Never Too Late

The recounting of our boracay vacation isn't over but I am not done resizing the photos yet so that will have to come later.

But before we get busy with the activities this lenten season, let me share something that made me realize that age must not be a deterrent in letting us be experimental and adventurous.

I just bought my mom a 2 piece bikini. Yup, yup. Her first at the age of 60! I doubt if she'll really wear it by itself, but it even underneath a flimsy top or top and shorts for that matter, it can make one feel bolder, more alive. And in the Philippines, who really wears bikinis at 60, right?

So, humanda ka Boracay next year. hahaha.

Love you, mama!

The World is a Happier Place with Grandmas

This is my belated Grandparents' Day post

I’m the 3rd of 24 apos (grandchildren). As one of the first batch of grand children, I got to enjoy being with my mamang (grandma) longer and now looking back, my fondest memories of her center around food and the kitchen.

You see, she has 10 children and as a mother, the busiest part of the house is where the food is cooked. I remember that she’d always, always have food ready. As a matter of fact, the vendor selling bananas would eat sometimes at the house.

I remember with fondness gifts of plastic dangling earrings and clothes (terno) almost every time my lola would visit the market, the pasalubong of yummy halo—halo in empty Carnation evap tin cans, helping make bilo bilo for ginataan, and trying my small hands at grating coconut the old-fashioned way.

I remember our trips to Alabang for our summer vacation with mamang towing us apos in all, I remember the smell of freshly cooked pinipig, the smell wafting from mamang’s kitchen down to our room in the first floor. I remember going to the market with her and cleaning the fish we bought at the market afterwards. Yes, I am odd that way, actually enjoying cleaning the gut and entrails of the galunggong.

Now, with my own son, I’m just so thankful his mama/nona (grandma) is with him.

After 32 years of working, my mom has retired this year and is hopefully reaping the rewards of being a full-time grandmother to her first apo. =)


I wonder how I will be as a lola? I want to be like my mamang and my mama before me, but more beautiful and way cooler!

So, a world without grandmas, nonnas, lolas, mamas, mommys, mammitas or whatever endearing way you want to call them is a world definitely less happy.

Mommy Moments: Grandparents Bonding

My mom can't wait for the day that she'll hear the sweetest word in her vocabulary that her first apo will utter... and that is "lola".

To say that my mom loves my son is an understatement. She is crazy over him! Taking pictures of his every milestone and everthing else in between, or if not, then reminding me to be the one to take the photos. Her apo's picture is the one on her computer screen, and the proud lola gives snippets of stories and anecdotes of her apo's antics to whoever will care to listen.

I'll be forever grateful to my mom for saving my sanity in the first few days, or even the first few months, following my son's birth. When all those sleepless nights sent me crying with my son, mama comes to the rescue and makes Jared sleep beside her, giving me the much needed rest. This she does even if she also has to work the following day. On days no one will take care of my son, she volunteers to take a leave to do her grandma duties. May I also add she gave my son his first bath while I watched, simply too scared to do it, from the sidelines.

So, until that eventful day comes that my son will say "lola", lola gets the much needed love from hugs, kisses and my son's squeals of delight!

Join us at Mommy Moments this week.