The face of five

I have a writing coach, and she doesn't know it. Her name is Lorianne DiSabato. Although I am just an avid follower of her blog found in hoardedordinaries.wordpress.com, I can sense when her mood takes a dip like when she wrote in her latest piece what happens when she stays away from her journal too long. She feels "rusty when I return, having forgotten the route a feeble, circuitous thought takes from brain to hand then onto the page."

My life's circumstances force me to write in almost desperado fashion for a living, especially now with illness pervading in the room where I dwell in the lowlands. My other means of sustaining the freelance writing is trying to infect older children and teens with a love of and lust for the word. These have taken me away from this space where I like to chronicle, among other subjects, the growth of my grandchild.

Makeup time came early today as I reviewed the contents of my digicam and found these selfies taken by my now five-year-old Kai on her birth week. She may sue me for invasion of her privacy when she comes of age, but by then, I'll be past caring. Hey kid, this grandma still is in love with you. Friend Rita Ledesma likes to quote the author Anne Lindbergh who once said that grandchildren are the love affair of old age.

And mine is intense! Happy birth month, Tweetie Pie!

Daytime selfie

Our "fivester" at night with just the light of a lamp

This picture of Japanese fried rice taken at the Baguio Country Club's Hamada is my reminder to Kai the Not So Wee One Anymore to eat heartily.

Her first party

Someone had a good time over the weekend. It was her first children's party, and the invitation came Sunday morning as the adults wondered aloud where they would venture out that sunny day.

The texted invite said it was going to be a costume party for the celebrator, a year-old girl Lira, at the Powerhouse, a new function room at the Baguio Country Club. The adults said only the baby in the family would turn up in costume. But what will she come as--ballerina or cowgirl?

When the aunt in Manila learned that she went as a plain cowgirl and was outshone by the girls in Snow White or fairy costumes, same aunt asked with a note of sarcasm, "So what prize did Kai bring home? The worst in costume?"

Well, even if Kai just had a ream of toilet paper wrapped around her, she would still have charmed everyone with her good behavior (never cried or whined once) and inborn charm.

But then first-time grandmothers are truly biased.

Kai meets and greets year-old birthday celebrator Lira who is all dolled up in a flouncy pink gown complete with petticoat. Lira wheeled around in her matching walker which was camouflaged by her long dress.

The wee ones pose by the towering birthday cake with a set of grandmas, Auring Bautista and Booboo Babeth. Lira is in another costume--she wore a total of four gowns in one afternoon.

Her grandparents get into the spirit of the afternoon, but Kai in her cow suit isn't comfy with the masks.

She's amenable to rubbing noses with this "stranger" though.

Photos by KIMI L. FERNANDEZ