cousins

our little family went on a roadtrip last weekend to orani, bataan. we went to celebrate the feast of our lady of the rosary, which not many of you know, is where my first name rosario was derived from by my dad, who is a devotee.

we went to the 11am mass and afterwards, watched the banda ng mosiko, while my dad related his stories to my kids about how it used to be when he was young there in their town.

then we went to my cousin's house and had lunch.  

best part of the day were the kids enjoying their short but fun time bonding with their cousins that they didn't want to go home when it was time.  the little big man was literally begging me to let him stay overnight.  of course, that wasn't possible so hubby and i promised them we'll come back on the 31st and stay overnight.  i understand how much they long to be with their cousins and i'm glad they've built friendships and bonds with them that will last forever.

"a cousin is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost."

mommy fail

busy days at work took a backseat again yesterday for my kids' annual field demo day in school.  past years it was only the little big man's day.  this year is more meaningful and eventful, being the little girl is now in 1st grade and participating in the activity.

about two weeks ago, i was already on my toes finding the materials for their costume which was prescribed by the school.  i needed orange gina cloth (luckily both kids needed the same color), white leotards, black shorts, orange shorts, gold foil paper, dark blue art paper, green satin ribbon... the works.  the last night before the event, i had to cram sewing and pasting and putting together the 2 different costumes for the 2 kids.

so yesterday, we were all set.  both kids were excited.  their classmates and teachers worked 2 weeks practicing and this day is the big day they were gonna show off what stuff they're made of.

the littel girl's sched of presentation was at 9:15am while the little big man is at 10:45am.  we  arrived in school at around 9:05-9:10.  (my fault because i agreed to wait for my dad and brother before going to school but that's a differet story and i might digress if i go into the details of that.)

the hubby and i agreed he'd go with the little big man while i go with the little girl.  and so, as she and i were passing by the gym, we heard "fireworks" being played and i turned to her and asked, isn't that the music that you're going to dance to?

wide-eyed, she said yes while we both wondered why it was already playing.  i tried to peep to see what's going on but it was too crowded.  so i told the little girl that we should just go to the meeting area of her batchmates.  on our way there, we passed by a video wall showing  livestream what was happening inside the gym.  

lo and behold!  a sea of orange skirts with blue and gold vests worn over white leotards and black shorts!  my insides ached so bad i thought my knees turned jelly and i felt like i would fall in utter frustration.  i turned to the little girl, carried her in my arms, pointed to her the wall and painfully said, anak, sorry hindi ka na makakasali.  ayun na sila o.  i was close to tears.

she stared at the video wall.  then she patted my shoulder, ok lang yan mommy, ok lang yan. she seemed so cool about it and was even the one comforting me!  she stared again for about a minute then she turned away and rested her chin on my shoulder while hugging me tight.  in a few seconds, i knew she was teary-eyed and i kept on saying i'm sorry, i'm sorry to her.  i told her that when we get home, she will wear her costume and perform for me and her dad and kuya and i will video her performance and we will cheer and clap for her.

mommy, ok lang na hindi ako nakasali.  alam ko naman na pinaghirapan mo yung costume ko hanggang kagabi di ba?  ok lang yun.  then she was teary-eyed again and she hugged me again while i hugged her back.  halika na mommy, ayaw ko na dito.

we found the hubby and the little big man in his grade 5 classroom and told them what happened.  (of course, the hubby blamed me because we both knew we should be there by 8:30 but i told them 9:15 pa naman ang performance e.  and yeah, that thing with my dad.)  afterwards, we went to the gym in time for kuya's performance.  

while waiting, a video wall inside the gym was running the highlights of the grade 1 to 3 performances.  and there again was the grade 1 performance which the little girl failed to participate in just an hour ago.  i pointed it to her, she looked and shrugged saying, ayaw ko na makita yan.  i felt her pain and secretly pointed an imaginary gun to my head and shot myself.  i was as devastated as she.

super mommy fail. :(

here's her costume.  shot at home after.

and here's her vid.  on top of  the bed.  watch it and applaud.  PLEASE.

and here's what the little big man had to show.

and some pics of how the little girl coped with her mommy's failure. :( wearing her kuya's head dress while waiting for him after his performance.

6th on a high

the little girl celebrated her 6th birthday yesterday.  the occasion fell on a maundy thursday and weeks ahead, i already had it figured out that we'd just go to the mall, eat at a nice resto that she's never eaten in before, get her birthday cake and go shopping.

a lot of things did not fall into place though.  

we realized a few days before that the car registration has expired at the end of march so we had to commute.  well, we rode a cab.  

it turned out that there were no malls open.  metro manila was a ghost town every year during this time so what (the heck) were we thinking!  so we directed the cab to go to nearby qc memorial circle where the hubby and i knew there were nice restos at least.  

once there, most of the restos were CLOSED as well.  how lucky can our birthday girl get?!  i did not want to give up and not make her special day a fun day.  hubby argued we should just go to a nearby mcdonald's or jollibee where he was sure the kids would have fun.  but i was insistent that we go somewhere we don't usually go to.  alas, we found a bacolod chicken inasal packed with people right beside the max's resto which was also closed.

so we ordered.  and ended up not happy with the food either.  the hubby cooks way, way better than what was served us.

i was frustrated as hell. 

so we walked around under the trees while the kids tried to have fun.  we watched some parkour guys practicing until somebody directed us to the kid' play area.  that's when the  F - U - N started.

Julla's birthday on a HIGH

blast from the past

last night, the hubby decided to let the kids watch our wedding video.  we were married almost nine years ago and it was the time when wedding videos were evolving into better, shorter and more enjoyable to watch.  but it turned out to be another boring watch.  for me at least, coz i kept on telling hubby to press fast forward and step it up.

not for my kids though.  they stared intently at each scene.  they squealed in glee upon seeing slides of me and hubby's baby pictures.  they asked who the other kids are (hubby's sister and my brother)  the little girl asked why she wasn't there.  the big boy laughed when he saw his now 13-year old cousin as then a 4-year old ring bearer. 

the best part was that everytime they saw old pictures of hubby, they got so worked up and excited and shouted... it's dadddeeeee!!!  they raved that ang payat pala ni daddy dati and pogi ahhh!! 

and when they saw pictures of me,

they laughed.  like i was a big joke.  

the punchline:  while the little girl was re-watching it today (she insisted on watching it again), she told her yaya, yan ang mommy ko, pangit sya nung bata.

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.  
~Robert Fulghum

photographs and memories

i've just recovered pictures from my old hard disk and transferred them in my laptop.  thanks to val, our IT person here in the office.  i'm so glad i got everything back.  i was worried for a while there because the pictures date back to 2007.  that's 3 years worth of memories lost if ever they were unrecovered!  

i remember the first time my computer crashed.  we couldn't retrieve the old files.  never mind the files, i was really more concerned about the pictures which dated back to when we first had a digital camera when migo was, what, 2 years old?  you can imagine how desperate i was.  baby pictures of my panganay were lost!  darn this technology, right?  

used to be that i had photo albums when i was a kid until i was a teen until hubby and i were going steady, eventually engaged and then got married.  our wedding album was 3lbs heavy.  up until migo was 2 years old, we kept real photgraphs in real photo albums.  none in cds, computers, usbs, external hard drives or photo-sharing websites which we have now.  now i can't imagine myself painstakingly inserting picture after picture in an adhesive-laiden book, just as i'd done more than seven years ago.

ahhh...memories... you can never have too much of them.  i realize now that people actually create activities for family and friends so we can have beautiful memories together.  these memories we put inside that little chip inside our brains, store there and retrieve every now and then, to make us feel happy and fulfilled.

i'm getting a dslr soon.  :)