At Malcolm’s karate class last week I saw a dad packing up his 5-year old son’s karate gear while asking his 3-year old daughter to wear her jacket and come to him. Good thing, his other child, an infant, quietly waited in the car seat.
He almost lost his cool toward his daughter. He raised his voice–almost a yell. Perhaps being in public helped him rein in his temper.
I’ve been in that position, too.
Continue readingBeing a father sometimes feel like pulling your own teeth with pliers.
Bambang LRT Station, circa September 2012
She turned from me and wiped her eyes as the train sped away from the platform of Bambang LRT Station. Tears fell from her eyes, I’m sure of it. And my chest constricted. I looked up the ceiling of the station, trying hard to prevent tears from falling.
It must have been my wife’s monthly appointment with her OB-GYN. It’s the fourth month of the baby in her tummy.
And I could not be with her…
Continue readingIt’s 12:46 am and we have just finished folding and packing away our laundry. We moved to a new apartment barely a week ago, so the house is still a mess.
We are slowly bringing order to our stuff. In 2015, my wife, son, and I arrived with five large suitcases and two boxes. Four years later, we have enough stuff to fill a three-bedroom apartment!
I didn’t mean to write about moving–though I have moved houses more than I care for since I was a child. But this just goes to show how hectic life could be with two young kids at home.
Continue readingLast November, Caspian came into our world. He joined his kuya Malcolm, Nanay (mother, aka my wife :D), and me. We are now a family of 4! And I became a father to two sons.
My wife and I entered a new stage of our lives. As we take care of our children, one of them an infant, we are far away from family.
Malcolm is in Kindergarten and I go to my office 5 days a week. Meanwhile Nanay takes care of Caspian all throughout the day. This is a new experience for us.
When Malcolm was a baby, we were still in the Philippines, surrounded by family. Every weekend, we went to Nanay’s home in the province. He would spend some time with uncles, aunts, and cousins.
Continue readingAt about 4:45 am on Sunday, 18 Nov 2018, my wife woke me up and told me “It’s time!”
I got up quickly and wiped away all traces of sleep from my eyes. Our second child was on his 39th week in the womb and we have waited a long time for this moment.
Cha then woke up Coco and asked him to prepare to leave. Thankfully, a friend of ours–another Filipino family in our apartment compound knew about Cha’s situation and agreed to take care of him while we are at the hospital.
Over the past several months, we have tried to prepare Coco for the day that we will leave him at a friend’s house. When that time came, he picked up his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a bunch of other toiletries as we were leaving. Our bags were already packed and in the car, so we simply left the other toiletries that Coco brought out.
We arrived at the hospital and the nurses started monitoring her vital signs. Before long, we checked in to her room.