My look up gal

The reason The Wee One is looking up in some stolen shots I've taken of her is I must have pointed out either the shape/size of clouds or the startling blueness of a Baguio sky. This is after we've taken a breather from our morning walks.

She walks alongside or ahead of me, never behind me. She used to put on her own pair of play sunglasses and funny hat to imitate my walking outfit. Nowadays she just announces to all after breakfast that we're off to get sunshine and our dose of Vitamin D. And she sounds very authoritative when she says that.

Until our next January walk, Kai. I remain truly yours, Boobook Skywalker.

Doodling along

Our little Picasso (chuck it up to this doting grandma) is making bigger strokes on her white board and never fails to call my attention when she's done.

A few days ago, Kai (formerly Butones) said she was going to make a one-color rainbow, and she did. I'd rather call it a "redbow."

Happy with her take on the rainbow

Early today, she just asked for "Black marker, please" and proceeded to work quietly. Afterwards, there was her familiar cry of "Look!"

Not camera-shy, just doing her usual funny face for the camera while showing off her drawing for the day

Close-up of her "figurative abstract." This viewer sees two-in-one human-like faces, complete with hair, eyes, nose, lips. Photos by Booboo

Teacher of wonder

Our three-year-old resident is doing an inventory of her missing toy parts with help from vacationing Granny Sue as I write this April entry.

A couple of nights ago, she spotted the crescent moon from the office window and ran to the different bedrooms to call everyone to view it with her. It did look like a smiling mouth from a Smiley face. Her eyes were a-glow with wonder. She even asked how the moon managed to be suspended up there: "hanging in the sky." That was her own description.

Half of Kai's face inside her Booboo's summer hat

In the mornings, when it gets cloudy, she yells from the balcony: "Mister Sun, come out!" She's aware we need him to help speed up the drying of the laundry.

That's Kai, our teacher in wonder and amazement. Stay for as long as you can in that state, little 'un. Happy three!

Whirling with her birthday balloons Photos by Booboo

The pool is a happy place

The wee one showed us why during a day trip to sunny and warm Asin, Benguet. She also showed how a few small steps and nano-seconds of sliding can be a leap and splash of faith.


Photos by Booboo

Jump shots

"Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward." -Victor Kiam

Big shadow and little person warming up for their morning walk, each keeping their distance from each other.

And she's off while her papparazza gives chase.

Upon Booboo's suggestion, Butones does a quick study of some low rocks set in an irregular circle before practicing her jumps.

The second or third of the jumps captured and preserved

Here's another!

She finishes the first go and prepares for her once-around

At about this time, she's shouting, "Booboo, follow!"

Pretty confident, huh?

Energy's still up. Following the jumps was a walk on a flat road, then a climb up stone steps, then down in another part of the neighborhood. Then home again! Photos by Booboo

Painting again with Kai in mind and as partner

Call it a discipline I learned from my mother and my grandmother--something about doing something even if you're resting because if you rest, you rot. So even if I try to lessen the strain from the use of my eyes, I thought I'd indulge in something pleasant, and painting is on top of the list.

Good thing I found a painting partner in my grandchild, Kai/Butones. It can get lonesome working on a piece by one's lonesome.

Kai has assisted in the background work for the smaller watercolor and mixed media pieces while she inspired me again with the larger acrylic painting.

Thank you, Kai Mykonos Fernandez, you're always a joy to work with. And thank you, Mom and Lola, for blazing the trail.

--From a hapless but not too helpless painter

"Unfinished Garden," watercolor on paper by Booboo and Kai

"Kai Watches Booboo Have Cuppa Joe," mixed media on paper by Booboo and Kai (collection of Desiree Caluza)

"Kai Wuvs Booboo, Booboo Wuvs Kai More," acrylic on canvas paper by Babeth Lolarga

The same semi-final version of the work above. A painter or writer can revise as often as she can until she breathes her last, a final lesson from Dolores Stephens Feria.

Photos by Booboo

Life and love at Cafe Serendipitous

Isn't there a famous coffee shop in NYC called Serendipity? Immortalized, too,  in a John Cusack movie--Cusack I always remember for his performances; can't quite recall his leading ladies though. Maybe somewhere in my subconscious I pretend I'm she. Har har de har there. 

The cafe was also where Andy Warhol ate his meals and he paid for them with doodles, maybe on the paper napkins. I tried that at one 10A Alabama art fair in Cubao a few years ago when I was the weight I still am but famished--swapping a gouache painting for a cold chocolate drink (it was summer) and cookies. Jethro Rafael of Van Gogh Is Bipolar fame, who then had the run of the chow corner in the Alabama house, told me I was shortchanged, but I didn't mind. That a small work could feed me for an afternoon and that I didn't have to wait long for my hunger pangs to be quieted down--I found that, well, instant gratification.

I live in Cafe Serendipitous when I'm in Baguio. In between writing deadlines, I scroll through the images in my Google+ account. I found this yesterday:

I saved it immediately because it reminded me of the time when my girls did a lot of pretend play as children while I did my share of housework in my full-time hausfrau years. I now have a grandchild, Butones, who inherited my children's old Winnie the Pooh.A bit worn out but its beat-up look makes it more alive like The Velveteen Rabbit.

From Art.com, I found out that that this painting was a collaboration of married couple Michael and Inessa Garmash, "born in Ukraine and Russia, respectively," and who "both exhibited artistic talents from a young age. As a boy, Michael entered and won many youth art competitions, and ultimately studied fine art in college. Inessa studied art, dance, and gymnastics during her youth, and in her late teens she attended the same fine art school as Michael. The two had success as painters prior to working together, each with an interest in Romantic Impressionism.

"The Garmashes artistic collaboration began by accident. Michael Garmash was very fond of painting their two-year-old daughter, and composed a portrait of her for a competition. During his absence, the young girl found Michael’s painting and decided to make her own additions. Inessa saw her daughter’s work and did not want her husband to be upset, so she fixed the painting using her own training. She packed up the work and submitted it for the competition, where it was heavily praised as Michael’s best work. Mr. Garmash was both surprised and pleased to see the 'new' painting, and the couple has painted together ever since."

Well, yesterday evening, as we waited for Grumpa/Tats to return home from work, I turned on the TV to the Fox Family Channel and happened upon a Disney movie. And what do you know? It was The Pooh and his friends looking for the monster they called "Besoon" who they thought had kidnapped their friend Christopher Robin.  

Much later near the end, it turned out that Christopher Robin had left his forest friends a note that said he was off to school and he'd be back soon. Har de har har again there, but the humor was lost on Butones who just liked to hum The Pooh bear's song when he made an appearance. When the credits rolled up, she turned to me and said matter-of-factly, "Wala na!"

So here's to my Valentine, the old soul in a young body, Butones. I took these shots while she was busy and not too far from the computer station where I work in the morning. I asked her to also keep busy with crayons and paper, and she did, even climbing onto the bed and continuing her work. 

When her Mamay, my daughter Kimi, saw the shots, she laughed so much because Butones seemed to copy my own position on the bed when I'm handwriting something, complete with feet rubbing against each other.

Photos by Booboo

An open book shelf and Butones

While waiting for our food orders at Iggy's House on South Drive in Baguio City, Kai/Butones goes to  the open shelves there immediately, selects a book suited for her hands but drops it.

She opens it for a cursory look, maybe thinking if it's good enough to share with others.

It must be because she holds it up to her Mamay in that gesture that implies, "Read it to me, please."

Photos by Booboo

Morning becomes my darlings

Someone opted for early retirement last year to finally spend a lot of time with family, especially with that girl who knows where the grandparents' room is and wakens them, particularly Grumpa Rolly, to remind them to each search for the lost child in themselves.

Here she pauses as her Booboo dresses her up warmly for a trip to Baguio's downtown.

Someday those eyes will mesmerize someone, but she's in no hurry for such things. Right now she wants to get out in the sun and play.

Photos by Booboo Babeth

The stacker & her stalker

Here's Butones the stacker being stalked by her Booboo who's clearly missing her (she's in the highlands, I'm in the low) and assuaging the ache of missing her by doing my own kind of stacking exercise: compiling pictures.

Concentrating

Looking for approval? Yes, you're doing great, Butones.

Zooming in for the clincher: a close-up of Ms. Orange Popsicle

Photos by Booboo

Who's that other girl?

Yesterday I sat through four hours of the televised opening of the London Olympics, moved many times but especially when the Peter Pan tableau was presented. Only because it made me remember my father who took me to watch the Disney cartoon at the old, now demolished, Republic Theater in Manila.

That same evening, I gazed up from the grilled windows of the family house in Sampaloc, Manila, and wondered which star represented Neverland. For many nights after, I felt like Wendy looking up and trying to pick out the "second star to the right and straight on till morning." Even at age six or seven, I felt strongly the urge to escape.

Going through the shelves for something that may interest her while Dora sits by idly

When in Baguio for visits, this Booboo tries to be unobtrusive with the digicam so I can document the moves of growing Butones. She seems my opposite in my youthful desire to flee my earthly station.

She looks over and under, sideways and up for something to occupy her time. I imagine her to be like her new companion, an explorer. I hope she never loses her sense of wonder and the compulsion to discover.

Frisbee? Maybe in two, three more years, Butones, you can toss it and Grumpa will catch.

"Mi amiga, donde has estado? Vamos a jugar!"

Photos by Booboo

My little laundrette

So far this grandma hasn't gotten any feedback from blog visitors that they're suffering from  a Butones overload. In fact, I get email from abroad within the day of uploading photos. Cousins and in-laws are unanimous that the wee girl who likes to hang out in a sunny balcony when it's time to pin the laundry or take them down is a certified cutie. Of course, those people are partial. That's why they're called relatives!

Hey, are you sure that isn't one of your Booboo's gigantic panties?

She thinks, hmmm, this one's mine.

Definitely Booboo's. Eeek!

Do I get a prize for assisting?

Magic words: "Dede time!" No better prize than Mamay's milk.

Photos by Booboo

Butones in 4 clicks

The shape of O

The color of hope and omelette

The act and art of a good throw

The wicked glee in orange

Photos by Booboo