Love in the Time of Laptops

Why is almost every grandmother in children's books rocking herself in a chair while knitting a sweater desperately waiting for company? She's usually wrinkled like a raisin and sporting a full head of white hair all tied in a super tight bun. That's just so.. 1952. Today's Nanas hit the gym, drive their own cars, sit on ergonomic chairs and order those sweaters on Ebay. A little help from science has helped with the hair color. I'm not even going to go into what modern technology can do about the wrinkles. Teehee.

This is five-year old Tato (using my yahoo messenger account) "talking" to his grandmother.

click on the image to see better

Fifteen minutes later The Grandmother received an email.

And that, for you, is 21st century lovin'.

The Little Radical

You know when you want to do something but feel constrained by The Situation? I'm at that juncture right now. You want to achieve This, but you only have that, not those other things you supposedly need. The creativity buzz-phrase Thinking Outside the Box comes to mind, but it's so overused people are putting it back in the box.

There's a new catch phrase in town: vuja de. Coined by Fast Company founding editor Bill Taylor, it's a twist on deja vu that essentially means, a sense of seeing something for the first time, even if you have actually witnessed it many times before. In other words, radical thinking required to get to the objective or to get to necessary change.

Children are a fine example of radical thinkers. Bear does this every day and I'm hoping he rubs off some radical on me. Look…

Last Christmas he was happy to get that gift. It was supposed to make a dog, but he wasn't interested in making a dog that day. He was in the mood to make a dinosaur. Now even if you give him dog parts, he'll still make that dinosaur. No problem.

Later on, he thought of making another kind of dinosaur with horns and showing some teeth. So here… horns and teeth. No problem.

In one of his surreal Lego scenes, he required a giant snail to drive a tugboat. None of his Lego sets have snails in them, and yet…

As Marcel Proust says, "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes." Right, Baby Bear?

Of Louboutins and Gnarls Barkley

Did you watch The Grammys? Mick Jagger was his usual legendary self. Arcade Fire was super hot. But this performance wins the Adorable Award. As adorable as Gwyneth's shoes!

  

And since I also really loved Gwyneth's duet with Cee Lo, I looked for more of his music on the web. Apparently, he's responsible for one of my all time favorite songs, way back when there was still Gnarls Barkley. OMG he was half of Gnarls (Freaking) Barkley.  It's been covered by everyone from Nelly Furtado to Beyonce and The Violent Femmes but nothing like the original. Flashback time...

Happy Hearts Day

I used to call this day a corny Hallmark celebration. As in celebration for higher sales. Not anymore.

Chicha the artist explains: "the flowers mean you smell good and I like picking flowers for you. The hearts are my heart flying to you."

Love this year's Valentine's Day loot!

She's 5!

February 12, 2011. Chichapampam turned another year older, wiser, spunkier and sweeter. As Solange Knowles sings it, Mama Loves Baby. That simple. That true.

Mama Loves Patris from Nikka Santos on Vimeo.

With my heart exploding,

2011 Bucket List #1

Run a new race distance. Check.

proof!

Me: Tato, check this out. I have a medal!

Tato: You won?

Me: No. Everyone who crossed the finish line got one. It's called a finisher's medal.

Tato: You're happy because you just finished and you didn't even win?!

That kid is lucky I was too weak to argue and too exhausted to strangle him.

and...more proof! (nabbed from the website)

Happy Bodhisattva

I once commented, Buddhism seems to be such a beautiful belief system. Someone said back, among all the religions it's the one that encapsulates best what it is to be a good person. Exactly. This came to mind as Pappy and I took some we-time to usher in the Chinese New Year in Singapore. See...

We also found this little laughing buddha... or shall we say future Bodhisattva? in Dempsey Hill. I think he's adorable.

Copy-pasted from somewhere: To become a Bodhisattva is to be fearless. There is no aversion for those who are hostile and there is no obsessive clinging to those who are closest to us. There is no possessiveness, only love, compassion and discernment into the nature of reality.

Now that is something to strive for. But is it really possible? I mean, we are all so imperfect, how can we love perfectly? All I know is, it really helps when you can work on it with someone you can have beers and pig out with...

And if you are raising children together! There are many things I still hope for, but I know I am already so blessed.

The chance to get-away is awesome. The best part is coming home.

The Force

I'm hardly in the market for a new set of wheels. I'm not even trying to sell you the new Volkswagen Passat though I must say it looks pretty cool. It's just that I happened to see this video and can totally relate. If you have a not-so-little boy around the house - aged say about 4 or 5, maybe even 6 - I think you will too.

You see once in a while MacDaddy and I have dinner at our home across a masked superhero. Or watch TV with a caped crusader (or two!) on our laps. Or have to maneuver our way around cris-crossing light sabers and boys shouting Use the Force! Use the Force! Check out this video and you'll see what I mean.

May the Force be with you!