The day I thought Dad got it

Shall we start with a spoiler? OK!


My little (let's get back to 'little' in a while) sister Mia is pregnant with her first child!!!


WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!


When she found out, she told me and older sister Apple first through Viber. Then we thought it would be a good idea for Mia (who lives in the US) to videochat with my parents the next day to tell them the good news so she could see their reactions. We planned it so Mia would call early Saturday morning, while Dad, Ma and I were at the tennis court.

On the morning of the call, everything was going according to plan: I had Mia on the phone and there were no other people on the court. Clear video, check. Relative silence, check. Parents' full attention, check.

So I showed my parents that Mia was trying to tell them something. And they focused intently on my phone's screen.

Then Mia held up her pregnancy test stick.

(Not the actual stick with my sister's pee on it)

And my parents looked even closer. And squinted. What is that, they whispered. And were quiet for what seemed to me like a very long time.

Then I saw Dad's face slowly light up.

This is it, I thought. Someone finally got it. I got ready to celebrate with them. And I heard my Dad shout happily, excitedly:


"YOU HAVE A FEVER?!"


HAAAAAAhahahahahahaha. Kill the fatted calf because my daughter has an infection!!! Hahahahahahahahaha x 500,000.


Anticlimactically, I had to tell them the news in a clear sentence, and we all screamed in delight. Lame ending, I know.

But Mia is pregnant!!! (Just in case you missed it.)

:)


[Update: The fever anecdote happened a very, very long time ago but I was warned not to blog about it early in the pregnancy. The baby is actually about 24 weeks along now. Little sister is not so little anymore, parents are super excited to have another grandchild and, thankfully, no one at this moment has a fever.]

Because Apple is the new Mama

On the very first day of 2015, I had breakfast with older sister Apple and her family at my place. As it was turning out to be a lazy day, and no one seemed to want to go home yet, 8-year-old Martina suggested that we try out their new card game of Scrabble Dash.

Photo included here for your gaming knowledge

So everyone pretended to have acute-onset hearing loss. (I did say it was a lazy day.)

After a few more pleas from Martina, we all finally succumbed. Fine. Brain games. Whatever.

Scrabble Dash turned out to be a F - U - N game, which probably explains the box design. And by 'fun', I mean it brought out the shrieky competitiveness in us. Which is more than I can say for the Game of Life, which we played begrudgingly on New Year's Eve. (And PS, I have enough trouble with real life. Don't let me deal with life, in card form or otherwise, any more than I have to.)

No FUN on the cover ... or while playing

Towards the end, most of us (Martina, Tatay Jesse and me) were standing and shouting, one of us (Juancho) was writhing in laughter-aggravated back pain, and the rest (Apple) was ... well ....

In a nutshell, you play Scrabble Dash by laying down words as fast as you can based on an instruction card. So if the card said 'Proper noun', you can put B - E - Y - O - N - C - E on the table. Simple.

In one round, the instruction card said 'Three-letter word'.

So Jesse immediately put down three cards:

L - A - T

Me: What in the world is LAT?

Jesse (trying to demonstrate): Lat! Lat!!! Lat machine. You know, like at the gym.

Of course he was referring to something like this:

Me with a different race and body type. So, in effect, not me.

Me (without knowing what that machine is really called, but desperate to win): No way!!! 'Lat' is not accepted!

Apple: Lat??? No!!! And besides, that's spelled with a T - H.

Whaaahhaaaat?

What's a lath?

Presenting ...

... a lathe. With an 'e'. And a completely different pronunciation.
FYI, Apple.

And that's how my 2015 began: With a whole lath of laughs.

BOOM! (Season-appropriate ender)


--------------------
Update: So I was informed by more than one person that there is such a thing as a lath. My apologies for not researching enough. I would still like to point out that Jesse was not referring to either a lath or a lathe. As my loyal friend Marie told me when she read Apple's defense on Facebook: "Too lathe!" Hahahaha! 

A 'haha' in the middle of a 'huhu'

It was my most dreaded day. A day that I thought would be described as 'sad' at best, but turned out to be more like one endlessly, heartbreakingly painful ordeal.

It was the day Joemar died.

After his last breath on that sad 4th of September (and after I regained my sense of responsibility), I texted our close mutual friends and my sisters about what happened. My sisters and my parents, who all loved Joemar as well, were in the United States at the time. It was before 5 am in their part of the world.

Mia, our youngest and the New York resident, was first to read the message. She immediately burst into tears and tried to wake Apple, who was sleeping on the couch. Naturally, it was a futile effort, so Mia tried the other people in her home.

When she entered my parents' assigned bedroom, Dad was packing because it was their last day in Mia's apartment.

[This is an important fact: It was their last day in New York. Just had to emphasize it. You may proceed.]

Mia, while hysterically sobbing, hugged my hearing-impaired father [<--Another important fact] and told him the news about Joemar.

In response, my Dad tearfully said ...

"We'll miss you too, Mia."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAaaaaa ... *fade out*

So upon realizing that Dad thought she was crying over her family's departure, Mia went to Mama and explained what was going on. Third time's a charm.

And then they all cried.

:(

Ummm, I don't know how to give this story a happier ending, so here's a video of a baby bewildered by twins. You're welcome.

Mama in New York (Part 2)*

Mama, Dad and sister Apple watched Wicked for the first time in New York this year. To the surprise of no one, they all loved it – including my father, who admitted later on that he did not understand a thing.

So when they got back home, Apple tried to explain bits of the play to Dad (this, to me, was the real surprise: that Ate actually paid attention) (LOL).

[Warning: 'Wicked' spoilers ahead]

Apple, speaking to Dad: (paraphrased) Some characters in Wicked became characters in the Wizard of Oz. For example, Fiyero became the Scarecrow, and Boq became the Tin Man. And then we saw Dorothy on the yellow brick road ...

Mama, the person who allegedly understood the play: (not paraphrased) So what happened to Alice in Wonderland?

(I'll let that sink in for a bit.)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

My mother – defying both gravity and logic.

Elphaba became the Mad Hatter

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*You can read Part 1 here.

Mama in New York (Part 1)

Mama, Dad and older sister Apple were in New York in September to visit younger sister Mia. It was also US Open season so they were able to see a couple of games, much to my tennis-loving parents' happiness (Just an FYI: Apple couldn't care less about tennis, but she had nowhere else to go anyway. #shouldvebeenme).

One time, while just chilling in Mia's place, they caught one of Serena's matches on TV. You'll need to know that at the US Open this year, Ms Williams (who eventually won the slam) was wearing this:

Or sometimes this:

OK then.

So this is the conversation that followed after my mother, who was a teacher for most of her adult life, saw Serena for the first time:

Mama: Wow, tiger outfit!

Apple: Wrong animal, Ma. Try again.

Mama: Oh yeah ... I meant

...

LION.

L to R: Lion, Tiger (Not in photo: Serena's outfit)
You're welcome, Mama.