FAM IN RED

My mother-in-law celebrated her 50th birthday this week. For the party, the immediate family were asked to wear red. In the Chinese culture, they believe that the colour red will bring long life and lots of good luck.

While we were getting ready, Kyla asked why we were all wearing red. So the hubby told her about the long life thing. Then she picked up my phone and started dialing. As it turned out she called my mother-in-law and this is what she said:

"Ama, I just want to let you know that you're really going to have a very long life because all of us are wearing red- EVEN MY UNDERWEAR IS RED!"

*Ama is Chinese for grandma.

ANIMAL SOUNDS

One day, Kyla wanted to play "pretend" with me. She was going to be a little girl who lived in a farm. She wanted me to play the different animals.

This is how our conversation went: (This is the easiest way for me to tell the story.)

KYLA: "Mommy, you're gonna be a rooster. You have to crow so I can wake up."

ME: "Okay... TUK-TU-GA-OK! TUK-TU-GA-OK!

Kyla opened her eyes and stared at me with this really confused look on her face.

KYLA: "Mommy, what are you doing?! You're supposed to crow like a rooster!"

ME: "I did! I did crow like a rooster!"

KYLA: "No, you didn't. You did something else. You said TUK-TU-SOMETHING. It's supposed to be COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!

ME: "Well, Kyla... In the Philippines, that's the sound roosters make!"

KYLA: "What kind of roosters do they have in the Philippines?!"

* * S I G H * *

KYLA: "Okay, mommy. Now you be a frog and I'm trying to go to sleep but you keep making noises."

ME: "KOKAK! KOKAK!

Kyla looks at me again very confused. She was getting really exasperated.

KYLA: "Mommy, what are you doing?!"

ME: "I'm making frog noises. Isn't that what you wanted me to do?"

KYLA: "Yeah, but that's not the right sound, mommy! It's supposed to be RIBBIT! RIBBIT!

ME: "Well, Kyla... In the Philippines, that's the sound frogs make!"

KYLA: "How come animals in the Philippines make weird sounds? Oh yea... I know why! THEY'RE TAGALOG!"

* * D O U B L E S I G H * *

*As far as Kyla is concerned, every Filipino IS Tagalog.

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

While helping out at the store, a very well-dressed lady came in. She was looking at the magazines and started talking to me about random celebrities. She seemed very nice and friendly. There was nobody at the store so we started talking about random stuff- including family.

I mentioned to her that I have 2 beautiful girls at home. Then she asked me how old I was. I told her I was pretty young when I had my 1st one but everything turned out well for me. Then all of a sudden, she changed from this sweet, pretty lady to this horrible, monstrous witch (with a capital B)!

She started lecturing me about life and about being a young mom. The whole time I was thinking, "Mahn! The words coming out of her mouth are worse than what anybody else (my parents included) has ever said to me. Who the heck does she think she is?" And her tone was very condescending.

I just stood there speechless and pissed beyond pissed. She kept on going on and on until she mentioned that she was 45 when she had her first child and that she wouldn't have changed a thing. She said she's done everything she wanted to do- get a job she likes, travel around the... not the world... Caribbean, go on cruises, had a nice white wedding, etc...

I honestly don't care how old anybody wants to be when they want to have children. If they wanna have it when they're 20, 50 or even 80... I DON'T CARE! That's their own decision. If they don't wanna have any children, that's up to them too. I don't think I'm entitled to judge anybody for the decisions they make.

So anyway, back to the female dog, she said to me that I must be so ashamed going to my daughter's activities at school since the other parents and even teachers may be talking about how old or should I say, how YOUNG I am.

This is when I decided to stop biting my tongue. I turned to her and said...

"I actually like volunteering at my child's school. I don't care what others say about me. I WOULD RATHER HAVE THEM TALK ABOUT HOW YOUNG I AM THAN TO BE MISTAKEN TO BE MY CHILD'S GRANDMOTHER! Oh, and about the stuff you've already done... getting a good job, touring the Caribbean, having a nice white wedding... I've done those too! Not the cruises yet though. I'm waiting til I'm YOUR age to do it. Anyway, you should get going ma'am. You're grandchild... I mean, your child must be waiting for you at home. BTW, I'm 25 and my mom's YOUNGER than YOU! Have a great day! "

*For the curious ones, I was 18 when I had my first child- not that it's any of your business.

MY PAID DAYS OFF

I've been on maternity leave for 8 months. It's been great so far although there had been so many times when I get so bored at home, especially when Brice is on duty at the hospital. I started thinking about what I could do to help with my boredom but nothing good enough came to my mind (nothing that doesn't involve spending money, that is).

Then one day, my mother-in-law asked me if I wanted to help out at her store. I was kinda iffy in the beginning but the hubby reminded me about my childhood dream. And he said I was gonna get paid, too! So I went and tried it out... and I loved it! I was living my childhood dream but I can be sitting down doing it and read all the magazines I used to spend lots of money on- FOR FREE! Plus, my boss is not really a boss. I don't really do any heavy work cuz the hubby or the brother-in-law are always there.

How cool is that? I get some time away from the kids (I love them but I need a break once in a while), catch up on my mags, spend time with the hubby all while GETTING PAID!

The only bad thing is, I've been munching on a lot of junk that we sell at the store.

DEAR SANTA...

I know Christmas was already a couple of months ago but last week, Kyla (my 6-year old 'baby') came home from school with a folder full of random sheets of paper. She told me those were all her schoolwork from last year (September-December). There were art works, writing activities, math activities, etc. But one sheet of paper caught my eye...


What do you think? Future Miss Universe or Goodwill Ambassador? Either way, I AM ONE PROUD MOMMY!

A LITTLE GIRL'S DREAM

As a little girl, every time my mom would take me to the mall, department stores or grocery shopping, I've always felt envious about these ladies. I told myself that when I grow up, I wanna be just like them.

I wanna wear those nice little dresses, put on some stockings, slip on those high-heeled shoes and have lots and lots of money. They sit pretty, chat with their friends and people line up to give them lots of money. But the good thing is, they also give back- sometimes food, clothing, etc. and sometimes even money! Yet they still get to keep loads of cash in their little boxes. How awesome is that?

I could be in the mall ALL DAY LONG- Perfect!

I could NOT wait to be a grown-up.

I could NOT wait to be a CASHIER!

FOREVER YOUNG

Browsing through some old pictures in the computer, it reminded me of what Kyla told me when she first started school. I believe it was her first few weeks at school and at that time, "Apa" (Brice's dad) would pick her up when she got off since Brice and I would be at work. As time went by, Apa made friends with the other Filipino dads who also picked up their kids. One day, when Apa wasn't there to pick her up (I went instead), she said: "Mommy, my friends' dads said to say hi to my dad but I think they were talking about Apa. He's friends with them you know cuz they're the same age." So I asked her what she said to them. And she answered, "I told them Apa's not my dad- he's my Grandpa! MY MOM AND DAD ARE TEENAGERS!"

*Until now, she still tells everyone that her parents are teenagers. Her reasoning? Because we don't look like her other friends' parents. The other parents look more like Apa and Ama OR Papa and Mama. Oh geez!

MY LITTLE SUCKER!

Baby Kae is a big thumbsucker! I don't know if it's because she's teething but we've been having a hard time taking her little thumb out of her mouth recently. We've made it to a point to try to take her thumb out every time she starts sucking. We've also told big sister, Kyla, to do the same. So just a few minutes ago, Kyla was watching Kae and she was surprisingly quiet. We figured, "She must be sucking her thumb again." Boy were we wrong! She was sucking something even better...



And Dadddy was there to capture the oh-so-yummy moment! Kyla was just sitting there letting her little sister nibble on her baby toe- it's keeping her quiet.

*Notice how we managed to take a picture? Instead of taking Kyla's toes out of Kae's mouth, I got Brice to take pictures while I started writing this blog!

KIDS LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Looking at all the presents each of my girls got, I realized that not in my entire life did I ever get that many presents for Christmas! At the "Annual Tan Family Christmas Party," during the distribution of presents, we needed 4 garbage bags to put all of the girls' presents into! All the kids there had such huge smiles on their faces- so happy to get all those gifts and so excited to open them. But the most excited out of all them was my beautiful, Kyla. She wanted to go home ASAP to open up her presents and to see if Santa had already dropped by to bring what she had asked for. So we left the party as soon as we could and dropped by at my sister-in-law's place to... yes, GET MORE PRESENTS! -at least they got to open them right there and then. But Kyla still wanted to go home already to open up the rest of her presents. So we did. She had to change into her pj's first to get comfy (actually, I didn't want her dress to be ruined- such a mom!).Anyway, after all the presents were opened, we finally got her to go to bed. Then Brice and I had a conversation about how Christmas is really for kids. Aside from celebrating the birth of Jesus, it's also something that children always look forward to. When you're young, you look forward to getting lots of presents from your family and friends. But once you get older, those presents seem to slowly disappear and you find yourself the one to be giving out presents instead. Mahn! I'm really getting old! It didn't matter that we didn't receive many gifts as long as the kids were happy that's all that matters.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!