The one with a Birthday ( ACACIA HOTEL )

The 12th. At 2am of that day I am fortunate to be the first one to greet you HAPPY BIRTHDAY, though you didn’t hear it and even if you did you wont understand what it meant.

The day was organized by your mum from the first minute till the last. The morning started in a crazed way because your mum, being disorganized and hysterical, had it hard due to time constraints. So many need to be done and time is kinda running out, or that what she’s thinking.

We booked a room at ACACIA it was a junior suite. It was bigger than the normal room and an upgrade from the last time. It had the normal stuff plus a nice comfy sofa in the middle.

Your mum decorated a portion of the room with LIGHTING McQUEEN toys, cakes, cupcakes, balloons and giveways. You were surprised when you saw them nicely arranged on the table.

You visitors arrive one by one late in the day. Your titas, Lola, cousins all arrived and shared the day with you.

It is not a typical birthday but it is more of a TURBO-CHARGED get together. We all knew you had fun, though it is seldom that you are not happy; you are always happy especially around a lot of people, toys, carpet floors, open spaces and little kids.

You also spent a while in the pool and had fun in it. Overall, to say that day was just a blast was an understatement. It is more than just a blast.. more like a kaboom-boom-bang-blast type of day. Happy Birthday!

TOUGH LOVE

TOUGH LOVE: It is easy to say it but hard for me to do.

Parenting is a balance between caring and discipline. Parents should decide on what will be the best for the child, children still dont understand the norms in the adult world. To a child, all toys inside a toy store can be picked and brought home, food are ok to be eaten off the floor and Barney is really a dinosaur and not a fluffy costume with a person inside.

I have difficulty doing the “TOUGH LOVE”, yesterday he spread Oreo Cookie crumbs on the bed and floor. He was asking for more cookies not to eat but to play with. Any parent naturally would resist and will try to teach his/her child a lesson, intially that was the plan, but i had it hard when he started to cry.

I can stand the HU-HU-HU-HU and WAAAAAAHHH part but what I cannot stand is the word DADA mixed into it. He would start by crying WAAAHHH and HUHUHU but when he do it WAAAAHHH DA-DA DA-DAAAAAHH HUHUHU where the word DADA is mixed into it it is hard for me to resist.

There is some sweetness when your child calls your name for help and no matter how I fight it I would eventually melt.

Sadly I am a such a weakling, but on the bright side, he is just 2 year and a week old and I still have a bit of a time to toughen up.

Self defense for Toddlers?

My son is not exposed to violence. He dont see nor experience it. He watches nice colorful shows like Disney Channel, Cars, Barney, Elmo and domestic violence does not exist in our home. We dont discipline him by smacking his nead or whipping his behind. For him violence is an alien term.

Unfortunately, there are kids who came from a fucked up families and raised by morons. These kids has or will come in contact with my kid at public places like playgrounds, play areas in malls, toy stores… These are rude, geeky kids and as stupid as their parents.

Yesterday, we are at the Play area of ALabang Town Center and my son was playing drums, then a nerdy, fat kid wearing thick glasses, who is around 7-8 years old, grabbed the drumsticks from my son. Naturally, my son who will be just 2 years old will cry and would not be able to understand why the other kid would take his toy away, but what is saddest about it is his mum just watched what his fat kid did.

At that moment, I want to smash the kid’s face on the drums and play the intro of Metallica’s Enter Sandman with it, but that would be seen as childish. I also want to shout at his parents and bang the head of his mum to his geek dad’s empty head, but that would be a criminal offense.

After a couple of minutes, I took a small basketball and bounced it to hit the kid in the head but too bad it missed. I did not have another chance because geeky kid left after the ball grazed his head.

It is a tough moment for every parent to see his small child bullied by a bigger child like that. Most parents would have the tendency to let norms and civility to take a back seat over the human instinct to protect. ( and maybe to get revenge, to maim, to kill or just hit others with a basketball )

Sadly, children’s world is slowly becoming like the harsh adult world. Their world used to be just playing and having fun but, it seems, now it is getting to be as unfriendly as ours.

HIDE

I find this picture whimsical. It always make me smile when I look at it. It is one of his many playful tricks, that is hiding when we need to do something to him that he dont like (like change his diapers, clothes etc).

He would hide from us and we pretend not seeing him. He would cover and not move for as long as 3-5 minutes and come out very proud and happy of what he did…probably thinking he can be invisible if he hide his face like that. He also can build a fort made of pillows and hide below it or just a blanket or a big toy like on the picture.