Birthday Party: The Guest List

So her birthday is coming up. And it looks like she's having some difficulty keeping to the number-of-guests rule. Whatever age you're turning is how many friends you can invite. Seems she has more than 7 friends now. And so the questioning begins.

Rama: Why is that rule like that?
Me: Because whatever your age is just how many guests you can handle at your party.
Rama: So when I was a baby, I handled only 1 person?

Well, Well, Well

On one of our walks, we noticed a manhole cover. It wasn't on a concrete path, but set apart. So Rama thought it was a well.

Rama: A well! Just like in Coraline!
Me: Yes! A lot of stories have wells. Coraline, Enchanted...

Rama: Also Sadako.

I was surprised and a little concerned that this was top of mind.

Missing Pilipinas, Again

Rama was really ill a couple of weeks back (cough, cold, fever, the works). She's better, fully recovered now. But that threw us off our routine for a while. Because of the illness, the meds and general discomfort during the night, mornings were extra-difficult - we were both groggy and slow. As a result, we often missed the bus. We missed her school bus a few times. And, a couple of times going home, she was slow and tired so we also missed our usual bus. Worse, we see it pulling away from our stop, we make a dash for it, and we would still miss it, much to my chagrin.

This morning, still sleepy in bed, perhaps dreading another panicked run to the bus stop, she mused:

Rama: Don't you wish we were in Pilipinas? There, you'll never miss the jeeps. They're slow.

Scents

Sunday was groceries and a haircut for Rama. One of our purchases was this "kikay" set of SmackersTM lip gloss ("ice creamies"), lip gloss ("ice creamies fresh strawberries") and lip frosting ("whipped cream"). They all smelled delicious. We were putting them all on and raving.

Me: Ooooh. Sarap nito. Amoy.... mamon! Ang sarap...
Rama: This one, bubble gum. No, it's cake!

Yummy yummy. On and on.

By the way, it also came with the bright pink nail polish.

Me: Yan, ano amoy?
Rama (deadpan): Amoy gas.

Random Musing: Sick Pet Fish

Not sure really how this discussion came about. We were just talking about animals and what would make good pets.

Rama: Fish. Hard when they get sick. You can't find out. You can't put the thermometer in their mouth. And, they don't have kili-kili.

A Gaiman Saturday

We're pumped about seeing Coraline (in 3D!) later today. We viewed the trailer online and poked around the movie's official site. Hence, the button eyes above.

Bummer

Rama: Mommy, what do you want me to draw?

We've drawn princesses, meals, food, furniture... So I thought I would spice it up a bit.

Me: Can you draw my butt?

Rama comes back with this:


This was more flattering than the actual thing; I inherited my mother's wide, ample hips. So I checked with Rama how she really perceived my backside.

Me: Uy! Ganyan ba kapayat?
Rama: Hindi lang kasya sa paper.

Rama Realizes Something

Rama: You're the best mommy ever! Uhm, it's not like I have a choice, right?

Scents of Pilipinas

Rama catches a whiff of barbecue on the trip home.

Rama: Do you smell that? Doesn't it remind you of the hot place?
Me: What hot place?
Rama: The hot place with a park. It's the same smell.

She meant Salcedo Market. She would always be too hot there and we would just cool down with a smoothie. Never realized the barbecue smell registered.

So what else is there in the hot place?

Rama: Food. Smoothies. Loud people. It's just like where Jasmine visited, the marketplace.