MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP




How far does one walk to pick up a newly-wakened baby?

Oh, about twenty average adult female steps. (I counted them myself.)

This measurement was the shortest distance from my side of the bed to Reanna's crib, which is in the nursery across the hall from the master bedroom. The trip normally takes a few seconds, tops.

Unless it's about six in the morning.

At around this time, the average adult female that is me wakes up to discover a couple of cantaloupes which seemingly sprouted overnight in the approximate location of her upper anterior.

Hearing her baby's summoning cries, she gets up to excruciating pain, only to discover a wet spot where the cantaloupes once rested. And then she trudges, oh about twenty average adult female steps, all the way to her baby's room, leaving a trail or warm mother's milk on the carpet.

Except at six in the morning, twenty average adult female steps might as well be twenty miles. Twenty miles and two leaking watermelons.

Welcome to the pain and pleasure of weaning your baby. Reanna is starting to sleep through the night. And while I welcome the first taste of continuous overnight slumber I've had in months, a part of me now feels empty.

...the part which wakes up in the middle of the night to find her arm in pins and needles, yet dares not move for fear of waking up the sleeping baby lying on it.

...the part which still looks for the drowsy little face nuzzling at her side, rooting for its familial food source every two hours or so.

...the part which misses the gentle grunts emanating from that warm familiar bundle as it nurses sleepily beside her. (Grunts reminiscent of a delightful little piglet, not the barnyard kind but the kind they use to sniff out truffles in France.)

...the part which now welcomes a hungry bite at dawn to ease the plump tenderness and relieve the pressure of engorgement, marvelling at Mother Nature's perfect machine for milk extraction.

Slowly but surely, my baby has been waking up later and later. Pretty soon, she'll be sleeping through the night, officially ending our co-sleeping period.

It is one of the most painful experiences a nursing mother has to endure.

Both literally and emotionally.




(PLUGGING: "Day 2: A Knight to Remember", the latest installment in the "ROYAL HOLIDAY" series on our Disneyland vacation at 87 GENTLE STREET.)

LIFE'S LITTLE REWARDS

I am basking in the fruits of my first harvest.

When you have children, the saying "You reap what you sow" takes on a lot more significance. Yesterday, I wrote this letter to Lance's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Ortega:

Dear Mrs. Ortega,
Last night, Lorenzo read his very first REAL book, Thomas the Tank Engine's "Catch Me Catch Me", to the rest of the family. I was so thrilled and proud. I just wanted to let you know and to thank you.
Sincerely, Renee Sereno

(Lance is known as Lorenzo in school. He is one of the youngest in his class, having just turned five last November.)

My husband and I buy books for our kids every chance we get. We also read to them regularly. Teachers now recommend that parents read to their children twenty minutes a day, as Rosemary Wells charmingly captures in her book...


READ TO YOUR BUNNY




Read to your bunny often,
It's twenty minutes of fun.
It's twenty minutes of moonlight,
And twenty minutes of sun.
Twenty old-favorite minutes,
Twenty minutes brand-new,
Read to your bunny often,
And...

Your bunny will read to you.

Twenty minutes is all it takes. And the pleasure you get in return is boundless.


(PLUGGING: "Day 2: A Knight to Remember", the latest installment in my "ROYAL HOLIDAY" series about our Disneyland vacation at 87 GENTLE STREET.)

SWEET NATURE




While driving through the backroads of Modesto, we saw the sun's rays scatter from underneath a bank of clouds. Lorenzo quickly pulled over so I could shoot this picture with his cell phone. Too bad we didn't have our digicam, which would've shown the rays to full advantage.

Soon we were back on our way. We love driving the long backroads around this time of year, seeing the fields in a riot of flowers under the tentative sunshine. These, to me, are a promise of, as well as a preamble to spring.

I love living in the Central Valley. There is a raw earthiness to it which I find very appealing. I find this quite surprising, since I have never picked up a gardening tool in my life due to my deathly fear of earthworms. I am one of those people who choose to love Nature from afar. I develop hives at the mere mention of grass and topsoil.

This is why I love Modesto. Once I've met my tolerance quota of strawberry fields and dairy farms, I can retreat safely to my little patch of paved suburbia, mere minutes away.

But I digress from my story. On THAT day when the sun shone so awesomely beautiful that we felt God's presence, we also passed a dairy farm on the side of the road. It didn't take long before THIS was heard from the back seat:

TROY: Look, Daddy, a spotty cow!

(Holstein cows are known as "spotty cows" in our family because they share the same black and white coloring as our pit bull, Spot.)




I was wondering why Lance was quiet. He usually beats his little brother to the draw when it comes to spotting spotty cows. I guess my son was deep in thought. Sure enough, after a few seconds of silence, we heard a curious voice coming from behind us:

LANCE: Daddy, when cows play in the snow, does their milk turn to ice cream?

Lord, please let my kids retain the sweet innocence of youth long after their peers start listening to rap music and badgering their parents for Game Boys.

Amen.


(PLUGGING: "Day 2: A Knight to Remember", the latest in the "ROYAL HOLIDAY" series on our Disneyland vacation at 87 GENTLE STREET.)

WEEKEND BLISS

What's better than sleeping in on a Saturday?

Sleeping in and waking up to your husband's voice, amplified via Magic Mic, serenading you from the family room with your favorite songs.

What's better than sleeping in on a Saturday and waking up to a serenade?

Sleeping in on a Saturday, waking up to a serenade, and coming down to THIS



...waiting for you on the stove, courtesy of the same man singing in front of you.

It doesn't get much better than that.


(PLUGGING: "Day 2: A Knight To Remember", the latest in the ROYAL HOLIDAY series on our Disneyland vacation at 87 GENTLE STREET. Yes. An update. Finally.)

MY FUNNY VALENTINE




Lance, my five year old, made a killing in Valentines this year.

My personal favorite was the handmade one he got from Mommy and Daddy, with a special note just for him, read aloud in class by his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Ortega.

Looking through all the Valentines he brought home however, I must say that my son's offerings stood out from all the others. Ever the nonconformist, Lance handed out little red origami boxes instead of hearts.

And instead of chocolates covered in red foil, they contained plain salt water taffy, their wide array of colors showing through their plain wax paper wrapping.

He came home with an extra couple of these, which he generously offered to Troy. He also shared the rest of his Valentine's candy with his little brother, but there was one Valentine which he kept to himself, the one given to him by his "girl friend", Nathalie.

See, Nathalie, unlike the other girls in their class, gave out tattoos this year instead of candy.

I can see a real future between those two.

TO THE MAN I LOVE




Today is our eighth Valentine's together, yet the feeling is stronger than ever.

Thanks to you, and the love notes you leave in the most unexpected places, and the little love offerings waiting for me when I come down in the morning.



(Only YOU can make apples and vienna sausages seem so romantic.)

If we were still in our love nest in Malate, we'd probably be dressing up for dinner at the Champagne Room, followed by music at a lounge somewhere, finally capped with coffee at our favorite table in Cafe Adriatico. And then we'd head back home and watch the sunrise from our balcony, with its 270 degree views of Manila Bay and the Makati and Ortigas skylines.

At least that's what we did when THIS picture was taken...




Instead I am now at our kitchen in Modesto, helping Lance make homemade Valentines for his kindergarten classmates, after eating the delicious breakfast you cooked (which, by the way, put my cinnamon rolls to shame).

Troy runs to me every commercial break with a hug and an "I love you", at the behest of Moose A. Moose, and Reanna is beaming at me from her swing, flashing what I imagine to be a self-satisfied smile after she said "MOM" for the first time while I was feeding her breakfast.

Since we got your phone call telling us we're eating out tonight, Lance has requested spaghetti while Troy declared he preferred hotdogs. Reanna doesn't really have a preference (as long as we don't forget her baby cereal), while I am personally leaning towards our favorite Thai place downtown.

We now wait for you to come home for arbitration. In the meantime, there's the business of picking up the van from the shop and taking the kids to gym class.

Yes, this is our life now, and I couldn't be happier with the way things turned out.

But I would still like to thank you for keeping the spark alive everyday, with your TagBoard "I love you"'s, your morning greetings to EACH of us waiting in our voice mail, and the hugs and kisses I've come to expect when you walk into the house at night, not caring that I smell like dinner.

Indeed, after eight years and three beautiful kids together...



You still make me feel like a giddy school girl.




Happy Valentine's Day, my love.

SPIDERMAN SIGHTED IN MODESTO!




This just in. The Amazing Spiderman of "Where In The World Is Spiderman?" fame was recently spotted doing the rounds in Modesto and nearby Ceres, CA.

Okay, so the suction cups were a dead giveaway. This isn't the famous Spidey, BATJAY's traveling companion, sidekick and photography model extraordinaire. It's really my sons' bath toy, which someone playfully mounted on the framed print in our children's bathroom.

Which isn't to say that the REAL Spiderman is not lurking around somewhere. After all, BATJAY and BATJET are in town. Here they are with the kids.




These pictures were taken last night at my brother-in-law, Simon's house in nearby Ceres, CA. Simon is LORENZO's older brother, and is closer in age to Jay, who happens to be their first cousin. All men share the same lung capacity, booming voices and zany sense of humor. And of course, that famous Sereno singkit smile...




Jay and Jet have seen Lance and Troy before, but this was the first time they met Reanna. Of course, Lorenzo the doting Dad couldn't wait to show her off.




Jay also happens to be Reanna's ninong, or at least he will be when Reanna is dedicated to the Lord sometime in April. Jay and Jet lost no time in getting to know their new inaanak. Jay was wary of touching her at first, since he was feeling a bit under the weather, but Jet and Reanna bonded immediately.




My baby even fell asleep nestled in her Auntie Jet's arms. Based on this picture, she wasn't the only one overcome by Jet's soothing presence.




Soon everyone else flocked to the couch, some genuinely sleepy, some just hamming it up. But there was one thing we all had in common...




A lovely time spent in the company of family.


(PLUGGING: "Day 1: Flight of the Bumblebees", the next installment in the "ROYAL HOLIDAY" series on our Disneyland vacation at 87 GENTLE STREET, with additional pictures in my photoblog, BRAG BOOK.)