Britney and Ate Mercy

Meet Britney. She is Rama's current BFF. Britney is also a mutt - half-Canadian, half-Bisaya. Rama and Britney are classmates in Senior Kindergarten; afternoons, they spend more time together at Britney's house. They play dress-up - Britney has a trunk-full of costumes - Princess dresses, feather boas, shades, gloves, glass slippers, the works. Or they just tear the house to bits with puzzles and toys all strewn about - they love it.

Britney talks funny ("makamownee" = macaroni). For a while, she wanted so badly to speak Tagalog, hearing Rama and me converse. The most I managed to teach her was "Kamusta." She tries to copy the sounds and says "Kana! Kana!" - her one-size-fits-all expression. Whether she's pleased, or looking for something, or upset. It's always "Kana! Kana!" I guess she just figures that it's as Tagalog as she can sound. Britney has the most well-developed 5-year old calves that I have ever seen. Because she has motion sickness, she hardly takes the bus or streetcar. She walks everywhere with her mom, as far as 5k sometimes.

Ate Mercy, Britney's mom, looks after the girls.

Ate Mercy. She was too shy to have her pic taken. But she is a sweetheart. The first time that we met, she shared that she met her wonderful husband via Love Connection. I didn't get it at first, then I realized it was an online match-making service.
Some evenings, I don't even have to cook dinner - Ate Mercy will pack some food for me to take home - pancit, sinigang, ginataan, banana cake. Ate Mercy has come through for me countless times - she will do emergency shopping for me, like during the first snowfall and Rama was wearing the wrong shoes, wrong jacket, wrong everything. Thanks to Ate Mercy, Rama was winterized by lunchtime - outfitted with snow boots, snow pants, and all the fleece she'll ever need!

Ate Mercy, typically Pinoy, is doting and protective. She always fusses and worries about her wards. It tires me out just to watch her. Especially in the playground. When I'm not around, Rama is not even allowed to go on the monkey-bar ("It's not safe, only when your mommy is here," she would tell Rama). That's her style - "Ako, madami talagang bawal sa mga bulilit ko. As much as possible, ayoko silang masyado maglaro ng rough. Si Cody (her eldest boy, 11 yo), 9 broken bones na yan!" Of course, I had to stop myself from saying right then - if Cody has had 9 broken bones, something isn't working, Ate....

But it's all good. Rama and I humor her. She freaks out when she sees Rama and me doing "dangerous" flips and tumbles.