Waiting for Lucy

These last few weeks of pregnancy are so murderously torturous.  Not mine but the ladies-in-waiting.  Ana would be as pregnant as a polywog but walked everyday meeting her quota of 6 hours every God-made day.  That was some determination pumped up by hormones that is otherwise not there when she is not heavy with a child.   And each time, each baby came out, it was all worth it.

I have mastered the art of waiting.  Waiting for each baby to come out.  From Ana to Marie and just two weeks ago, from Anne.

Waiting for Lucy was very zen.  Anne took her steps in the most pregnant way as her date was nearing.  She wobbled from leg to leg. I would watch her and shook my head.  I told myself: "That won't do!"  So I would shout from the bridge and call out to my son Juaqui urging him to bring Anne out of the house and go window-shopping where walking would be more entertaining.

Yet Anne was as zen as the pechays growing in my garden- slowly and quietly.  I managed to trick her to walk with me one day and brought her uphill and down, around the streets of Beverly and back.  Thank God I did not kill her!  I was worried after for she is not a spartan like Ana or the swimmer like Marie.  She is a doctor and she knew what she was doing.  Yet, there I was, the snooping and meddling MIL.

My son just shook his head when he found out that his wife walked with me.  I may be 60 but that is just a number.  I can pound the streets of the subdivision with steps that meant war and victory!

Walking with the MIL did not move the baby out of her mother's womb.  So I just waited patiently.  In fact, so as to keep my mind away from the birth, when, and how, I left for a few days and celebrated my friend Therese's birthday in Cagayan de Oro.

I painted while I thought of the baby and wondered... when do I see her? What do we call her?

I came home and went to the afternoon's graduation of The Little Farm House, where my eldest grandson, Jacob was graduating from preschool.  Jose and Sophia were going to perform a dance and so I prayed and willed for the rains in Landingan airport to stop.  In the afternoon, I was welcoming and speaking before parents and friends.  My phone rang in the middle of my speech.  That was my 6th granddaughter's birth unto this world.

Evanna Lucille was born on March 22, 2014.  The parents of my grandchildren knew what they want to call their children.  I supplied names everytime but none was considered.  I am very happy though with all their names!

So Lucy was born on March 22, 2014.  Oh the blessings of a newborn! She is pink with bright almond eyes.  She is my third granddaughter and the other 3 are boys.  I have no idea what the 7th will be but Lucy is firmly and undeniably beautiful just like all these gnomes growing in Frogglerocks.

She is a good reason to go up and down the stairs and to take a bath for.  Yes, Justo demands to be given a bath before a Lucy visit. And the dirty two other boys would whisper and hum a lullabye.  The 2 girls would come in their floral summer hats and would sit gently beside her.  Ziva did manage to pinch Lucy's toe a little bit.

Frogglerocks is happy for the wait!  Even the kingfishers are chatting joyfully by the river.

And oh, the arugulas are boastful in the garden, outside where Lucy lives.

Evanna Lucille

Lucy and me

Jose, Lucy and Jacob

Sophia, Ziva and Justo

cuddle time

I am starting to figure out how... after 60 years of groping in the dark and getting up many times from unsure footing!

My treasure map is brittle and torn around the edges.  I lost my way following it many times but somehow led me back to the spot.

Maybe I thought I wanted to be somewhere else but this thing about growing older is making me see more!  Ironic but the eyes are not even seeing well around this time of the season but I am seeing more.

I am seeing more potential.  HEDCen will bloom some more and fruit a lot lot more!
More flowers, more birds in my garden.
More adventures to fill my spirit.
More grandchildren.
More laughter and less guilt.

60 is no joke but yes, it's got perks!!  Very, very nice perks!

I thought

the babies will now be Ate and Kuya

It has been years it seems.
Now that I visit, it feels like I am a stranger discovering things on pages that I wrote.

So many things have happened.
I thought they were the same story repeatedly happening to me.

There were no words for a long time.
I thought I was a wretch and my days were extraordinarily ordinary.

What was I up to?
I thought I was not doing anything because I was working.
Picking my nose and the pieces of my life peppered with many beginnings.

I thought I did not know how to write all these
because there was nothing to write.
but as I tried to grasp in words the moments that fleeted by

I thought that I have to write again.

To write about my abundant blessings is making me fizzy inside.
Here's why.

the babies are growing.  they are incessantly talking and learning.
the toddlers are tall and fat and they are very funny and very sensitive.
there are new additions to the brood.  a baby girl waiting to be born anytime.
and another on the way in October!

So much to write about I realize now, while Kiera is teaching Golda how to keep vigil at night.

relief is a simple joy

It is always good to remember that we are largely the person responsible for our fate.  We can choose to put our lives on public display like the modern television reality shows.  I think that there is an exhibitionist in all of us.  I believe that we all want to matter or there is simply a desire to say something.  But I also believe that retiring from public display will come unexpectedly when you just simply decided that it is enough. 

Monsters and Gremlins

I have monsters or gremlins sleeping over in my room almost every night.  The monsters generally live in when they sleep over.  They scatter things, pull out books from the basket and leave them everywhere.  They leave their sneeze sprinkles on the pillows.  Sometimes, they take off wearing our shirts.

The gremlins are sweet-looking little things but they have the most deadly farts!  They are like snakes slithering and crossing over each other until they are one big knot in the middle of the night.  One sits up in the dark (the genuine gremlin) and sees her grandfather sleeping with gloves.  She pulls one finger at a time while chanting "funny, hands", wears the gloves while saying the same two words as she fades in the dark again.

As we all know, monsters and gremlin are sweet while asleep.

my other space

This is my 4th office.  This is where I work as a reseacher and writer.  Right outside are children talking about projects, girls whispering about the boys in their class and birds chirping the latest in air and landing spaces just further beyond the corridor.  I am surrounded with books and children making noise while their teacher tries to keep them on their task.

The best place for distraction and focus is within this four walls of the Discovery and Learning Resource Center where I hole up to concoct and write ideas. At the moment,  I have French Musique playing in the background and it can be very inspiring. 

I see a quaint cafe someday, serving iced coffee and chocolate, biscuits and scones just right outside where some girls are sitting on the floor.  That is a very yummy idea.

a very decent space in one corner of a very busy library

photo take by Brianna Abellera G3

a regular day inside the library

the grill work outside my window

Oh Jose

There is not enough space to breathe with awe each time this little person does something absolutely different from his brilliant brother, Jacob.  It is our fault that we sometimes take him lightly because he can make things look groovy and rock n'roll when we are serious over things that are actually funny. He makes us realize things differently.

A year ago, before his Kuya's 5th birthday, he surprised me with his uncanny way of "reading".
I gave Jacob the first letter clue to the gift I was going to give him while we all lay on the bed ready to sleep. Jose was seeminglyl unmindful of our conversation.

Me:  My gift for you starts with the letter "h" (and I sounded the letter).
Jacob urged me to say the next letter and I said "a" then the third which was "m".  As I gave the sounds of the three letters for Jacob to figure out, Jose turned to his other side to face us and nonchalantly, said "ham-ster".

This dude is not a conventional reader.  He never paid any attention to the first attempts of his teachers and parents to teach him how to read, the way he was not paying attention to colors before he started on his own to identify the spectrum of colors.

He baffled us many times whenever he'd come up with puns.  Ordinary words were given a new twist and a funny meaning.

"Wear your brief now Jose"!
"Corned brief?" he'd retort.

Anyways,  laterly, he baffles me with his different approach in drawing.  While he gingerly plays with a pencil and tentatively makes marks on a paper, his imagination would start to work as he sees the figure that emerges.  You can imagine how a snake would evolve into a robot with more angles that he would accidentally draw.  Really.  Not much ado!

Today, his left hand and fingers are more coordinated with his eyes and his brain.  He is very happy to draw a lot!  he can now summon his hand to create what is on his mind.

http://instagram.com/p/cC2MuOuw_Z/

He can go on and on tranced and impassioned.

http://instagram.com/p/cC0LrNOw7m/