The Art of Business

Looking at artwork lovingly made by four-year old hands taped all over the playroom wall

Tato: Mama, do you want to buy a picture? It's only three pesos.

Me: Of course.

As expected, I only get the little masterpiece when I hand over the cash. No credit with this one. Strict AND shrewd. This isn't the first time he's made something and sold it and I am always impressed how enterprising he can be.

Tato: (drops all three coins in his piggy bank) Mak, hurry up. Color some more pictures. Mama is buying.

Did I say enterprising?

Which reminds me, this is him a couple of months ago learning a few lessons in addition and subtraction from the big boys.

And probably planning the next business venture.

Positive Discipline

Announcing another Explorations Preschool parent seminar, Positive Discipline in the Filipino Home: a forum focused on successfully implementing positive discipline strategies in various Filipino family settings. Because sometimes, resources don't consider the nuances of Filipino family dynamics.

This forum's resource families include: a father raising 4 children, a mother with a longtime yaya and a mother living with in-laws. The forum will be next Saturday, 25 September, 9am to 11am. Venue is Explorations Preschool 928 Luna Mencias Street, Mandaluyong. This is part of the school's parent development series which is offered free to all Explorations parents. If your child does not go to Explorations you're still welcome. Fee for guests is P350/person. Seats are limited, so call the school for reservations at 724-3320 or 724-4271.

Bored To Death, not really

More like, busy as hell. 

I have no business writing a post at this time when there's so much Real Business to attend to. Current state being, freelance writer answerable to three bosses in the midst of Deadline Season. Then there's always the husband, kids and home. And training to run better. And social commitments. Friends and family. You know, life. 

Then again, we could all use a little diversion. Hence, this post about today's piece of diversion provided by Jonathan Ames. Since one of my current writing gigs is a TV magazine show, I especially enjoyed reading his essay How to write a TV show, sort of.  He says,  "every step of the way there is a maddening and stressful fear of failure, but since making a TV show is such a collaborative art, there's also a great deal of camaraderie and holding onto each other for dear life." Yeah.

At least we hold perceptions in common, Ames and I. That's it. Because as far as talent goes... he is one of the funniest writers I've read. Then he creates one of the best TV comedies around. Bored To Death Season 2 is coming soon. Yay! 

Hahaha!

I wish I could remember all those hilarious lines from Season One. Such as,  Jonathan: "I still like the way pot makes me think! ...maybe its healthy!" Suzanne: "Pot is NOT healthy!" Jonathan: "They give it to cancer patients!" Suzanne: "You don't have cancer!" Funny. Another favorite from Jonathan's editor/boss/best friend, "You're like me Johnathan, we enthral, and then we disappoint." High-larious. Funnier in the actual scene though and funnier if you knew them. 

Blah blah blah over. Back to work. Yes, at past 8 in the evening when kids are asleep and despite Pappy enticing me to watch some mindless TV...

One Down

Dear Mak,

This is me being in your face   making up for that journal i never got around to doing still documenting your first date with the tooth fairy.

This is you wiggling your loose tooth like crazy.

This is you munching on that crispy Fuji apple because mommy was too chicken to yank it out.

That is Tato in the background writing the tooth fairy for you, thinking of the bucks the tooth fairy was supposed to fork over even while that tooth was still hanging on for dear life. What a great business manager. He's got your back, Mak.

Thank god for apples. For brave boys.

And for irresistible toothless grins.

Something Good Can Work

Because sometimes we could use some cheering up. If no one's around to do it, a song can do it for me. Case in point...

A dear friend of mine was feeling, in these exact words, "blech and blah." So was/am I. The week can only get better, right? Here's to hoping it does. As Two Door Cinema Club sings it: Let's make this happen, girl you gonna show the world that something good can work and it can work for you. And you know that it will...  

The Phantom Tollbooth

I love to rave about things. Call me Ms. Hyperbole. So how can I not rave about the best children's book I've read this year? Now officially one of my favorite books, ever. As I child, I was mesmerized by Alice in Wonderland and thought no book could be more magical and wonderfully weird. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had a similar effect on me. Then comes adulthood, when I fall smack down in love with this piece of literary whimsy...

Published in 1961 and hailed as a children's classic, I read The Phantom Tollbooth just last Sunday... thanks to my kids whose library I regularly refresh with new titles.

Norton Juster, God bless you and your magical way with puns, word play and layered meanings! And the way Juster paints pictures with words? Breathtaking in their absurdity, elegant in their simplicity. Imagining Dictionopolis, The Mountains of Ignorance, The Valley of Sound, The Sea of Knowledge and jumping to The Isle of Conclusions is better than any 3D movie experience. No 3D glasses required kids, just fire up those neurons in your head!

You have to read the book and meet The Everpresent Wordsnatcher. His job is "to take words right out of your mouth." When the young protagonist Milo asks him, "Is everyone who lives in Ignorance like you?" He says, the others are "much worse" then explains that he actually lives in "a place very far away called Context." Don't even suggest that he go back home, as The Wordsnatcher thinks Context is... "such an unpleasant place that I spend almost all my time out of it."

Then there's Faintly Macabre who Milo thought was a Witch, but is actually a not-so-wicked Which whose talent is choosing which words to be used for all occasions.

Only in this land beyond The Phantom Tollbooth will you find the cart without an engine or anything to pull it. When you ride it you just have to be silent as... "it goes without saying."

And if one day we may have to explain the concept of Infinity to a child, we could learn a thing or two from The Mathemagician.

I will stop enumerating my favorite parts of The Phantom Tollbooth, as there is something wonderful to be found in every page, all 255 of them. Juster created such a rich candy land of words, but there is more to it than the word-candy and the enthralling plot to save Princesses Rhyme and Reason.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a Philosophy Book written as satire. Really, it is. It's about the wonderful though often arduous journey we all have to take to find wisdom. There are lessons to be learned here, but Juster also shows great empathy and obviously remembers what it's like to be a child. He is no condescending adult talking down to the little ones.

Milo, who has plenty of time.

Juster's young hero starts off in the grips of typical school boy ennui. Milo's first words in the book: "It seems to me everything is a waste of time... I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February." The book goes on: "And since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all."

Then things start to change when The Phantom Tollbooth mysteriously appears in Milo's bedroom. It is a children's book, so expect the happy ending. I promise I didn't spoil it for you. The journey to that happy ending is what really matters. And oh what a journey it is!

Fairy First Date

This is a photo of MacDaddy and me eight months pregnant with the boys .. yes, yes I know, huge ... but back to my point. Anyway, this is us completely ecstatic over this fabulous baby shower MammaMia and the Titas threw for us, and all the equally fabulous gifts we got including a hair spa gift card for me (because that is my guilty pleasure) and a Thai massage for MacDaddy (and that is his) plus the baby journals I asked for and was all eager to get cracking on. I couldn't wait to diligently jot down those milestones. First tooth, first crawl, first step. And then real life got in the way, I said I'd get to it eventually and here we are five years later. We did abuse use the gift cards. God knows we needed those after those sleepless nights. But umm.. the baby books. Untouched.

Thankfully one afternoon Nona and I were sitting in the car, discussing doing a joint mommy-blog (this one!) and I thought.. that should do more than make up for the those very empty baby books. Mommy absolution. The kids' very own cyber baby journal. Good thinking, Nona. I hope this blog will still be around for the kiddos when they're older or until they disown us if we start humiliating them with more stories and more naked pictures.

Mak, journal material for you.

Mak's front lower tooth is wiggling. Not the ever-so-slight rocking the dentist pointed out a few months back, but it looks like it should be any time now. His milk teeth are starting to fall already! He is four! Okay.. almost five but, he is f-o-u-r. He's moving it like crazy, all excited and ready to let it go and here I am getting all freaky sentimental not ready to let go.

I texted his dentist. Mak's tooth is moving. Is that okay? (Laugh all you want. It's a first for me.) Her reply: Is it just moving or has he fallen? If it's moving because he bumped it and you want to make sure, we can xray to check on trauma. Ok. Suddenly feeling really stupid. Its just moving. I text back. Her text: Then it's ok. Relax! Exclamation point. I deserved that.

Some little facts to sink your teeth into, according to the internet. Everyone will have two sets of teeth in their lifetime - milk teeth and permanent teeth. A baby has twenty teeth while grown-ups have thirty-two. Milk teeth start to push through the gums at around six months of age and generally fall out at ages six to seven. First the lower front ones, then the upper ones and usually in the order that they first came out. They can fall out earlier than normal if the teeth came out earlier than usual for an infant. (Ahh.. but if I had filled up that baby book I would know when Mak's teeth first made their appearance) By twelve to thirteen years, most baby teeth have been shed and almost all permanent teeth are in.

On one of his routine dental check-ups

It seems a date with the tooth fairy is sooner than soon. Whoa, I don't even know the fairy's going rate these days. I am sooo not ready, but aren't many mommies sooo not emotionally ready for sooo many things anyway? And that is real life getting in the way again.

Lisztomania!

Our favorite children's choir continues to make beautiful music. As a testament to Teacher Gregg's coolness, he got his PS22 kids to do a Phoenix song. Do you love Phoenix? I love their pop-rock-electronica sound so much I can put on my running shoes and hit the pavement for a whole hour listening to them and just them. So here it is, a personal family summer hit revisited. Lisztomania sung a cappella... 

As the band mentioned on The Creators Project, on paper it shouldn't work but it does, and even got them teary-eyed. Yes, PS 22 tends to do that. Now here are the boys from Versailles themselves, live, stripped of any sound engineering magic, but awesome, nevertheless...

Thank you teacher Jojie for the heads up on Lisztomania PS22 version. Thank you Entourage Season 1 (or 2?) for putting this song in one episode's end credits. I tracked it down with my google-investigating skills then et voila, have been in love with Phoenix ever since.  Falling, falling, falling, falling....