At The Movies

There was a time that I watched a movie every Sunday night without fail.  My friends and I didn't even check what was showing we just went and picked from what was there.  After the movie we would talk endlessly about the screenwriting, lighting, acting, costume design and all that pretentious crap over a midnight snack and a bottle of wine or more.   We thought ourselves to be so the cinephile but were most likely the annoying table of 20 something year old's you never want to sit next to.

That all ended when I started watching movies with Paco.  He prefers to watch the movie and that's it, he moves on to the next item on the agenda.  I couldn't believe my unlucky stars.  How can he NOT want to know what I THINK about the movie?  How can he not value what I believe is the stroke of genius in the production?  How can he not be impressed by the gorgeous costume design?  No, he didn't want to sit down over cheese fondue and wine and prolong the whole movie experience.

Then I had kids and just like that my movie days were over.  I hardly every go to a movie these days that aren't animated.  I once objected to Disney but not I freely give them my money and laugh at their jokes.  There is one good thing that has come out of my miserable lame story, I have now found a new cinephile to watch movies with in Aiden.  He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES talking about the movie.  For hours, days, weeks and months.

Yesterday we watched Cars 2.  Aiden is a huge fan of Lighting McQueen and Tow Mater and he has been waiting for it for months which made me excited to take him.  Just as expected he couldn't stop talking about it after.

On our way out of the theater.

Aiden:  Mama, why was McQueen upset at Mater?
Me:  Because he lost the race.
Aiden:  Why did he lose the race?
Me:  Because he got confused with what Mater was saying over the headphones.
Aiden:  Why did he get confused?
Me:  Mater left the pit to meet his girlfriend and McQueen thought Mater was talking to him when he was talking to that secret agent.
Aiden:  Why did he meet his girlfriend?
Me:  Because he enjoys being with her.

Lining up in the bathroom.

Aiden:  Mama, why was McQueen upset at Mater?
Me:  Because he lost the race.
Aiden:  Why did he lose the race?
Me:  Because he got confused with what Mater was saying over the headphones.
Aiden:  Why did he get confused?
Me:  Mater left the pit to meet his girlfriend and McQueen thought Mater was talking to him when he was talking to that secret agent.
Aiden:  Why did he meet his girlfriend?
Me:  Because he enjoys being with her.

In the car on the way home.

Aiden:  Mama, why was McQueen upset at Mater?
Me:  Because he lost the race.
Aiden:  Why did he lose the race?
Me:  Because he got confused with what Mater was saying over the headphones.
Aiden:  Why did he get confused?
Me:  Mater left the pit to meet his girlfriend and McQueen thought Mater was talking to him when he was talking to that secret agent.
Aiden:  Why did he meet his girlfriend?
Me:  Because he enjoys being with her.


Paco, now I know why.

Imelda May

I have recently discovered Imelda May and her albums have been playing on repeat.  What was I doing that I had never heard of her before?  I love everything about her from her sound to her look to her website.  This song Johnny's Got a Boom Boom is in both albums which doesn't make me feel so delayed.   

Pure Shock Value

As you all know Aiden is my out of the box earthling.  Even then I still get floored by the many things he says, does or simply thinks.    Lately he has been sharing the most awesome far from age appropriate things for a 4 year old to say.  I am sure it is for the sheer pleasure of seeing my jaws drop to the ground but I fall for it every single time.

Here is a shortlist of Aiden's blurbs:

• This soup is glorious!
• I'm only hungry when the food is red, hot spaghetti.
• In my heart I'm watching another cartoon so I have to follow my heart.
• I was talking and Gael just pushed my words away!
• Clothes are such a bother sometimes.
• If you really miss me you'll come home now.
• Don't go, Mama, you'll break my heart.
• Don't call me honey, just call me Aiden.
• Now THAT'S annoying!
• Mama, I'm gonna keep an eye on you.

The long list is just nuts.

World Cup 6th Birthday

Gael turned 6 last week and we managed to have a party that wasn't ridiculously more lavish than my wedding.  Just a little bit more.  More guests, more food and hey there were actually invites and a cake! 

Figuring out sizing, margins and paper size for the printing of invites, loot bag stuff, little flags for the tables drove me nuts.  Trust me I would have had the store bought kind if only I found a football theme.

I served lots of candy so the kids would like me. 

Guests came in their team's jerseys and we played football tweaked party games.  Pin the ball in the goal was a hit. I shouldn't have bothered with other games, they could have done it all afternoon.

Did You Lay An Egg?

He thought he was being absolutely slap your knee hilarious when he asked me this.  What Gael didn't count on was my telling him that he did in fact come from an egg.  He assumed I was kidding around and teased me about laying an egg and hatching it.   When I worried about giving the whole sex talk it never dawned on me the scientific facts of the details would be lost in translation to a 6 year-old.  I can imagine the whole ovulation process boring the hell out of the earthlings and chances are the menstrual cycle will make them puke.  Blood where?  Every friggin month?  They are men, albeit little but still men, I don't expect anything else. 

I should have just left it there but I didn't want to be the parent of the kid that tells his class and friends that I sat on an egg and he hatched out of it.  I had classmates that believed the dumbest how babies are made stories until they got their period and I made so much fun of them felt so sorry for them.  The truth will set you free, right?  Actually, girls have eggs inside them that become babies and when the baby is big enough it is ready to be born.  Ah, the inconceivable.  But how can eggs fit inside?  Won't the egg hatch when you move?  After assuring him the human eggs are not as fragile, a lot smaller than bird eggs and I didn't have to sit on it in a giant nest perched on a tree he is satisfied.  He was feeling really cool to have come from an egg.  For a moment at least.

Did the egg come out of your vagina?

Damn it, Rone, why do you have to be so unflinchingly honest!  He is only in Prep, he will survive thinking he hatched out of an egg.  I bet at least one of his classmates thinks the same thing.  We revisit the whole the egg becomes a baby part.  Inside the tummy.  Plus the human egg has no shell that hatches just to make sure it is all clear.  Right when I think I've got my bases covered, a curve ball comes my way.  So I came out of your vagina?  Yes sir!  Then I realize that his best cousins were c-section babies so I have to qualify that most babies come out of the vagina but sometimes the baby has a hard time and they open the stomach to take the baby out.  Then came a whole slew of questions that included the areas of pain and fitting down the rabbit hole.

Looks like were doing the snail crawl from the introduction to sex to the definition of the uterus to the prologue to ovulation.  Next is the speedy sperm, wham bam and thank you ma'am.

The Joy of Boys 6

They fight over who will give me a massage.  A full on brawl with pushing and shoving and a little more than that.   I have to beg, plead and barter with Paco to get the shortest lifeless back rub in the world.  Don't even get me started on foot rubs.  They should put weekly foot rubs in the fine print of marriage contracts.  Meanwhile the earthlings are eager to please me, quick to volunteer and determined to be first in everything.  The massage itself may only be likened to a bumpy roller coaster ride but the affection and fervor they put into each thud on my back is more soothing than any professional massage.

The Box

My mom sent me this box this week.  It's terrifying.  It has a little teddy bear from my childhood, the earthlings who weren't too thrilled about an old stinky bear when I passed it over to them.  A whole bunch of letter I received in the time when lovely hand written letters were the norm.  Tons of blackmail worthy stuff for my now married and settled friends with.  Birthday cards from friends I forgot I ever received.  Pictures of me in various scary looks I had - braces and puffy spray netted hair, full beauty queen mode when I once joined the Manila Hotel santacruzan,  clunky rave shoes my dad used to call ugly.  Too many 80s and 90s style invitations to school fairs, high school dances and parties that I once thought were so cool.  I found my most prized possessions of my youth - Faces and Euphoria cards.  They were next to a second year high school report card where Christian Education was already not my strong point. Lots of scary shit in there.

Reading Rocks!

Gael is starting to read and I feel like Einstein's mother.  Yes I know many kids his age were reading way before him but frankly they aren't my kids so I didn't give a rat's ass about what they could or couldn't read.  He does three-letter words and not too complicated longer ones.  He still has some issues with certain letters and letter combinations but it's a good start.  The way his eyes lit up when he read his first sentence is something quite unforgettable.  He look at me and I knew he was thinking I can do it!  I'm fucking reading!

I knew that is what he was thinking because I was thinking the exact same thing.  He can do it!  He is fucking reading.  Literacy rocks more than Mick Jagger.  My family is probably sick and tired of me yakking on about how he has began reading and I probably applaud way too loud with every successful word read.  But I'm not apologizing for brimming with pride for a job well done by one of my earthlings.

He isn't reading himself bedtime stories but this still is something ground breaking.  The gift of reading.  Something we tend to take for granted when we grow up, something we don't fully appreciate as much as we should.  It opens up a whole new world to him.  I remember the first word I ever read.  TO-YO-TA.  It was on some billboard along EDSA.  As soon as I pulled it together and realized that I had just read the make of the most popular car in the world I totally thought I was the shizz.  The triumph that swelled inside me was monumental and I couldn't wait to read more and more and more.

Now that he has moved on to the reading rung of his young life I have consequently moved on to the school boy mothering rung.  We rushed off to the bookstore to get him a few level 1 reading books, I set aside 5-10 minutes in the evenings to practice reading and I oblige him to do it whether he is in the mood or not.  GASP!  So there is a rigid side to me after all.  This must be life's way of training me for a life of homework and school projects.  In all fairness to my new found strictness, he does the happy dance when he actually gets the reading done.

Yes Gael, you totally are the shizz!

It's All About Boobs In August

I never knew there was such a thing as a World Breastfeeding Month until a few days ago.  If you haven't heard it's now so be prepared to hear about boobs, boobs and more boobs.  To make my breastfeeding advocate friends proud I am dedicating this post to them.  It's been 3.5 years since my boobs have retired but breastfeeding is the best feeling in the world so I can't help but crashing the party. 

The first week was hell, it helped to have mama helping me out.

It was so convenient to just whip out the boob.  Especially on planes!

It gave me an excuse to watch Big Brother.

Forgetting to put your boob back in your top at a party is always fun.

Who can resist a milkdrunk baby?

The second time around was so easy I didn't need ridiculous amounts of lanolin.