Nevergirl’s

Sometimes, I wonder why I have friends. I am not friendly, not friendly at all. I very rarely go out. I live without a cellphone. And, we almost never have people over, too. It doesn’t help that I’d rather be lost in a sea of books, kitchenware, or office furniture rather than in a sea of people. But yes, I’ll have you know that even though it confounds me how I came to have them, I have friends — and they’re a wonderful lot.
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It’s the nose. It’s always been about the nose. Because my two girls have noses exactly like their father’s, everyone thinks the girls look like their dad… from toenail to hair! It’s not a bad thing for them to take after their papa. If anything, it’s a blessing—they won’t be doomed to go through life thought of as “pint-sized”, they won’t be saddled with body parts that have a mind of their own, they won’t have to worry about running into walls and doors every other day or so-or that their singing will make dogs howl, and they’ll never have to deal with the heartbreak of giving the footwear of their dreams up because, say, the pink Dansko shoes they want doesn’t come in size 4… and never will.

So yes, I’d love for my girls to take after their dad… except that in Charlie’s case, she doesn’t. They have the same scowl, I’ll give you that; and they both have the same stubborn set to the chin. But ignore the nose for a moment, and you will see this little girl is a mini-me through and through.

Well, today, after spending the whole day at the farm fishing, eating guava, and running after cows, we finally managed to get not one but several photos of the little girl smiling! Catching Charlie smiling on film is like catching a mosquito—you know it can be done; you just haven’t done it. But today, we did it—and I tell you, minus the nose, this little girl is a mini-Chin. Yes? Yes!

“It ain’t a bad plan to keep still,” says Kin Hubbard, and I’d have to agree with him. No, it’s not a bad plan at all. If anything, keeping still opens the mind and nourishes the soul.

This trip has been an exercise in keeping still. True, we had to hustle and bustle, and lug Samsonite luggage, the kids, the nebulizer, a quarter of the house’s contents — or what seems like it, a camera-scared nanny, and my brother to Mindanao; and there were moments when we were simply overwhelmed by the sheer chaos a vacation of this magnitude — and gasp! length — entails BUT…

at the end of day one, just when we felt like our feet, arms, and mental health would come undone…

it was a moment of stillness that re-charged our tired bodies, hearts, and minds. We wound down, over sparking reds and whites and kids’ play, and listened to the personal sounds that made us feel — to quote Andre Kostelanetz — “exhilarated and alive or quiet and calm”.

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We should have Murphy-proofed our plan, that’s what we should have done. After all, Cebu is not one cab ride away, after all. But us being what we are — and Murphy’s law governing our life the way it does — we found out the day of the party that we had forgotten many things, one of them the camera’s charger.

But, that’s not the only thing that went the way of Murphy’s law this week. We forgot to tell DaddyLo (my DIL) we needed his projector and the projector headlights. We forgot to syncrhonize the time of the party with MommyLa (my MIL) who will be throwing a party later that night. And, on the day of Charlie’s party, we had to change venues four times! By the time the party started, it rained even before the girls could move the food and the party props to the back of the house! We had to herd the guests to the porch, where we finally held the party minus the balloons, tarp, and pretty little touches.

Still, it was a fun, fun party which started at 4pm, and didn’t end til 8pm or so, when the last of the adult guests straggled home. At the end of it, though, I had to wonder if Charlie even understood it was her day and all. She didn’t laugh, cry, or raise an eyebrow. And, the whole time the kids played, she sat on her yaya’s lap, eating a chicken drumstick! This little girl is one tough customer!

Happy Birthday, Charlie! Here’s hoping your parents’ next effort impresses you a little bit more. Hahaha!

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