I've been running a fever since Thursday night. I felt so lethargic that I fell asleep inside the car while waiting for daughter #2 last Thursday. When I came home, I felt feverish so I took my temperature. It read 38.5 Celsius. I was officially sick.

Friday morning daughter #1, the doctor, came home to look me over and take Ethan to school. I was having stomach spams - maybe a bout of gastro - the doctor said. I browsed the internet and checked my email and blog for a short time. I had a terrible headache, a grumbling-spasmodic tummy, and an aching body. I wanted to eat but my stomach won't take in food! By evening, I just wanted to be left alone. Ethan was in my bed (of all places) playing and watching TV. He kept on singing, and talking - stressing me out.

Ethan, can you please go to Kux's room. You're stressing me out.

What's stressing?

Just go and stress Kux!

Off Ethan went and brought Kux back.

What is it mom? Do you need anything? daughter #3 asked.

I explained what happened and that brought another strain of stress making my tummy spasm more. I waved Ethan and daughter #3 to get out of my bedroom. After a few minutes, Ethan came back.

Mom, can I just stay in your room. Kux said she does not like stress. I'll take care of you because you're sick, said Ethan.

I agreed for the sake of agreeing. I so wanted to tune out.

Mom, can you get me water? I'm thirsty.

But I'm sick and you said you'll take care of me.

Oh I forgot. Then Ethan continued to watch TV. Thirst forgotten. A moment later he asked,

Mom, can we watch Narnia?

I agreed and changed the channel. As Ethan was watching I commented that we have not watched Narnia 2 yet.

But we are watching Narnia now, Ethan said.

That's Narnia 1. The one that's showing in cinemas is Narnia 2, I commented.

You mean there are many Narnia? What about Narnia 3?

I don't know if and when Narnia 3 will be!

Or what about Narnia 4, 5, or 17! His eyes were all a glow, brimming with excitement.

I turned my back on Ethan and closed my eyes. My tummy's churning again.

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Ethan, daughters # 3 &4 and I attended Kyle's birthday party. He is Ethan's best buddy in school. It was a swimming party held at Kyle's grandma's backyard. It was an intimate party for there were less than 10 kids invited. Triple that number- for adults - and that's the total number of guests.

Games were played supervised by Teacher Katrina and Marla. Give-aways or party favors were plenty, the kiddie buffet, yummy!

What was really amusing was when Kyle's grandma saw that my two daughters were just sitting doing nothing, she called two masseuses for them. See more photos.

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Ethan and my three daughters are back from their vacation. I was late in picking them up at the airport. It was way past lunch time and the boy was mighty hungry and cranky.I was expecting him to greet me with much gusto like mom! i missed you or something.


All the fat boy said was Can we go to McDonald's now? I'm so hungry!

Here are some more pictures of Ethan.

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The picture on the left has nothing, whatsoever, to do with the content of this post. I just felt like uploading it. This was taken infront of the Iron Man poster at Mall of Asia. No. I was not legless. I was jumping for 'joy'.

Today I am officially 'maid-less'. My two maids and an extra went home for 'vacation'. How I envy them. They can just pack their bags, make a salary advance (without interest, of course) and go home for a spell of relaxation. I cannot remember the last time I had a complete-restful vacation. My vacations were just extensions of my daily routine more tiring at that since the routines were done in unfamiiar places. Double boohoo for me if the vacations were spent in places accessible by airplanes only.

Anway, the house is quiet enough. My three other daughters and Ethan are now lolling in the white sands of one of the islands in Visayas.. The ones who are not in vacation are hubby, 4th daughter-doing her on-the-job-training, and only son -in the middle of a league. Before I log off and cry, ooopppss..I mean log of and sleep, let me just say that I am not actually feeling lonesome but I actually miss Ethan's chatter. Oh well.

Friends, forgive me if I can't do the tags you sent me. I'll get to them once I have adjusted to my new routine as a housemaid-laundrywoman-driver-cook-gardener-etc. Sigh!

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I woke up earlier than usual today for it was my turn to drive the dentist to her duty. Going to the hospital was a breeze but coming back was not. It is the town fiesta tomorrow in my adopted-third-world-town in Cavite so traffic snarls were expected. I greeted Ethan when I got back and gave him some crinkles that I bought in Becky's Kitchen. I proceeded to the basement and turned on my desktop.

Mom! I can't open the door to your bedroom. Something clicked and now the doorknob is loose! It won't budge! daughter # 2 - the teacher- said. Ethan is inside and can't get out.

Huh!? Again!? For the nth time, that doorknob has been replaced. My bedroom gets the most traffic in our house. Everybody wants to hang out in my bedroom. Watch TV. Sleep on my bed. Eat. Talk. Rant. Rave. Exercise. Do make-overs. Anything. Everything.

Ethan! I've told you millions of times to stop banging and slamming my door. I shouted as I walked or rather galloped towards my bedroom.

But mom, I didn't do anything, countered Ethan. The teacher and I tried to open the door. We used keys, screw drivers, credit card (expired) to try to open the jammed door. Nothing. Okay. Think. I asked one of the maids to get the ladder so I can climb by the window and try to pry it open- bad idea as the French window is barrel bolted. No harm trying.

It is good that my house is a split-level type and my bedroom is just about 8 steps elevated from the ground. As I climbed the ladder, the three maids and daughter #2 were all gawking at me. Right. You might ask why daughter #2 did not climb the ladder herself. She was all dressed up and was about to leave when the incident happened. I can't let her dirty her clothes.

Ethan, get your chair and come by the window. Step on the chair and try to slide the bolt of the window to your right. Of course I lost about a pint of blood explaining what the heck is a bolt, how it looks like and how to align all parts so it might slide freely and finally unlock.

What mom? Ethan is 5 and can't even get near the window much less understand or execute my instructions. Again. I tapped the window and indicated that he lift the blinds -which as you can probably see in the picture, is now broken- and curtains so he can reach the window bolt. Yes! He was able to reach the bolt. Now, slide the bolt to your right as I indicated with my hand where his right is. It's not working mom. Oh shoot! Slide the bolt to your left! He did, finally, and I opened the window from the outside.

Problem 2. The window has grills but I was able to unlock it. The problem was the grills swing in the bedroom to open which is impossible to do since half of the TV was blocking the window.The TV was heavy and Ethan can't possibly budge it. I got down from the ladder to call my foreman.

Mom?!
What!?
I really have to poo! Great!

Daughter #2 rushed back praying that the door might finally open. Miraculously, it did!

Lessons learned:

for Ethan: do not bang or slam the door.
for daughter#2: miracles do happen in the most tight situations
for me: do not buy that particular brand of doorknob ever again.

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That is the title of Ethan's play, or shall I say operetta. The play tells a story of three fugly caterpillars wondering what their special gift is. They see that the ant's special gift is its strength; the spider its wittiness; the flower, its beauty. Still, the caterpillars were sure that God has special plans and gifts for them so they waited patiently. The moral: Wait patiently for the Lord. Everything will fall in its rightful place in His time. This, indeed, is a beautiful message to instill to children.


Ethan's Self-Portrait. Kinda gearing towards impressionism huh.











Eat your heart out, Vincent!
This is Ethan's picture concept of the play.








The Cast. Encore! Very well done.
Kudos to the never-tiring teachers!

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TOINK!

counter- TOINK!

ano ba kayong dalawa ?!



ha-ha-ha-ha-ha

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With my picture file still missing, I thought of using my son's laptop to scour for pictures. At this very moment 5:20 pm, my son is not home.

Look what I found. This is Zoro. He is often seen traipsing about UP Diliman in his cape and mask. He is harmless. He just wants to be IN the middle of every activity in the campus. Some say Zoro was a Math major who went berserk. Umm.. due to the perplexing nature of Math?



WADDAA??? What the heck? Who is the girl? I recognize the dorm's reception hall though.

Figure this out. I think they are lying on the floor, wearing costumes. My son is the one in the green "thing". Oh I get it! He and his friend ( in the blue "thing" ) are tetris blocks.




Ethan? Isdachu?

Oh well. That's it. Enough intruding.

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What a peaceful way to spend a lazy afternoon! Walking a long a tree-shaded lane with nary a care at that moment. Walking is good for you. It need not be brisk to make it aerobic; just walk at a leisurely pace. Clear your thoughts. Breathe in good ideas, exhale the bad ones.

See my humongous bag? When walking or jogging, remember to bring money just in case you or your companion gets thirsty or too tired to continue.


Ethan posing at the bike and jogging lane at the UP academic oval. The tree shaded lane proved to be a free and popular spot for health conscious walkers, joggers and bikers.

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No, that's not Ratatouille. That was a mouse I saw running across my dining room. I threw my right pair lavander and pink crocs slipper at it to scare it away. I did not mean to kill it, but I did anyway. Marksman, that's me.

Picking up the dead mouse freaked all my kids. They are all so namby-pamby! Ethan got mad at me. He said, mom! you killed Ratatouille!

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Do you sometimes feel that you're missing something but you're not really sure if indeed you lost something?

Such was predicament last night. As I was rummaging through my wallet, I thought that I was missing 500 Php. I think. No, I don't remember spending any as I did not go out of the house. The delivery made by Wendy's was paid by hubby. Oh well, maybe I just thought I had 2-500 php in my wallet.

I went to daughter #3's bedroom. Ethan was there watching TV in his jammies. Hey Ethan, I said. Where's the 20 php I gave you this afternoon? Nowhere, he said. I told my daughter that I was missing 500 php and I jokingly said that maybe it's in Ethan's coin purse. We both laughed and I playfully unzipped the coin purse to check the 20 php I gave Ethan.

Lo and behold. Guess what I found? My 500 php bill neatly folded in his coin purse.

Ethan' why did you get my money? You're not supposed to get 500 pesos, only the 20 pesos!

But the 20 pesos is boring!

He is quite right.

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Ethan attended a Curious George theme first birthday party this afternoon. The venue was at the children's playground of Manila Polo Club. Some kids were at the pools when we came. Ethan was mad because I intentionally did not bring swim suits for us since he still has coughs. The party place was decorated with inflatable animals, vines, and balloons. Ethan got the dinosaur inflatable.

I was gazing at the Polo field ( trying to imagine myself astride a horse playing polo) when daughter # 4 shrieked. I just can't believe when daughter # 4 said that she saw a squirrel jumped from a tree. Her friend confirmed it.

Squirrel? In the Philippines? Maybe what my daughter saw was a pigment of her imagination or is there really a Pinoy squirrel? Anyway, as always Ethan enjoyed the party.

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So how was your Easter? I and my family had a lazy day. W e did not go to sunrise service since it was set at 4:30 am in Taytay and Ethan was racked with cough. I was very disapppointed with myself. Easter Sunday and no church!

I called my mother at 9:00 am and explained why we were absent at the sunrise service. After which I sms my sis-in-law and told her we'll be eating lunch at her house whether she likes it or not.

We arrived at my sis-in-law's house and ate lunch... for 4 hours. We started eating at 1:oo pm. By the hour, different food were presented: lunch, then dessert,then fruits, then chips, then sandwiches. We were stuffed but kept on eating and talking anyway.

I have prepared about 40 plastic eggs with candies and money inside for Ethan's annual Easter egg hunt. Since we were at my in-laws' house I have incuded all the kids there to join in the hunt. So at 4:40 pm I finally hid the eggs. In our excitement no one tool pictures. My hubby played a joke on the egg hunters but the joke backfired.

He included and hid a red salted egg and a fresh egg. Guess who got the real eggs? Yeah. My son got the salted egg and Ethan got the fresh egg which he readily threw and broke.

I was suddenly reminded of the Golden Rule.

Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you.

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It's Holy Wednesday. In the Philippines this is the time for most families and friends to pack up their bags and leave for a"holy" holiday. At 4:00 pm today, all roads leading to the North Luzon Expressway are packed with vehicles on their way up north of Luzon. Destination? Gearing mountainwise, it could be Baguio, Banawe, or Sagada. Beachwise, there's Pagudpod or any of those beaches lining the coast of Ilocos region.

I am not a keen vacationer during Lent. My family and I usually stay in the house, go to church and basically catch up on things. Not today though. It's 8:30 pm and it's only Ethan and I in the house. Ethan was so bored that:

1.) When I went to the grocery and left him with the maids, he put a small ball- bearing inside his nose. I don't know where he got it. Ethan went to tell the maid about it and the maid had him blow his nose real hard. Luckily the object up his nose was ejected.

2.) I got home and was met by the ball-bearing incident. I told Ethan never, ever do it again. I let the maid sort out the groceries and I went down to the basement to go online. After about 30 minutes, the maid came to me and said: Ate, ginupit po ni Ethan and buhok nya. (Ethan cut his hair) Whaadaaa!!?? I got up and went to see Ethan. Lo and behold! He did snip his hair. Off we went to Allan (my hairdresser) and had him fix Ethan's hair. Done, though slightly shorter than usual.

3.) So the two of us ate dinner. While eating Ethan said he feels hot. I asked: Do you want the aircon on? NO! I am hot! Ethan replied while he was feeling his forehead. I felt his forehead and neck and he was indeed feverish. I got the thermometer and hovered it inside his right ear. Tootootoot 38.6 Celsius.

Sigh.............

So here I am, recounting my not so wonderful day before I finally log off.

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Ethan's school fieldtrip was not the usual school fieldtrip. Theirs was a trip to Bonifacio High Street to observe the making of a Kripsy Kreme donut. The kids were toured inside the mixing, batching, frying then decorating part. There were vats of really yummy choco dips and sprinklers. The kids were allowed to get a donut or two then decorate.

After the donut-making-tour, the kids were then brought over at Fully Booked for a special story-telling session. It was a fun fun story telling time for the kids rattled the story teller with their quite outrageous but smart questions.

Time has changed. I remember when fieldtrips were traipsing about Luneta, Manila Zoo and Balara!

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The house is silent. Ethan is watching TV. No one else is here except for the maids and I. It's 3:35 pm and I have nothing else to do.

I have no errands to finish.

I have no one to fetch or take to school.

I am not googling any topic to help out my kids on their research paper.

I am not typing any term paper.

I am not on my way to the bookstore to buy illustration board, glitters, and poster-color for their art project.

am not going to Divisoria to buy textile for their costumes.

I don't have a Parent-Teacher Conference looming in the next few weeks.

I am not on my way to a swimming, golf, cheerdance or a volleyball competition.

My Saturdays are free of ballet classes.

I no longer have to bribe one of my daughters to take piano lessons.

I no longer look forward to trips abroad for the girls' chorus to perform or for me to watch an International Swimming competition.

I no longer have to wait for my son to finish his saxophone class or buy my 4th daughter a new flute for she dented her old one.

no longer have to cook tons of food for their respective varsity teams.

I no longer have to label all their socks, undies and hankies, to avoid mix-up.

Their baby books are all filled up with vaccinations and booster shots.

I no longer have to wake up at 5:30 am to fix their breakfast and pack their lunches.

I no longer have to supervise homeworks and study periods.

Most weekday dinners are just Ethan, my hubby and I.

So many things have changed now that my kids are all grown up. I should be glad. I should be feeling free. But: believe it ot not, I miss the chaos and hectic pacing of a mom with young kids.

Enjoy your little ones now. Do not wish to fast forward their childhood days. Cherish. Delight in the experience of caring for your children. At the blink of an eye ( for me, it was) your children will be all grown up.

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Friday: Ethan and I gate-crashed an overnight activity of an exclusive school in Las Pinas. The activity was all about the moon and the stars. Yes! It was moon-stars viewing through powerful and expensive ( at least 500,000 Php each ) telescopes.


The activity was made possible by AstroCamp. The group brought in 15 powerful telescopes to view the moon, saturn, mars, orion, and jupiter. Cool!









Saturday: We had dinner at Italianni's. Freaking Expensive. At right, me eating Sicilian salad. Yummy! It's garden fresh salad with mango, grape, almond nuts and grilled chicken.






note :Ethan's hand reaching for my fork!



Sunday:AC Chorale had its 20th anniversary concert at PCI Bank Auditorium. We watched as alumnae sang Bridges and Handog with the current group.

It was a touching moment when former members composed and sang a song for the chorale's conductress of 20 years, Tina Yulo-So.

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Makati has changed.. a lot. If you were a child at the age of aquarius, then you can relate to the time when the only cinema found in the Makati area was Rizal Theatre. The ony eating place found there was Pancake House. This area is now, I think, occupied by Landmark and Shangrila Hotel.

The area that is now Greenbelt used to be a great big parking space for South Supermarket. Max's was also located there and an aviary too.Now, it is occupied by a commercial complex (whose design is fitting for a tropical country) known as Greenbelt. The last time I was there, there were only 3 Greenbelt Complexes. Now, a fourth has come up linking the whole complex to Landmark at the other side of Makati Ave. by a series of covered-spacious overpasses. A fifth Greenbelt is nearing completion.

Here are some pictures taken at Greenbelt.

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Ethan, for a time, sang nothing else but Six Little Ducks.

Here is a synopsis of the great song.

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My only childhood zoo experience is that of the Manila Zoo. My papa would take me and my brother Boyet to the zoo to see the animals. I remember there used to be seals, lions, giraffes, tigers and that practically all the cages and pens were filled. It was a sad day when Peter (the spitting orangutan) passed away. With no Peter (no lions, giraffes, and other exotic animals) to entertain and please crowd, Manila Zoo slowly and sadly died. Last I saw, the zoo is being renovated complete with a petting zoo.

Ethan at the petting park of Manila Zoo

Speaking of petting zoos, there's a new kid in town. Ark Avilon, located at Tiendesitas along C-5 and Ortigas Avenue in Pasig. As clued by the name, Ark Avilon is made to look like an ark. If I were the architect, I would have made the building lived up more to its name (modesty aside).

Me, my girls and Ethan at the entrance

The star of Avilon Zoo is Jenny, an orangutan. She looked hip wearing striped pants, t-shirt and crocs. She was sweet too. Kids enjoyed posing with Jenny. Me? I bravely posed with Jenny.

Jenny in her signature pink crocs!

Ethan with his buddy Miguel even

fed the bunnies, chickens and

other cuties at the feeding station located

at the second floor. The Ark Avilon

main venue is in Montalban. Jenny's

handler said it will take 2-3 hours

to tour the whole zoo. The Ark is a

7 out of 10. I should be getting

paid for blogging about Ark Avilon.

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