then I realized: my short stories are way better than my print ads.

Not to say that I haven't had any ads that I'm proud of. They're all decent, some are cute, and a few I really like. Just a few. But the stories - now those I really enjoyed writing.

It takes a little blood and sweat too to create a story. But sometimes you can call it "sweet sweat." You don't mind the effort. Other times you work too hard that the story becomes "tired" and you have to throw it out. And then there are times when the work is effortless; when you crank out a good piece - or a good painting - in just 30 minutes. But that's rare, I must point out.

By "good" I mean "good enough for me." Keep in mind that your friends are a different set of critics, you colleagues another, the publishers yet another, and the general public still another.

Gosh, when I think about it I have so much output - in terms of paintings and writings as well. At the time you make them they are all okay, but when you look at them after a few years your opinion changes. Except for the ones that you're really proud of.

But what matters I guess is that you're satisfied at the time that you produce it.

Gee, I talk too much. Gotta get back to bed.

60/100

Peace

All right, all right. Saw the bus operator this morning. She's okay. I'll stop calling her crazy.

Erase erase erase.

59/100

Rock 'n roll

As my son discovered, it ain't so grand missing a day of school.

Good thing that I was able to sleep in all morning while he was in school, because when he got home, he had a lot of assignments: review this, answer that, and prepare for the quiz tomorrow. Not to mention that he had to go to his piano lesson. We were on a tight schedule just to get everything done.

Poor kid had to answer the worksheets that he missed, plus I insisted that he answer his textbook as well. Turns out he had to do 10 pages just for his Reading subject. Towards the end of his review session, he was already getting tired. I had give him a breather, so guess what we did instead? We reviewed Math, his favorite subject. AAAAAUUGGGHHH! That's how tight we were for time.

He said it so well, "I knew that being absent wouldn't be a good thing."

Now we know. Beware the Friday quiz.

Anyway, when he finally reviewed all his lessons, I said, "congratulations, you're finished!" And with that he let out a big sigh of relief and plopped on his bed. I'm not kidding; in that moment he looked 3 to 5 years older. He was mentally tired. And I was emotionally drained too - from nagging him to finish his worksheets in time.

We zoned out on his bed, and after a while he stood up to get his musical instruments. He grabbed his harmonica and gave me his drum. I was just as stressed out, so we tooted and banged and made a whole lot of noise. "Follow my beat!" he said. The neighbors might have found it weird, but I didn't care; we just had to get rid of this stress, both mother and son. Besides, it was still early.

We kept changing instruments: xylophone, tambourine, maraccas. At one point I even made a louder ruckus just to get some release. My son did good, and I'm gonna let him make some noise!

After about 30 minutes we were ready to wind down.

What a relief.

Don't be surprised if we have another concert.

58/100

Looking for home

(For Wednesday, June 28, 2006)

So there I was in Miguel's old pre-school waiting for him to finish his piano lesson. He bounced back to health today and was well enough to go to school, but I was still recovering from the flu. Meanwhile, his nanny came down with something much worse, so I took it upon myself to accompany him to the 1-hour lesson. It was low-stress anyway, and I had a driver.

While we were there we saw so many friendly faces: his friends, his ex-teachers, co-teachers, and even parents of ex-classmates. People greeting you and your son by name, asking how you are. It was so comfortable, so much like home. That's the benefit of going to a small school.

I was wondering, when am I going to feel that way in Ateneo? Who knows, maybe it'll happen. Maybe I'll find some semblance of "family." Maybe in that guard who's always there when I see him off, or the guidance counselor who escorted my tearful son to his classroom during the first week of class. Maybe that co-parent with whom I swapped contact numbers with during PTC day or maybe even that crazy bus operator.

I'm just looking forward to feeling that way there.

57/100

Get well soon

I come home from work with a bouquet and Miguel asks, "what's it for?" I smile and say, "it's because I'm sick." Then he pipes up, "but I'm sick too!" I laugh and tell him that the flowers are for both of us.

Yeah, we got the bug.

Later at bedtime he catches me taking a cellphone snapshot of the bouquet. "Why are you taking a picture of the flowers?" he asks. "So I can remember them," I say. "I want a picture with the flowers too," he says. So, voila!

Well, a little confession here. I always take a snapshot of the flowers Mike gives me. And like I said, it's because I want to remember them.

I so love flowers! Wouldn't you guess by the many arrangements I've painted already? And I know my mom loves them too; I'm like her. Well come to think of it, it's a rare woman that doesn't like them.

I'm of the belief that it's better to give flowers to people while they're alive to appreciate them. As long as I get them during my lifetime I won't mind a simple flower-free funeral. Maybe I'll put out a sign, "in lieu of flowers...."

Anyway, I'm just glad that I've got a guy who loves giving them as much as I love receiving them.

56/100

Nerd

Exam week is one month away and I'm already thinking of making a reviewer.

Nerd! Nerd! Nerd!

I have a good friend whose son is a consistent honor student in Ateneo and I remember him telling me that whenever it was exam week, his wife would take 3 days off her extremely high pressure work (she was an accounts head in advertising) just to review their son.

Man, I don't know if I'm ready to do that. Talk about commitment. But then of course my friend's wife comes from a family of consistent honor students. Her son has good genes. Good study habits are probably transmitted through their DNA.

I was also a bit scared - is that what it takes to get through Ateneo? It's not uncommon to hear of Ateneo kids spending their afternoons with tutors. But I - I just want my kid to have a life after school.

A couple of years back I consulted with another friend, who taught at the Ateneo Grade School for several years. She now holds tutorials in her home in Katipunan. She told me that the only reason that parents send their kids to her for lessons is because they don't have the time to review them after school.

Bingo.

Doesn't that sound just like me. I'd be happy if I could just get home in time for dinner. (Cue in guilty thoughts. Fade in video of Miguel waving his finger at me and saying, "Follow my finger...you will let me play Cartoonnetwork.com everyday." Nice try, bud.)

The good news is that my OC son seems to have good study habits. After settling down at home and eating lunch, he will automatically do his assignments before going off to play or watch TV. Thank God for that. And thank God that I read Queena Lee and Maribel Dionisio's article about good study habits when it was published in the Inquirer several years ago.

Now I understand why his teacher makes him review the work sheets almost every day.

And to think that he's only in Prep.

55/100

So that's how ganglion cysts disappear

Yesterday as I was in the shower I hit the cyst in my wrist against the wall - OUCH! - that gave me a dull ache for a few hours.

This morning instead of a shiny, bulbous protrusion I have a wider, flatter bump where it used to be. Maybe the impact ruptured the sheath and the liquid's dispersing into my hand.

I just hope that it doesn't recur.

53/100

Explaining the silence

(For Friday, June 23, 2006)

If you noticed I've been skipping a few posts.

Over the past few days I've had to deal with a silly - correction, wacko - school bus operator who had me confused with a different client.

I will spare you the petty details.

But suffice it to say that the incident was so annoying that I actually witnessed my mother lose her patience at the woman. She actually got mad. But in a very dignified way. See, she's human after all :)

And for that, the incident will always stand out in my mind.

52/100

Hallelujah!

I finally put my son on the bus this morning! No tears, no trouble.

The kids made a fuss over him the minute he got in. Maybe because they're used to seeing him only during dismissal time, when he rides with them without a hitch. As the bus drove away, Miguel turned and blew me a kiss.

I even called the bus driver afterwards, and he assured me that Miguel was okay during the ride.

My secret: I told him that if he makes a fuss on the way to school, he doesn't get to watch TV for the rest of the day PLUS he loses 5 minutes from his weekend Playstation time. But if he goes to school without any trouble, he gets to watch TV and gets 5 extra minutes playing video games this weekend.

I've been doing this for the past few days while I was bringing him to school myself. So far the technique seems to work.

And it's amazing what I was able to accomplish in the 2 hours before I headed off to work: cleaned my drawers and one closet. Who knows, maybe one day I might even muster the energy to paint :)

50/100

Escape

As my sister the teacher says, parent-teacher conferences are a way of giving teachers a break. Well we parents know how to take a break too. After meeting Miguel's teacher for the PTC, I took the rest of the morning off...helloooo spa!

I haven't had a full-body massage in months! It was so good to just lie down and have someone kneading my muscles. It's probably the only time I don't mind being treated like a piece of meat.

Soothing music, the soft hum of airconditioning, the smell of eucalyptus, clean sheets against your skin, and expert hands skillfully rubbing the stress away. Sigh.

It would've been great to take the whole day off, but I have to make judicious use of my vacation leaves. Besides, I already committed to a couple of meetings today. Work is work.

But man, play is way okay too!

48/100

Culture

Went to see my friend May's art exhibit today, with Miguel in tow. The gallery at UP CFA (College of Fine Arts) was part of a long itinerary, which included: a trip to Ateneo to familiarize him with the routes to his classroom; a heavy merienda (snack) at Jollibee; a trip to Claret so he can see what other schools are like; a quick pass at Kamuning Elementary School; and a haircut at the barber's. I kid you not - we did all that in 4 1/2 hours.

But I digress.

I was very excited for May, who is finally having her first one-woman show. Her canvases range in size from small to gigantic. The way I see it, her works are mainly about shape, since she used mainly square formats with round aluminum washers as major elements. Then of course there is texture, with overly-generous strokes of acrylic and the addition of mixed media. She also chose a dominant color for each artwork, which, along with the circle-square balance, help unify each piece.

Hey, this is just my opinion, okay?

My favorite is a work called "Body," the invitation piece, which my friend bought. It's a very strong (red) piece that can hold a wall on its own. I especially like the swath of different materials, like a palette of textures, across the midsection.

Miguel's favorite art piece is called "Meteor Shower," which as it turns out was acquired by another friend. It's another favorite of mine too. I must say that my son shows good taste.




By the way, here's an extreme close-up of one painting that he took so that, as he said, "you can put it on your blog."



It was nice dropping by the CFA after all these years. I saw a few "kids" in front of the padlocked studios, with their trademark CFA attitude. Driving up I could tell that they were sizing me up, and knew right away that I used to be from the college. You bet your ass.

Haay. It's so good to know that you've been around.

46/100

I hereby declare

that being Superwoman is humanly impossible. As I wake up in a stupor at my desk (talk about a powernap) I ask myself, "what was I thinking?"

It is physically impossible for me to bring my son to school every day then go to work in Makati. I'm sure it's even worse if I try to take the train everyday, because that would mean taking a 20-minute walk across four city blocks and man would I be exhausted!

Waking up at 430AM is no joke with my schedule. Even if I limit my social life to weekend nights, I still end up sleeping late because I have a launch event to attend (morale support for the brand) or a 10PM on-line meeting (yes, it happened last week).

Not to mention minor emergencies like Miguel's school bag breaking down yesterday, so that last night I had to go to the mall (after the aforementioned launch) and buy him a kick-ass stroller bag, the kind with a lifetime warranty.

And speaking of weekends, I don't always have the weekend off. Last weekend was spent in Hawaii, Pixar, and the Power Rangers. The one before that was spent on Miguel's birthday, his recital, and his first-day-of-school preparations (see the June 5 entry)

My body's been screaming for sleep for days.

Come to think of it, I'm not new to sleep deprivation. No mom is, I'm sure. Some years back I asked Gai if i could crash in her house anytime, even for 2 hours of rest. I believe that her offer still stands. For the record, I've used her house only once. Another time I showed up at my uncle's house after a shoot and slept for a couple of hours before I walked home.

It was important that I sleep in someone else's house because if I tried to nap in my house, Miguel would somehow find me and my beauty rest would be interrupted.

Back then I just needed to catch some sleep because of work. Today the combination of big-school responsibility and work is bearing down on my waking moments like a big, heavy metal helmet.

Man, I'm putting him on that bus next week.

I seriously need a break.

45/100

For the record

Here's a list of Miguel's favorite foods.

1. strawberry
2. chicken joy
3. chocolate
4. french fries
5. pan de sal with butter and jam
6. fruit shake (mango banana)
7. piyaya
8. iced tea
9. churros
10.barquillos

and don't forget his his thosandth favorite:

1000. peanuts

This list was developed as we drove home from church last weekend; it was a successful atempt to distract him and get his mind off something. So successful that even I don't remember what we were talking about before this.

Oh well.

44/100