Extremely fast forward

I started with the best of intentions, but work and life got in the way. Right after I got this blog going, so did so many other items on my "things to do" list. Here's a sampler at work: be OIC for my Japan-based manager who went on her scheduled two-month sabbatical; supervise a party and concert for 5,000 employees celebrating our company's 10th year anniversary in Cavite; present in a global face-to-face of all company communicators in Oregon; do communications work and travel for a very confidential (at the time) mergers and acquisitions deal between my company and a European company. Other events included one employee resigning, another going on extended medical leave, and yet another on maternity leave; stakeholders knocking for communication support in various ways and means.

In the meantime, my 11 month old celebrated his first birthday (sans a kiddie party because Mama was on her way to the US, may he forgive me when he grows up and reads this), grew an almost complete set of precious, beautiful teeth, grew long straight hair (which his Tatay cut it off before he looked way too hippie), and transitioned from infant to toddler category.

It's true what they say about the most precious moment in life being with your family and the ones you love. In the two most intense months that I was so busy attending global meetings and travelling, I missed out huge on Dino's physical growth and our quality time together. While I did good work and got a personal email from our CEO no less, years from now, all that good work would have been gone and forgotten, but my lost time with Dino is something that I can't help but regret.

Super fast forward: as early as now, October, I'm checking out potential venues for Dino's second birthday party in April next year, looking at storytellers to hire, and planning trips to Rue de Div (as my old friend Mitch loves to call Divisoria) for party stuff. I console myself that he will enjoy a party more on his second year since he can run around and interact with other kids. Sigh. I feel like wearing a shirt that says "Guilty-working-mom-working-on-major-comeback-for-child: Beware!"

Why blog?

My friend Lu-ann's blog (layas) gave me the idea to start one -- well, two -- of my own blogs: this one on Dino, and another on Donat's poems and other works-in-progress.

Donat's blog was easy. All I had to do was the lay-out, encoding of his award-winning poems and posting of updates on his recent forays into sculpture. But this blog made me rethink several times. On one hand, it just seemed too personal, even if I do need to keep in touch with lots of friends and relatives who would be interested on how we've been doing as parents, and what new learning Dino is into. Also, since I've been sending out links to yahoo with Dino's new photos every other month, I thought I may as well organize my updates and keep them somewhere, and a blog seemed the perfect venue to do that.

And yet, Donat keeps teasing me that a blog was really just an online slumbook: remember those in high school where you put in personal stuff like your favorite color, favorite quote, definition of love (what is love?), and circumstances involving your current crush (how did you met?). Frankly, I did amass quite a number of those slumbooks, but only because I had lots of friends who wanted to fill them and update them when a new crush comes along. I remember it was fun and exciting because there was the constant challenge to find a hiding place away from the prying eyes of adults and other kids. It also seemed a privilege to be the keeper of so many shared secrets.

Years later, we're all grown up, and the secret crushes have either been forgotten or revealed in jest. I guess what remains are the fond memories of sharing things that mattered to us most at the time.

So then, back to why have this blog at all? If to blog is to share and keep in touch with faraway friends, then slumbook, or not, I guess I can give it a try.

Introducing Sandino

Sandino Marcelo was born on April 27, 2006. I was scheduled for a caesarian section on May 2, but my blood pressure kept rising sometime April 25 so Donat and I decided to leave Tagaytay and check in early at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Quezon City. It turned out to be a good thing too, since the ultrasound showed the umbilical cord looped around the baby's neck. My OB-Gyne Dra. Melen Araos, found out later that the cord was actually looped not once, but twice around his neck. She decided to cut the cord first before taking the baby out, to reduce the danger of choking him. The moment she clamped on the cord, the baby gave a piercing cry. This is how Sandino made his presence known to us, even while still encased inside my womb.

I was completely unconscious throughout the operation, and was hardly able to open my eyes when they told me it was over and that the baby was fine. "What's his APGAR score?" was the only thing I could think of. APGAR is a simple scoring system which immediately assesses a newborn's health according to appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration. Scores range from zero to 10, which means the higher the score, the better the baby's health. "He's a 9.9," I heard someone vaguely say, before I drifted back to sleep again.