Thursday, August 31, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Junked in the attic!
I have just found out that our photo albums have been junked in some world wide web’s attic. Something like our precious captures treated close to garbage. And then I’m asked to do some purchasing for those photos-collecting-dusts-and-webs to be retrieved. As good as new!
Well, here’s the news: there has to be a more friendly-convincing-way to tell a potential client on how to avail the service, because when I get a notice that my precious memories have been junked in an attic, it simply just doesn’t work for me. I didn’t take photos and share them with others and be told, go find them in the attic!
This is my fault, I did not stay “in good standing with them!” Sorry, but our online album is close. While we are hunting for other friendlier site. Any recommendations?
Monday, August 28, 2006
Thank you for your love, understanding, faithfulness and patience…
Happy 8th Year my Dadou!!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Citizens in Action: Guimaras (Philippines) Oil Spill
A petition has been endorsed by concerned kababayans concerning the latest Guimaras Oil Spill that has wrecked havoc to our environment. The accident is really bad reminding me of a similar incident that happened in
Spain few years back. I hope my signature will add and strengthen, even in a little way, the voice of the calling. You can sign the petition here. Aksyon na kabayan! Your signature can make a difference!
Spain few years back. I hope my signature will add and strengthen, even in a little way, the voice of the calling. You can sign the petition here. Aksyon na kabayan! Your signature can make a difference!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Intimacy
David: “mama gratte”, turning his back on me.
Me: “ok, you’re itchy here?”
David: “là, là”, pointing his upper back.
Me: “here?” scratching continuously.
David: “up, up,” my hand going higher as he motions. “up, up in the sky”.
Me: “what sky?”
David: turning over opens his legs wide, puts his hands under his nappy and said, “gratte penis mama!”
Me: “What da!!!!!” *gratte (gratter) – to scratch
* là - here
While I’m having lunch today, David is roaming around the room butt naked, looking grim and loudly farting: Me: “David if you want to do your caca use your potty or the toilet”.
David, run to his potty and goes red: “viens mama, assieds-toi là!” (come mama, sit here!)
Me: “Just a minute David, I’m almost finished with my lunch, finish your caca!”
David: “Viens! viens! viens! assieds-toi là!” (come! come! come! sit here!) insistently pointing at the floor next to him.
I obligingly sit, smelling the repugnant odor.
David, leaning over to see his produce in the potty: “Regarde mama, caca!” (look mama it’s poop). “Regarde, regarde, ça c’est caca. C’est grosse le caca!” (Look! Look! It’s poop. It’s big the poop!) He’s really talking more comprehensively and situations like this, I would prefer him not to vocalize everything! Especially when I’m in the middle of my lunch!
Me: “ok, you’re itchy here?”
David: “là, là”, pointing his upper back.
Me: “here?” scratching continuously.
David: “up, up,” my hand going higher as he motions. “up, up in the sky”.
Me: “what sky?”
David: turning over opens his legs wide, puts his hands under his nappy and said, “gratte penis mama!”
Me: “What da!!!!!” *gratte (gratter) – to scratch
* là - here
While I’m having lunch today, David is roaming around the room butt naked, looking grim and loudly farting: Me: “David if you want to do your caca use your potty or the toilet”.
David, run to his potty and goes red: “viens mama, assieds-toi là!” (come mama, sit here!)
Me: “Just a minute David, I’m almost finished with my lunch, finish your caca!”
David: “Viens! viens! viens! assieds-toi là!” (come! come! come! sit here!) insistently pointing at the floor next to him.
I obligingly sit, smelling the repugnant odor.
David, leaning over to see his produce in the potty: “Regarde mama, caca!” (look mama it’s poop). “Regarde, regarde, ça c’est caca. C’est grosse le caca!” (Look! Look! It’s poop. It’s big the poop!) He’s really talking more comprehensively and situations like this, I would prefer him not to vocalize everything! Especially when I’m in the middle of my lunch!
Monday, August 21, 2006
While Paris is grumpy, we have our heels soaking in the sea…
“What’s with the face?” I asked dadou, Friday night arriving from work. “I’m furious!” he replied. “The fucking French customer service is on me again. I knew it, I had this feeling at work that I should call them to confirm about the car we reserved last May for our trip tomorrow!” he smokingly narrated. “It’s all been paid way, way in advance and now they are telling me the car is not available and that they are giving us the tiniest car with a trunk only David’s potty could fit in!”
If I haven’t known the French way of pissing off customers, I would have taken this episode as a bad omen. Like a black cat crossing your way before you start your travel. But I’ve stayed long enough in
France to understand that anything can bloody happen. And that’s why I take an equally bloody adjustment with dadou’s attitude towards France’s bad customer service.
Every time we plan for a long trip, dadou prefers to rent a car. As it turned out this time, we had no choice but use our own. He warned the customer service agent that their management will not only be hearing from him but also from their head office in France and from the one in the USA. You see if you fuck a customer like my dadou, he won’t stop nagging you, you would practically feel like haemorrhoids are growing in your anal lips. And that’s the best way I could describe his attitude when not satisfied with a service he paid for.
I had some apprehension of this 8-day break considering the emotional state of dadou. 800 kilometers to take with a toddler at the back seat is quite courageous for us. But we’ve done this trip twice before, at night, and it all went smoothly. The difference this time is we take the trip during the day and David definitely will be fully awake most of the time. So we left at 9:00 am; late because dadou had to go to the car company to check one last time if our car was available. It was not. Refunds had to be arranged.
The trip was bloody long. On a normal traffic that would take us 9 hours, this time we arrived at our destination exactly at 9 pm. 12 hours! Starting from Lyon to Marseilles, it was bumper to bumper! Thank God somebody created the portable dvd player. And thank goodness toddlers like to watch their favourite films over and over. And so I get to memorize the lines of Nemo, Alex (Madagscar), Oui-oui, Tibère, love Sloth (Ice Age), and etcetera.
The break started really badly, but seeing David laughing chasing and being chased by the waves, we finally all had fun. And he made so much progress during the break. Like -he carries his potty in the bedroom to poop alone
- he tells us to go away when he wants to relax on the sofa watching a film alone
- he sits down in the middle of children’s pool with the water reaching just below his chin, and telling me to go away. Gosh, I was scared, one slip and he drowns! I don’t trust those rubber floaters.
- he understands the mechanics of the waves, that when he throws a stick into the sea, it will come back to him. At first he tried chasing it until the water reached to his chest, he got really scared. After a while he was just standing at the shore motioning the stick to come “viens! viens!”
- he has big appetite!
- his temper is becoming more violent, especially when he is tired. So we learn not to push the limits. And we keep on telling ourselves: “time to work on the kid’s attitude” although we don’t know how.
- and he insists on his independence more and more. And well, I don’t have problems with that, just that he barely reaches my waistline and his feet are way half the size of mine!
- and he knows how to manipulate us: like putting him to bed and he would tell me he wants to pee, I usually say, “just pee in your nappy, it’s ok” and he would insist on going to the potty. I tell him “ok go to dadou, tell him you want to pee”. He would excitedly get off the bed, and even close the door behind him, and the next thing I hear “no sleep papa, regarde avion!” to his dadou who is watching a movie.
- he is also a funny bloke. After getting wet playing in the sea, he would insist on taking off his swimming trunk because he wants to pee.
- and he tries to tumbledown someone else’s sandcastles.
Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing
If I haven’t known the French way of pissing off customers, I would have taken this episode as a bad omen. Like a black cat crossing your way before you start your travel. But I’ve stayed long enough in
France to understand that anything can bloody happen. And that’s why I take an equally bloody adjustment with dadou’s attitude towards France’s bad customer service.
Every time we plan for a long trip, dadou prefers to rent a car. As it turned out this time, we had no choice but use our own. He warned the customer service agent that their management will not only be hearing from him but also from their head office in France and from the one in the USA. You see if you fuck a customer like my dadou, he won’t stop nagging you, you would practically feel like haemorrhoids are growing in your anal lips. And that’s the best way I could describe his attitude when not satisfied with a service he paid for.
I had some apprehension of this 8-day break considering the emotional state of dadou. 800 kilometers to take with a toddler at the back seat is quite courageous for us. But we’ve done this trip twice before, at night, and it all went smoothly. The difference this time is we take the trip during the day and David definitely will be fully awake most of the time. So we left at 9:00 am; late because dadou had to go to the car company to check one last time if our car was available. It was not. Refunds had to be arranged.
The trip was bloody long. On a normal traffic that would take us 9 hours, this time we arrived at our destination exactly at 9 pm. 12 hours! Starting from Lyon to Marseilles, it was bumper to bumper! Thank God somebody created the portable dvd player. And thank goodness toddlers like to watch their favourite films over and over. And so I get to memorize the lines of Nemo, Alex (Madagscar), Oui-oui, Tibère, love Sloth (Ice Age), and etcetera.
The break started really badly, but seeing David laughing chasing and being chased by the waves, we finally all had fun. And he made so much progress during the break. Like -he carries his potty in the bedroom to poop alone
- he tells us to go away when he wants to relax on the sofa watching a film alone
- he sits down in the middle of children’s pool with the water reaching just below his chin, and telling me to go away. Gosh, I was scared, one slip and he drowns! I don’t trust those rubber floaters.
- he understands the mechanics of the waves, that when he throws a stick into the sea, it will come back to him. At first he tried chasing it until the water reached to his chest, he got really scared. After a while he was just standing at the shore motioning the stick to come “viens! viens!”
- he has big appetite!
- his temper is becoming more violent, especially when he is tired. So we learn not to push the limits. And we keep on telling ourselves: “time to work on the kid’s attitude” although we don’t know how.
- and he insists on his independence more and more. And well, I don’t have problems with that, just that he barely reaches my waistline and his feet are way half the size of mine!
- and he knows how to manipulate us: like putting him to bed and he would tell me he wants to pee, I usually say, “just pee in your nappy, it’s ok” and he would insist on going to the potty. I tell him “ok go to dadou, tell him you want to pee”. He would excitedly get off the bed, and even close the door behind him, and the next thing I hear “no sleep papa, regarde avion!” to his dadou who is watching a movie.
- he is also a funny bloke. After getting wet playing in the sea, he would insist on taking off his swimming trunk because he wants to pee.
- and he tries to tumbledown someone else’s sandcastles.
Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing
Thursday, August 10, 2006
It’s going to be a VERY LONG Christmas!
Yes, for some reason only him can understand, David prefers to listen to christmas songs before sleeping. It’s been like that for a week now. And it’s like we are still August! Summer is not yet officially over and we are hearing “let it snow, rudolph, and jingle bells!” Mabuang ko!!!
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Il est propre
Not everyone likes the scorching heat of summer, including yours truly. And it’s getting cold. And I’m starting to dread a bitter winter. Is summer over already? I hope not.
However, a good thing, really good, coming of out of the summer so far is that of David using the potty more regularly.
This has come as a huge pleasant surprise, because I didn’t pressure our son and myself on teaching him to use the potty. If you live in France and have a toddler, you’ll understand my excitement. Parents here are neurotic about potty training. On David’s second-year check-up, his paediatrician asked me if he was already clean. I looked at him totally blank - out of surprise if not shock. For although I studiously follow David’s progress, potty-trained at the age of two was out of my league.
I have always thought that David will use the toilet one day naturally, as part of maturity, like when he stopped using the pacifier at nine months old, when he started sleeping in his own bed alone before he reached one year old, when months later he said “brush teeth” before going to bed. I take his clues, I act on my instinct and we both help each other reinforce a particular milestone.
And when last Friday, July 19, he sat on the potty that was already part of our living room décor, I was exhilarated. Totally. Because it meant my instinct was right. It affirmed my convictions despite the pressures I heard from hubby, grandma and the parents I met.
After all this self-gratifying words, I have to say, the summer heat was/is a great help. For David, staying indoor, is naked during his waking time. He is also the kind of toddler who easily gets disgust by the slightest stench and that might have helped as well. Before when he did his caca in the nappy, he didn’t want me to take it off because of the smell. But since I don’t let him wear diaper anymore, he really doesn’t have a choice but to sit on his potty.
Regardless, we have had a share of accidents (and I’m expecting more). In a span of one week, he peed once on the sofa, and I found myself twice on all fours scrubbing shit off the carpet. It didn’t hamper my mood. I didn’t shout at him. Talking was all I was doing explaining why it was best to do it on the potty than on the floor. In fairness, the accidents happened when he couldn’t hold it anymore. I’m a first time mother, but it doesn’t take science and best-seller toddler books to see things and how they are happening. And I’m sorry, (wait.. I’m not sorry) but I’m not to cave in the pressures of French-style parenting. Potty-trained, at 28 months old. I sure am there are toddlers younger than him who are already “propre“. But I’m bragging this milestone and blogging it big time.
*Il est propre = he is clean
