Maidless Days

Our maid just left us and we haven't found a replacement. She went back to her province in pursuit of her own happiness and a higher pay as a sales lady. Leaving to us (me and my wife, who also works), our child... and all the household chores.

I work at night so I'm home by day. I take care of my almost-two-year-old-girl while my wife's in her office. I see to it that I'm home by seven in the morning. Sleep for atleast 45 minutes or until my wife leaves the house and turns over everything that's left behind - the sink with the plates for me to wash. I'm enjoying this now, after 5 maidless days.

After doing the dishes, I bathe the girl. I've always thought bathing a baby is such a very difficult thing. It was not. She was very cooperative even if the water wasn't warm. She just loves the water. After bathing, it's time to sing and dance with her. "I'm A Little Tea Pot" is a house favorite.

By 11am, I'm now preparing our lunch while she watches "The Little Mermaid" for the nth time, or "Finding Nemo." I told you, she likes the water. When she saw the food, she exclaimed, "Wow! (We) eat fish! Nemo?" No it's not Nemo. "Mermaid?" Yeah. "OK." She runs around while eating.

An hour after lunch, I give her bottled milk and sends her to sleep in the crib. She sleeps atleast an hour or two, so that's my time to sleep also.

Then she wakes up. Makes all the loud noises - crying. I just dont get the reason why. Sometimes she would look for her books.. her toys.. then her DVDs...

When the kid says... "Daddy. Ew." She means, "I pooped." Oh good heavens! What am I going to do? Whenever she does it in the past, I go away. I hate the smell of baby poop, not to mention, the sight of it. I learned how to... coz I have to.

In some afternoons, she would say... "Dad, Go?" Go where? "(Fully) books." No. "(Where are my) shoes? (Let's) go." I said we can't, let's wait for weekend. She would then throw tantrums. So, as a solution, we'll watch Nemo and Mermaid again, or we go inside the room and play with Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger.

Here's what I found out: She watches the Taiwan series, Hot Shots... and that's when I learned the reason why she keeps on looking for balls whenever we're at the mall.

While she watches, I prepare dinner and wait for mom so I could turnover to her the unwashed dishes and the kid. I prepare for the office and returns home at seven in the morning.

Sometimes, she's still sleeping when I get home. I sleep beside her so that when she wakes up, the first person she sees is me (and not mommy, hehehe). She'd smile to me and hug me (trying to make her mom jealous).

When the nanny left us, it was a raging war between me, my wife, the maid and her stage mother who orchestrated it all. I dont ever wanna remember the words that I gave them (#&$%@!). It was totally mean, I admit, but I'm feeling really bad about it, I won't detail.

At the lighter side, I learned a lot from the experience and had a lot of realizations. It even made me love my baby more and made our bonding closer than how it used to be weeks back.

My little girl is my relief from the storm. She eases every pain there is and takes away the stress and pressures from both family and work. She's the prayer, the answer and my angel.

Now that we enjoy most of the hours together, I think I have won everyday.

In the contrary, I dont know how much longer my physical body can handle this. Barely two hours of sleep everyday? I dont know, but I'm enjoying. Ü

Joy in Work

the secret of joy in work is contained in one word, excellence... to know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

--- whoever wrote this, this has become mine.

Counterpoint to Lennon and McCartney's ...

I'm listening to Jose Mari Chan's "Counterpoint to Lennon and McCartney's ..." when suddenly thought of resurrecting an old (long dead) hobby - blogging. To be honest, I don't know what to write and that's just stupid after setting up my new account. It's a real problem when before an account is created or a pen and paper is taken out, you got a lot of good things in mind to tell. But when you start typing, you don't know which word should come first. And as usual, and everyone usually does - all beginnings suck.

I'm a constant visitor of Fully Booked, a famed bookstore in High Street, not to buy books but to read. I've been reading The Diary of a Whimpy Kid or something like that... it's really funny I thought of how whimpy I am when I was his age. Everything sucks even when you try so hard to escape every awkward situation - free throws during PE, checking of notebooks, receiving test papers in Math. I tapped my other shoulder as if talking to the main character, trying to comfort him on his daily misadventures. You are not alone, but... yes, you're such a whimpy kid and you're rediculously funny.

I saw an old movie, Hot Fuzz (2007), in HBO and it finally became an instant favorite. Best english movie I've enjoyed since The Full Monty in 1997.

And now, how do I end this thing. Maybe I'll just say... Jose Mari Chan's rendition of "Windmills Of Your Mind" is a something that I would like to hear over and over while slowly sipping my coffee and watching waves and footprints... and images, colorful ballons, clocks whose hands are sweeping, running my finger to the embroidery linings of the table cloth, and may be the running children wearing no slippers in ragged clothes and dark faces - will they ever see the light of the morning, or atleast a silver lining and instantly see a glimpse of what educated people call the future. They can smile if they can find their sandals there or fade away to see themselves still lurking in the shadows of the moon. A crystal tear falls from a fern and drops. I'm on the road again, watching buildings and reading ads from billboards along EDSA. Walks home and sleeps with the thought of a cup of black coffee, waiting for my lips, tonight at work, again.