CIFFART!

If she has this line, ‘Chawo, Chawo, may zoo ba sa Cebu?’ from me, I have the title above as the tag line for her. Before meeting her in person, we had a couple of conversations already. I was very excited to finally see her.

"CIFFART! CIFFART!", with a high pitched tone on a bass voice, sounded weird, the first time she said this out loud. I thought it was a word in Bisaya. But this, she shouted out of the blue, in the middle of the traffic in Edsa, on our way to watch a movie. A little explanation and we know now what it means. They kept on repeating the word, but I couldn't say it.

Three times she went here and spent time with us: lunch at Leslie’s, trip to the zoo in Tagaytay, movie, mall shopping, plus the special visit to the kids in Cribs! At the end of every day, we look forward to the brewed coffee before going to bed, who gets to take a bath first and the never-ending laugh (‘Justin, matulog ka na, nakangiti ka pa rin!’), before finally sleeping.

In those times, she gave a warm acceptance in our welcome. And I feel, she’s part of our family, officially.

Charo, I am excited to see you soon! Again!

Tito Rey

I will never forget the look on his face when he visited mommy in the hospital, a few years ago. I do not have a good singing voice but as mommy requested, I was singing Tanging Yaman for her when Tito Rey came in. He stood at the other side of the bed, his face stooped down, gloomy and sad. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but he’s trying hard to hide it, trying to put on a smile on his handsome face. “… sulyap ng yong, kagandahan..” At this point, he couldn’t contain his emotions and just cried out, “Ate!” and literally cried, and hugged her.

Tito Rey is mommy’s younger brother. My sisters always thought that he has the kindest heart, of mommy’s brothers. He has this comforting voice in the sweetest tone, when he greets us and calls our names. But we seldom see him in our reunions because he was always busy and he needed to attend to his own family. This year, all of us were very glad because he was able to attend Nanay’s birthday. It was a must that he joins every family picture. And finally, we were able to give our gift for him this year. The Christmas reunion became even merrier. Indeed, a time for family, sharing and love.

Being A Mommy

I kept on denying to myself that my baby is pregnant. I didn’t really want her to be pregnant because I still think of her as my baby. Even if her tummy is growing big and everybody’s telling that she’s pregnant, I still didn’t want to believe.

I was scared. That I won’t know how to take care of her and her babies. I was afraid that a baby might not survive at birth, I was even more afraid that she might not feed them, or clean them.. they might get sick and I will die if something bad happens to the babies, and even to her.

Last night, when we got home, it was very unusual because both of them weren’t excited. I didn’t hear their usual greeting. As I went inside, he was just sitting on cage, giving me a mesmerized and scared look. As I came nearer, I heard tiny voices, cries. Then I saw her holding her little babies! I was shocked and I panicked! Their small legs are passing through the grilles of the cage, so I called Dennis to take them inside.


Three new lives. Three little white babies. Three little Caspers and Cotton tucked and tangled in their mommy’s legs. Sometimes feeding on their mommy’s milk, crawling.. crying.. then sleeping.

I was proud of Cotton because he was the daddy! But I am even more proud of Casper! She did it! She made it! She brought her babies out, on her own. And she immediately knew how to clean them, feed them, hug them, take care of them.

I was amazed! My baby knew how to be a mommy. Now I know. Being a mommy is an instinct. When you’re baby is there, in front of you, you will know what to do.

This goes out to somebody I know who will soon be a mommy too.