Rama as Melanie Marquez

Rama was complaining that I was taking too much time before I played with her:

Rama: Mommy, it's taking you a long, long time ago!

Slush

The snow from last weekend's storm melted. And walking around our neighborhood, the grass was out again.

Rama: Great to see you back, grass!

A few more paces...

Rama: Great to see you back, putek!

Xmas Story 1

Ok. How can I not love her? She wrote up a list for Santa, where the #2 item was "Salad. For my mom."

Her #1 item was just some toy eggs. Which I already got for her. I'm grateful this one was easy. Unlike the decapitated Barbie head she asked for last year.

Yes, It is the Biggest Bowel Movement of a Woman's Life

Rama now likes to hear stories of how she was born and what she was like as a baby. She likes the blow-by-blow of how many times I screamed, but it was all generally easy. In contrast, her cousin had to be pulled out with forceps. So birthing is currently top-of-mind for her.

Rama: I need to poo. Uhm, Mommy, pag nanganganak ba, parang nag-poo-poo rin?

Saturday Round-up

We are on our way to my office for the annual kids' party. Here, we are just outside our building waiting for our ride. It's going to be great: Santa will be there!
When we get there, the escalator to the venue is not working. It wasn't broken,just an energy-conservation thing. Rama: I wish Santa will give them batteries so the escalator can work.

She made friends with Emily.

When the party broke up at around 2 pm, Emily bugged her mom, I want to go to Rama's house. So they went home for a while, got their bathing suits and came to our place. The girls had fun, whether it was with Rama's castle or at the pool. Rama was a most gracious host: Emily went home with her own crown and some candy. I was grateful for this spur-of-the-moment playdate - Rama had been asking me why no one ever visited us.

After Emily had gone home, we opened the gift that Rama got from the office christmas party. (I didn't think of waiting until Christmas for opening of gifts - we don't have a tree yet where gifts could sit and wait.) It was this Dancerella Set - instructional DVD, headset-microphone, and a numbered mat for practicing dance moves. The blurb: "Learn to move like your favorite popstar! ... Bella's 45-minute video and dance mat will teach you how easy it is to become a show-stopping superstar with easy to follow step-by-step instructions. Join Bella and friends as they show you all the hottest moves to wow audiences - big and small."

When it comes to dancing and rhythm, Rama took after me. We both suck. We WILL dance. With great energy and enthusiasm. But it's not pretty to look at. And we can't catch up with instructional videos. Five minutes into the video, she turns to me: Mommy, I can't handle it.