Oo, issue pa!

Now it's my turn to tell the girl with the curly hair (Shirley Temple reborn?): "Let me take your picture."

Today is Women's Equality Day. I can almost hear some voices in the bleachers shouting, "Issue pa ba 'yan?"

It still is, believe you me. And because I live in female-dominated (by our numbers) houses in Pasig and Baguio, I have a mother, four sisters, two daughters and a grandly lovable daughter who refuses to be called "Little One" anymore ("because I'm a big girl now!" she will assert), I believe the world can bear some changes in as far as lessening or removing the treatment of women and girls as doormats.

Over the weekend, this contrast of celebrations of 18th birthdays went viral. A grandma's wish for her Not So Little One is may she grow to see what gives life both meaning and true beauty.

Contrast: Who's the person with more depth even if it's not our place to judge?

'Kai ligaya ng buhay'

For that witty pun on my grandchild's name I have Manong Ed Maranan to thank, he being the master of the art of punning.

I failed to make my November trip to the post office, the time of year when I mail handwritten Christmas cards. There was just a lot of reading, writing, correcting of papers, proofreading of book galleys to attend to.

So I succumbed to the 21st-century convenience of a Christmas family letter with a picture of "Kai ligaya" attached in my email to over 200 contacts. You can imagine how much I spend on stamps for individual cards in a year! Well, I'm often reminded by environmentalists to reduce my paper trail by going electronic in my mail. So there.

Since the adjectival response to the photo of "Kai ligaya" has ranged from "adorable" to "cutie" to "she looks like one of my apos," I thought I'd post one more pic in this space for a Christmas-y and merry feel.

Posing by the Christmas tree of Gardenville Hotel in Green Valley, Baguio City Photo by Booboo Babeth

The girl with intense eyes

I've taken maybe over a thousand pictures already of this girl, but none satisfies me as much as this random shot. She was waiting for her mother to return to the great-grandma's abode and then to be taken back to her highland home. See you in a week or two again, not so little button of my heart.  She has said goodbye to us temporarily, to the lower land's humidity and prickly heat. Early tomorrow she says hello again to a kinder clime and her friend, the fog. Photo by Booboo Babeth

I have to turn myself around

Missing my hokey pokey partners now that I can't do that dance because for some reason my mind still can, but my body can no longer. But I pray it's a temporary condition, and it too shall pass. Here's to the Hokie Pokies in our lives. Two playful cousins are seated on a bench at the open public space of Capitol Commons, Pasig City. Photo of Kai and Max by their Booboo Babeth

Thank you, Dino Bob

Any day is a superbly super day for learning.    Image from Google +

Kai holds up a birthday book on grace from Lola Lorna Tirol    Photo by Booboo Babeth

Call it a granny's cop-out when she has run out of activities to keep a toddler occupied to help develop her gross and fine motor skills. But there's nothing like the invitation "Let's read a book!" to entice Kai/Butones to slow down a bit, then get cozy with her Booboo as she piles up the pillows for both of them.

Two weeks ago, this Booboo discovered Kai could already spell out the letters of book titles. She usually selects her book/s of the moment, and it was Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo by William Joyce that special day. I've read this aloud to her more than 10 times.

Suddenly, she pointed to one letter at a time and sounded out clearly the letters "B", "O" and "B". Mightily, I tried to be cool about it and move on to the story of the Lazardos who traveled all over the world in the company of a brontosaurus. 

Later, Kai zeroed in on the names of cable television channels like "F", "O", "X" (reminded me of a scene in the movie You've Got Mail where the kid playing Tom Hanks' step-sibling spells out "fox" for Meg Ryan's benefit) and "T", "L", "C", my favorite lifestyle channel (it's got a lot of food and travel shows). 

Later, it was the title of a bedtime book, Happy Birthday, Moon. The thing with the letter "Y" is Kai confuses it with "Z" so she calls it "zebra."

Last week when she was hospitalized for a gastro-intestinal bug, she read out from her sickbed the words on my sweatshirt, an entire phrase: "Grand Canyon National Park"! I had to text family members in Baguio and Pasig to share the priceless bit of news

As for writing, she still hasn't graduated from lines and semi-circles.

But I'm mighty proud I have somehow, day by day by day, set Kai on the course of reading and writing readiness. I feel grateful to Mesozoic, heroic Bob, the biggest you've ever seen, for making this minor miracle possible.

A day without you

Kai/Butones amidst hydrangeas turning pink in a flower farm outside Baguio City's limits. Photo by Booboo Babeth