Halloween

Can you believe I actually put together this zombie mama and her zombie babe/tiyanak?  What next I'll sing Christmas carols while decorating the tree?   

I Should've Named Him Contra

Aiden seems to enjoy being a villainous contrabida.  Whatever is happening, he wants to go the opposite direction.  Going with the the flow does not sit well with him.  He wants things to go exactly as he has planned them in his head or he will make known to all present that he is not happy camper.  If events don't revolve around a zoo or an aquarium, he is not interested.  No.  Wait.  Even if you do take him to the zoo and die of the heat while you are there he will still shoot you a ho-hum I think I'm going to yawn look and give you hell when it's time to go.  It doesn't matter how much effort, Googling and organizing it took me to plan a single afternoon's activity, I always seem to fall short.  If I could work out a day where we have marshmallows for breakfast, fly off to Antarctica to meet his beloved penguins, fly back for a red hot spaghetti lunch, do a Word World marathon in the afternoon, banana splits for merienda (snack) and more marshmallows for dinner, I would still fall short.

I know I should be the mature and understanding person in this relationship but I simply cannot NOT take it personally.  Particularly those times he announces that his favorite part of the day was when we left, when the movie was over, when it was time to go home from school, when the party ended, when dancers were not dancing at a ballet, when the singers were not singing at a musical, when people weren't talking to him.  And he smugly says it all with a killer deadpan face.

Contraband.  Contradict.  Contrary.  Contrast.  Contraceptive.  Any would of these are highly appropriate and perfect adjectives to describe the out of the box extreme mind of this little devil.

Mom-Style on My Mom Friday

I work at home.  In ratty shorts and tank tops.  Shhhhh! Don't tell Michelle of My Mom Friday.

The Naughty List

I think I am slowly screwing up Christmas for the earthlings.  Christmas was never really a big deal for me.  The thrill of putting up the Christmas tree died around the time I discovered the joy of making telebabad.  More than singing carols and decorating the house I'm into the dinners and the drinks.  We tend to overdo the holiday brouhaha in the Philippines and it makes me feel the the bah humbug spirit more than the spirit of giving.  I was more a New Year's Eve sort of person.  My dad's large extended family used to throw the most fun New Year's Eve party in Baguio every year and everyone had a blast - children, teenagers, parents and grandparents.  But since the earthlings invaded my world partying all night, even New Year's Eve, just doesn't sound like any fun at all.

Yesterday I already told you about our first Santa and wish list conversation.  Before that I made the huge mistake of talking to grown ups about Santa's naughty list thinking Aiden wasn't listening.  Of course he was listing, right?  They are ALWAYS listening.  Like that time I was in the car with Gael and my friend, Maricris, on our way to a football game.  She was telling me about a friend of hers that miscarried in her third trimester and how traumatic having to deliver the dead baby was.  Gael was busy playing with my phone so how was I supposed to know he was listening and was going to announce to his twin cousins and their entire family that I had a friend whose baby died inside the tummy and it had to come out of her vagina.

Now back to my Grinchy tale.

Gael is a sweet boy but he is also the incredible hulk of the family.  Because of his temper and bursts or rage he has broken a three month old TV, one of the cable digibox remotes and Paco's old iPhone which they were using to play games.  All three incidents this year alone.  I had been thinking of the most appropriate way to deal with this.  I need a punishment that will bear enough weight for him to remember.  Something serious enough to shake him up a bit.  Then one afternoon it came to me like a flash of a light bulb in The Polar Express movie.  Gael will be on Santa's naughty list this year.  He will not get any present, just carbon/charcoal/uling.  Granted it may be a mean thing to do, but you have to agree that it is a great idea.  All I have to do is pray for the strength to push through with it.  Or the will no not overcompensate with my own present to him.

Over one Sunday lunch I was telling my brother and cousins of my wonderful Scroogey plan.  Little did I know that Aiden who was busily eating carrot cake was also busily soaking in all the juicy bits.  On our way home from lunch Aiden quickly announces "I don't think Gael will be getting any Christmas presents this year because he is NAUGHTY!".  WTF!  You must be kidding me!  But if he thinks he can out snide remark me he surely is mistaken.  Before Gael could turn green and rip his shirt to threads I quickly retorted, "Well, what makes you think you're not on the naughty list?"

And that shut him up.  And kept Gael as Lou Ferrigno the scientist.  For a little bit at least.

Reality Check

The earthlings know that Christmas is coming up.  With Christmas carols prematurely blasting at the malls and  Christmas street lights up way too early, how can they not.  So they have been announcing what exactly they want from Santa.  Every week they think of something new they want and the list just gets longer and longer.

Me:  You know I don't need so many things for Christmas.  All I want from Santa is for you two to be nice to each other and stop fighting.

Gael and Aiden:  That's all?

Me:  Yup, that's it.

Gael:  Well I want Santa to make you the best mama in the world.

Me:  You mean I'm not the best?

Gael:  No, you shout at us.

A perfect example of how using the Santa card totally backfires and you totally deserve it.

Yin, Yang & Football

Photographs by Francisco Guerrero

Fear

A few months ago Aiden suddenly became scared of stuff.  I have to say that he was never exactly what one would describe as a fearless child so I am not that surprised.  His big thing now is he is scared of the dark.  Talk about cliche.  But not only is it so typical to be frightened of the dark, the dark is absolutely inevitable.  It is even worse in a tropical country like the Philippines where the sun rises before 6 am and sets around 6 pm.  That's 12 friggin' hours of night, 12 friggin' hours of dark.

He could have picked a fear of rarer things that you don't encounter often like tarantulas or riding boats or thunder.  But no it had to be the dark which only is a daily occurrence.   To be more precise it is half of every single day.  As soon as night falls Aiden will make sure he is never alone.  He will not go into another room unaccompanied for a single second.  He can not even go pee on his own.

Obviously I realize that Aiden is not the first child to fear the dark.  It is probably more like he is one of the millions.  Even if I am not quite shocked by it I have no idea where it comes from.  We don't say stupid things that will induce fear.  Those ridiculous things that too many grown ups like to tell children.   Things like don't go there there is a  mumu (ghost)  or the pulis (police) will come get you if you are a bad boy.  Never do we make any reference to anything being creepy or imaginary monsters and creatures. 

I don't exactly know what it is he fears of the dark.  I suppose more than anything else it is his imagination that daunts him. But like any good mother I will call it a phase and cross my fingers that it doesn't last too long.  That and be thankful we don't live in Scandinavia where they have 24 -hour long polar nights.

I Cannot Believe We Have Vacation Pictures!

For the boys' term break we took a short trip to Hong Kong.  Their first time and mine.  It was so much fun that Gael burst into tears when he woke up on our last day.  He didn't want to go home just yet.  If only I didn't have to be mature one I would have cried too.  I wanted to eat as much dimsum as I could and shop till my feet hurt at H&M. 

One of the highlights of the trip is that Paco actually took pictures.  OF US!  I know what you're thinking but just because I am married to a photographer doesn't mean we have pile upon pile of gorgeous pictures.  Especially not the vacationy and touristy type.  It's quite the opposite actually.  To celebrate this triumph in his fathering earthlings skills I decided to show off his new talent as vacation photographer.

Thrilled

Photograph by Francisco Guerrero

A few weeks ago one of Gael's dreams true.  Thanks to Nana of Viva La Vida Mamas he was picked to be one of the child escorts of the Azkals at a friendly game for the iCanserve Foundation.  Can see just how anxious and nervous he was while waiting for it to actually happen?

After Football School

Me: Good practice today Gael. You played really well.

Gael: Why am I so good at football? (Yes, he actually said that.)

Me: Because you practice a lot. You certainly didn't get it from me!

Gael: What does that mean?

Me: I don't have an athletic bone in my body and am not good at ANY sport. So you're being good at football wasn't something you learned from me.

Gael: I also didn't get it from Daddy.

Our School Rocks!

Last term Gael was learning about the Keys community for his social studies class.  They did a lot of stuff like interview members of the community, toured the school and met the older kids, talk to the architect of the school, make a blue print and build their improved version of the campus.  At their culminating activity for the class each child spoke a little about the improvements they envisioned for Keys.  Aside from putting in an elevator, going up ten more floors and planting roses in a garden Gael mentioned something that made me feel like the mother of year.  He said, "There will be classrooms for kids to learn and to have fun because here in Keys, there is a lot of fun stuff to do."

Having gone to your typical traditional Catholic school where we were about 45 kids to a class and it seemed everyone at the school was quick to reprimand kids.  They didn't really give a flying fuck if we actually learned anything from them, at the end of the term all they saw was a pass or a fail.  Job done.  Most of the teachers never bothered to figure out why anyone failed.  If they ever feared so many bad grades was a bad reflection on their capabilities as a teacher they never showed it.

That sort of school was exactly what I DIDN'T want for the earthlings.  I remember when my brother was Gael's age he hated school.  He had to be forced to go to school every single day.  He went to school crying, kicking and screaming since he was in Nursery.  Gael on the other hand loves school, he adores his teachers, he can strike up a casual conversation with the school directress and he is a happy little camper of the Keys community.  Every morning he can't wait to get to school, have a class "job" for the day, hang out and learn something new.  The best part of it all is he has a lot of fun along the way.  Now isn't that the best way to learn?

Sure you can try and defend your traditional schools, no doubt there is something positive to say about them.  (Such as the huge campus with lots of nooks and crannies where high school kids can hide out and smoke a few cigarettes?).  But you cannot deny it, most of the time I hear you traditional school moms complaining about the amount of crazy homework and memorization your kids have to do.  Or was it the crazy amount of homework and memorization you have to do for them?   

Mothering Earthlings International

Mothering Earthlings lifts off!  

Welcome to the international shop for orders from outside the Philippines.  For your convenience the retail prices are in US dollar on the new site.  Plus easy check out with Paypal international and credit card options through your Paypal account.  If you don't live in the Philippines you can now buy our hippest and most coveted brands for your little earthlings - Agoo, Googoo & Gaga, In The Crib, Indigo Baby, Ines Moda Infantil, Mommy Matters, Next 9, Proud Mama and Tot Couture.

We have proudly featured Filipino design and mompreneurs locally, now we bring them to Earthlings all over the world.

Mothering Earthlings, we come in style.