Let me sum up this week: back to basics. I had my old Facebook account deactivated and, after three weeks without cable TV, installed a UHF TV antenna at home. Baron, you should be a saint.
Will write more about it next time. Now off to a badminton tournament. It’s been years since I last joined one.
First half of July is over. And I spent majority of its days trying to figure out how to become an effective parent. This must be the longest time I can recall that I have struggled to discipline Marcus. Had I spent the same amount of energy in badminton or gym time or running instead of parenting I know that I would have improved in those crafts significantly. There’s just so much passion, so much thinking I have done since the month started but I just seem to fail. It’s a mind game—us versus Marcus—and I am starting to believe he is winning. But I know that, however hopeless I feel most of the time, we cannot give up. There should be something up our sleeves that should address this parenting challenging. Yes, there should be because when the kid gets tough, the parenting gets going.
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This Monday we heard a very surprising news, one so unlikely, when we picked Marcus from school. I got off from the car and approached two anxious faces–the assistant teacher and school director–looking after our kid as he does his usual end of class playtime. And my gut feel proved itself right when the school director walked with me and Marcus back to our parked car.
“Sir, I will tell you something about Marcus…he’s been acting up in class. This morning he wrote on his classmate’s school uniform. Their adviser also said that every now and then she has observed aggression since the start of school year a month ago.” Boom. The few meters to our idling car felt like a hundred. The director’s report made me walk a lot slower, it dragged me more than the weight of Marcus whom I was cuddling then. I feinted a smile to appreciate the feedback.
“What’s the news? What were you discussing with Sir Ric?” asked my wife who was waiting inside the car. “How’s school, Marcus?” she added a cliché question as Marcus settles down at the backseat. The next thing my wife heard struck her just as it did to me. To display some bullying is the least of the things we expect to hear about our son. The news was just unbelievable. There were some serious exchange on our drive back home.
Yesterday, I already talked to our son’s adviser and likewise had a chat with the director at the dreaded principal’s office. I have told them that Marcus has been made aware of what he did and that I am open to receive updates regarding his behavior in the next days. “Let’s talk again next time, but hopefully not about Marcus,” I said as I stood up to leave. The director agreed, “Yes, sir. Hope it will be about our badminton game.”
***
For the very first time, Marcus helped out in washing the dishes after lunch. He also wiped the table top. I wonder what’s up this time–must be his way of entertaining himself as it’s nine days since I had our cable TV subscription discontinued.
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (He just played the Christmas CD.)
Location, location, location. This I am sure is what was in the minds of the people behind The Bellevue Resort. Situated in Alabang, the hotel can be accessed by almost everyone coming from any direction. The Bellevue Resort can be easily reached by guests coming from both Northbound and Soutbound of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), by people passing through the kanan service road, and even by those coming from Cavite via the Daang Hari road.
Getting around the hotel and nearby establishments is also a lot better than any, if not most, hotel in Makati. Like us who do not have the privilege of having our own chauffeur, driving to and from the hotel is not as stressful. Compared with traffic volume in the Makati commercial district, Alabang is more manageable although one must expect to get stuck especially on a payday weekend as there are two malls and several office buildings in the vicinity. Here’s a driving tip: read the hotel’s guide on the first day and familiarize yourself with the location map in one of its pages. In my regular visits to Festival Mall, I have been thinking all the while that the hotel is just right across another block but good thing there are alternative areas where anyone who is lost can safely make a turn.
What about hotel accommodation? For the price of around Php 5000 we got ourselves a room that we did not expect to be a lot better. With wifey and our five-year old boy who changes sleeping/play spot without notice, our hotel room bed was more than enough. Our room on the 8th floor of The Bellevue Resort also has several features: a long study table and a matching ergo chair; a Sony Bravia wall-mounted flat TV; a wide wardrobe section that includes a safe and an ironing set; and a bathroom with well-maintained fixtures–our son, however, still prefers the tub over the rain shower head.
Included in our 2-days 2-nights resreservation is a buffet breakfast. We already enjoyed one yesterday in Cafe D’ Asie. Breakfast is from 6-10 AM and I have just checked the display of the Philips iPod docking station below the bed lamp and it is past 6:30. It’s time to wake kiddo, make a dash from the tower wing’s elevator, through the main lobby, then to the 2nd floor of the main wing where scrumptious breakfast awaits. It’s our last day today, so I might eat more than yesterday. Well, that’s the plan but if the little brat decides to sleep longer, then wifey and I still have time to enjoy the free WI-FI.
***
Mood: 3/10! (Hope that today he will behave.)
I call this the Garfield effect. It is the general hatred to one poor day of the week. It is the conspiracy to collectively pounce on one day of the week, one that can’t fight back, one that has not done anything wrong other than just being the first day after the weekends. If there’s one day of the week that bears the brunt of people’s negative emotions, it is Monday. As a matter of fact, it is safe to say that at one time, almost half of the world seems to chorus “I hate Mondays” as the countdown to the end of their Sunday starts. The other half follows next.
Yes it is understandable that anyone who is spending a well-deserved time off with friends or family would feel resentment over the thought that once again their two-day weekend will be cut short by Monday—the dreaded Monday. As for the employed, it is the start of another busy work week; for students, teachers, and mothers with pre-school kids, the first day of challenging school routines.
There is so much aversion to this M in MTWTF that it is not uncommon to hear people say “four more days!” even if the day has not yet started. This sentiment is so widespread that regardless of social status and positions in the company, I have heard people heave a weary sigh as Monday nears.
But is it really Monday that we hate? Or is it the things—or people—we look forward to deal with as we make our exodus to work or school, as our shift starts, or as the school bell rings? Can’t we for once be objective when we mimic Garfield’s famous one-liner, “I hate Mondays”? Can’t we for once declare on Twitter or Facebook a rational statement such as “I hate Mondays because of (him/her/it)”?
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Escribo, tengo alegre!)
Day 1. Some resistance by Ben 10 but Superwoman wins. (Fictitious names, real people.)
“If there’s a will there’s a way.” – English Proverb
“Spy kids had always been able to beat the bad guys because adults overthink things. But to a kid, everything is possible. Just use your imagination.” – Spy Kids
Every now and then we continue to learn from our children just by observing them. Like for example last night when I saw that despite our son’s present inability to spell and read (most words) he is not deterred from doing what he loves to do–use our desktop to play games and watch videos online. So how does he do it? Simple. He uses a guide that his mom has decided to provide instead of spelling it out for him every time he goes online. Below is the picture of the cheatsheet he has been using so that he can type the URL and keywords on Google Chrome’s search bar. And by the way, he now prefers Chrome over Firefox. Kids.
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Last week I taught him how to use favorites. I checked last night and he has a lot already.
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Cleaned car, ate leftover corned beef.)
The good thing about having US-based customers is that people in the call center industry who support them also enjoy a time off whenever there is an American holiday. So yesterday we did not waste the precious non-working day and spent it mall hopping. It was a day I never thought would bring back so much personal memories.
Our first stop is the farthest among our itinerary and it is for a lunch we planned since last year–our ever favorite Japanese food dine out. The Dad’s buffet routine went like the ones we had in the past—get plate, pick food, eat, get another plate pick food, eat. But the golden kuhol did the least expected. As I remind my son that these are the same snails Jack of Oggy and the Cockroaches cooked, my mind opened up another stored story.
It was sometime around the ‘90’s when I, with two other friends, had a scary experience because of our fondness for these golden snails. We were picking live kuhol from a rice field on a very sunny noon when all of a sudden we heard someone shout from afar. It was an old man who immediately sprinted towards us. Surprised, our adrenalin kicked in but despite our best effort to make a dash across makahiya-filled grounds, we got caught as others heed the call of the old man for help. My friend (the other escaped) and I soon learned—too late—that we have trespassed a private area which we have been frequenting to get the abundant kuhols in the rice paddies. Thankfully, the folks ruled out detaining us in the nearby police station—they must have realized that we are minors—and instead dropped us off at home before dinner time. Ulam was not kuhol, by the way.
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A couple of minutes after the crossover buffet lunch in Megamall, we headed to Rockwell in Makati to claim my 2011 SY yearbook in AGSB and also to give wifey and Marcus time to window shop in the Power Plant Mall. And like my other visits in this posh place, just being around–without even spending a buck except for parking–makes me thank heavens for giving me the opportunity and support to endure two years of MBA education. God must have a plan after all with the lessons and experiences he gave me from a lowly kuhol to a pricey MBA degree.
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Our supposedly last stop on our list is SM Aura. It is new, it is beautiful but I was not impressed. In spite of its extraordinary shape, a far cry from the boxy SM malls, I find its interior dark and its atrium area a bit tight compared with other malls. Well, since it opened only last May 17, I would expect that they can address the illumination issue (I saw several unlit fixtures) soon but definitely everyone needs to get slimmer if they hate literally rubbing elbows with the crowd.
However, if there’s one thing that I love about SM Aura, is its parking—even if it reminds me of the other day’s Instagram pics showing the basement parking partly flooded due to sudden downpour—because it has a direct exit to C5. And I know Marcus also benefited from this since after finding no Filbars store in the mall I made a deal with him that we would only drop by Festival Mall to buy el cheapo Ninjago substitutes if we don’t get stuck in traffic. And true enough, C5 gave us a quick getaway and we ended up reaching Alabang in no time. That makes it four malls in one Memorial Day time off.
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Still stuffed.)
Sometimes marriage is like the evolution of smartphones– first it responds to touch, next thing you know there’s air gesture.
Summer is coming to a close for Marcus. Spending almost two months of vacation wherein he has continuously shown proficiency in his computer skills—kudos to the iPad from the Lawsons—and improving in terms of physical activities—courtesy of the time he spent with his cousins, we will be enrolling him today for Kindergarten level education.
Although he answered half-heartedly to our question if he is ready to go to school again, I feel that this year he will be more eager to discover new things. Last school year, the lessons from school along with what he learns at home have helped him to start (and shutdown) the PC; type the boot up password; log in on his own account; search key words (using cheat sheets just so he can spell the words); and recognize the common computer terms such as: download, loading, next, back, close window and maximize window. Remarkably, my credit card remains safe from Apple store charges as he can distinguish free and paid apps.
Not to be forgotten as well is his interest in new cartoon shows on cable TV. From last summer’s Phineas and Ferb, he has moved on to programs such as Ninjago, and the Ben 10 series. He is so into these cartoons that he can memorize a majority of the characters which is something that never fails to surprise me and my wife and it make us wish that the school has enumeration quizzes for the names of the heroes and villains of these TV shows. We know he’ll ace it even if he pronounces both Lord and Lloyd Garmadon just the same.
This school year, however, he will be into a different time slot. Waking up early is therefore the first challenge I anticipate and I now also wonder if there is an iPad app that can help us with this.
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Yesterday, my favorite healing priest Fr. Fernando Suarez mentioned during his TV mass about pre-school education in Japan. According to him, the Japanese curriculum does not include regular exams for the pupils during first three years of their schooling with the rationale that it promotes unhealthy competition if imbibed at an early age. But whether this information (about Japanese education) is factual or not, I think that every parent should take note of it. I agree with Fr. Suarez when he said that more and more parents nowadays have been coaxing their children to win in contests that at some point it sends a wrong signal and value to the young minds—one that divides rather than unites especially without the appropriate guidance. So this school, I told my wife that we give Marcus some slack and besides it is what we did during the later part of his nursery education and guess what, he ended up the as the most improved pupil of his class.
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Stuffed toy and green ball just came out of the bedroom. He’s awake.)
Marcus Can Blog 