Christa, Pauline (Chu), Gwen, James, Paul, Calvin, Maverick, Jairus, Sybil, Mieko, Kim, Christina, Harold, Gerard, Meme, Charmaine, Karla, Lawrence, Israel, Yassy, Pauline (Gawkee)….
No, I am not making a roll call. I’m just trying to test myself how many of my daughter’s classmates I know by their names.
For me, it is very important that I know my kids’ classmates and friends so I won’t have to make blank guesses when I ask them whenever they go out….”who are you with?” I don’t think this is ‘over-prying’ or anything. As a mother, I reserve the right to check and approve my children’s company - well, at least, while they are still under my wings.
Sometimes, I ask - am I a good mom? Then I begin assessing myself. But I realize I can never find the answer in me. Only my kids can answer this question.
…..On their first feeding, I made them draw the colostrum from my breasts. What the heck - I never cared if they sagged or got over worked out. There was no option - it was breastfeeding on their first months - nothing more. No animal or chemical milk formula for 90 straight days.
…..I read books, baby articles. I would pin the Sto. Niño medallion on their shirts for protection. I kept their feet warm all the time with flannel socks…. covered them with nets to ward away mosquitoes and flies… I wouldn’t sleep when they were sick and I rubbed ‘manzanilla’ on their tummies to ward off colic.
….I held my younger son tight when the nurse had to get blood sample from him for typhoid fever test. I rubbed and massaged my eldest son’s feet to divert the post-surgery pain from his arm. And I cheered my daughter when she had her front baby teeth extracted as she wailed and howled so loud only an ice cream hushed her later.
I am not exalting myself with the previous scenarios. I am only speaking in behalf of the billions of mothers out there… Praise God for them….
[…] Since we are in the media industry, a camera has always been a must have for me and my husband. And in the process of this job of capturing people and events, we got hooked to photography. As we reared two boys and one girl, our favorite subjects naturally geared towards them. My husband tried to capture their moods in candid poses in various states of emotion - from crying to smiling to laughing; and various states of playfulness - from a quiet sit down chess game or Barbie doll play to a rugged wrestling or ball game. And that was before the advent of digital photography! Our collection of photos is so HUGE and until now, I have not finished organizing them in albums. You have to believe me - we have boxes and boxes of photos lying around, and I am now at a loss on how to store and organize them. I admit, I was at fault for not having done so before. But I think the volume of photos coming in was too much for me to handle then, considering I had to balance my time with multiple jobs of teaching, caring for my kids and maintaining the household. In time, as the children grew up, our interest in photography waned. Maybe we got tired. Or maybe it’s a case of “photo glut” - you know - there is this tendency to take something for granted when we have so much (too much) of it. […]