Lola, 96

My Lola, Placida Perez, died last May 16, 2008.

Her wonderful heart finally failed her. She would have been 97 years old on October.

She is my Tatay’s mother. She had 8 children and she outlived not only Lolo but also 5 of her children.

She has been sick since 2 weeks ago, I facilitated her transfer from Ospital ng Makati to PGH so that I can monitor her better. She has been fighting pneumonia and winning, but her heart just gave in.

I and the other apos and in-laws were tasked to oversee the funeral services because all of the anaks are abroad at present - my Tatay is in Canada, my Tita Madre is in New York and my Tito Nonong is in Chicago. So we are facing the prospect of a long wake because we have to wait for the 3 to arrive. The wake is at our home in Makati.

She is Lola Payat to me when I was a kid, to differentiate her with my Nanay’s mother who was Lola Taba. I grew up with her in Makati. She and Lolo raised me when I was a toddler because Nanay and Tatay were both working so they would leave me in Lolo’s house. They spoiled me a lot. I remember that they would always ask me what I would want to eat, and that will be the meal for the day (during that time, I would always request fried bangus - everyday!). I remember they would also take turns in giving me bath. I still do what Lola would always do to me when the water is too cold for bath, sprinkle little amount of the cold water all over my body so that it would acclimatize with the coldness and not immediately be dosed with the whole cool water.

They would boast me to all their neighbors, telling them to look and marvel at their cute apo. We live near a market, so just try to imagine how many people are passing-by our home everyday, and they would extol these people to look and marvel at me.

She is also makulit, she would always insist what she wants. One funny memory I can’t forget is when we were visiting Tito Toto in their house in Pateros. During the 70’s, to reach that house, we have to cross a wide rice field walking over elevated wooden planks approximately 500 meters long and winding thru the field. Lola was so adamant that the wooden planks were not secure to walk upon that she crawled on all fours! Imagine an old lady crawling over a ricefield in the middle of the day. Even in her latter years, if she is in a mall, she would not ride an escalator. She thinks they are dangerous.

Tita Madre wrote to me in one of her emails that the tables are turned that I now took care of Lola in her most difficult time, and she was thankful that I was giving Lola the best attention I can have. For me, it’s the least thing I can do.

I will surely miss her. My only regret is that I failed to show Enzo to her when she was still alive. Very big mistake in my part.

She is quite a lady and she has been a big part of what I am today.

Thank you Lola!

Zia at 3 years old

My baby girl Zia is 3 years old!

We went to The Fun Ranch in Alabang. Judith, me, Zia, Enzo, and the 2 yayas Jen and Kris all had fun in the play area. Even though Zia and Enzo are still recuperating from a viral respiratory infection, they had fun running, playing, tumbling, sliding through the giant play area for almost 2 hours. We also had our dinner there.

Funny how fast time flies. I can still vividly remember when Judith was giving birth to her, the first time she cried, her first smile, her first crawl, her baptism, her first word, her early steps.

At present, she is still as cute as ever but with few quirks. As mentioned from my previous blog, she has some difficulty expressing some sentiments, so tantrums are part of her daily activities. If her “routines” are not followed, she would resort to crying, shouting, arm stomping, punching until she calms down.

Some of her quirks:
- she should be the one who will remove the cover of her feeding bottle, if somebody else does it, tantrums will ensue
- she would endlessly climb the top of each couch, terrifying all people who will see her that she might fall any minute
- she doesn’t want to watch the credits after shows, if she sees the names scrolling down, she would cover her eyes and begin to cry
- if Enzo is being given something that she also likes, she would try to insinuate herself



Although these quirks would stress me and Judith, she would rectify herself by doing these:
- upon my or Judith’s arrival at home, a ready smile from her will be surely received (on my part, starting once I honk the car’s horn, I would surely see her peeping from the window to see me going inside the driveway - everytime!)
- kissing Enzo if she’s nanggigigil with him
- by reciting the words of books previously read to her (her memory is quite amazing)
- by singing her favorite tunes (from her baby Einstein videos, from TV commercials)
- by pulling my hand when she wants to go up in the bedroom, so that I accompany her going up the stairs and counting all the steps at night



Me and Judith are still hoping that her language delay is just a minor bump, and eventually she would be at par with her age group with regards to language.

Zia's Development

Last Tuesday, May 13, Judith and I accompanied Zia to a Developmental Pediatrician in Medical City. She is Dr. Jackie Navarro, referred by our pediatrician friend Dr. Ces Alinea.

Zia can speak words but we still think that she is not at par with her age group in terms of language development. Her tantrums are quite increasing maybe because she cannot express what she wants to convey.

So off we went to Medical City, I and Judith have to scrap our usual schedules to be able to visit Dr. Navarro. Developmental Pediatricians usually have long queues for appointments so when we were informed by her secretary that an opening is there, we took it immediately.

Zia is horrified in riding elevators. She would cry endlessly, would scream and would struggle inside the elevator until the ride would finish. When we parked our car in the basement, we had no choice but to ride a short 3-level elevator ride going up to the hospital lobby. As expected, struggle galore ensued. When we alighted, there was still a nine storey elevator trip going to the clinic. So being diligent and understanding parents, we took the stairs going up. PGH's highest floor is 8th, so I went up to a level even higher than PGH while carrying a sobbing Zia. Pogi points for me and Judith as parents. Of course, upon reaching the ninth floor, both of us were already dead tired.

Anyway, Dr. Navarro was very thorough with her evaluation with Zia. She performed a test called Griffith Developmental Test. It is a series of tests wherein the child does simple tasks, identifying various objects, shapes, colors, sizes. The test is quite extensive, almost an hour. Judith, after the test, told me that she was quite anxious while Zia was doing the test. Parang gusto niyang i-cheer si Zia na "Kaya mo yan , anak! Tinuro ko sa yo yan kanina!" I was quite impressed with Zia. She answered all questions, no tantrums. Even if she did not know the answer to some questions, she would still try to answer, sometimes just murmuring words.

The test revealed Zia has a borderline language developmental delay. For her present age of 3 years, her language development is at 2 years and 2 month stage. Good news is that she has no autism. Dr. Navarro's advise is to enroll her to a speech therapist, a hearing test, and more stimulation at home.

Of course, before going home, we have to do the compulsory visit to Jollibee. She adores that bee. And of course, anything that she likes, we tend to give. Hay...

Enzo Kalbo

Enzo had his first haircut 2 days ago. Weather here in Manila is extremely hot, and Enzo is the pawisin type. So me and Judith decided that the hair should go for the meantime. He was not magulo during the haircut, just watched the video while the barber was doing his stuff. After a few minutes, it was done. Sayang, di ko naisip na mai mohawk ala Chuck Liddell, sige next time na lang.



This was also the place where Zia had her first hair cut, its in SM SouthMall.




Parang bumait nga siya pagkatapos magupitan. Ang haba pala ng ulo ng anak ko.

Enzo at 1

My son Enzo is also growing fast. Since his 1st birthday, his growth is exponential. His walk has improved a lot, he walks quite fast compared to Zia, although Zia walked much earlier compared to his age now. He can utter simple words like "papa" and would usually mimic his Ate Zia. He is also papansin. He gets jealous if the attention is all with his Ate Zia, so he will also join the commotion, whatever it is just to be included. He also has fixation with computers, everytime I am using my laptop or even the desktop computers, he would go near me and would make gestures so that he would see the monitor. Of course, that's the end of my computer work.

The 2 pictures below were taken when Enzo went to Tagaytay with Tatay, Tita Madre and Tito Nonong (seen here carrying Enzo)




Zia and Enzo usually play inside the lawn in our house every afternoon. Zia usually runs around and water the plants, Enzo just follows his sister, or annoys Bambam constantly. Seen here is his tricycle, a gift from one of my friend, Egay in Paco.



When Zia plays with her toys, Enzo usually would also try to play with the same toys, even if there are other toys around, which annoys Zia to the max. Zia would usually nudge him away, this would result to Enzo crying (with no tears) since he doesn't like to be nudged away. He would sumbong to Ate Jen or Judith and will make paawa so as to be able to play with Zia. If Jen and Judith are not around, Enzo would just bully away himself to be able to play with the toys of Zia. This would make Zia crazy and she would shout, scatter and throw the toys around the house na lang so that nobody can play with them anymore. Hay...

How can you not adore these lovely kids?

Ilocos

I was in Ilocos last March 16-18 as part of the Tatak PGH Plus contingency. Tatak PGH Plus is a project of PGH, the Department of Health and selected local or regional hospitals wherein PGH personnel train capacity-building to the personnel of these local hospitals and promote true hospital networking.

Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital in Batac, Ilocos Norte was selected as one of the key hospitals in the north and my boss, PGH Director Carmelo Alfiler tapped me to give lectures in ophthalmology, computerization and informatics. There were 6 of us from PGH who went there, aside from myself and the director, the liaison of DOH for this project Dr. Paz Corrales, the head of PGH medical records Ms. Lacambacal, and 2 nurses Ms. Mangaser and Ms Salve. We were billeted in Paoay (Casa Dona Emilia Hotel), and we had our lectures in MMMH in Batac.

It was the first time I visited Batac and Paoay. Both towns are beautiful, no traffic, not many people loitering around, people are friendly. Our hotel was located near the age old Paoay Church (St. Augustine) so I brought my iPhone along and took some pictures.

We were also able to visit the tomb of former President Marcos in Batac and the Malacanang of the North in Paoay. Ilocos is indeed Marcos country.

The food was great as well. The famous bagnet was served to us at least 3 times. Its a local preparation of fried pork which is very yummy. Tried the pakbet, their empanada, their pancit miki and the longganisa. We were given pasalubong pa with these food. I enjoyed the trip and met new friends.

I was able to see old friends who are now based there, RJ in Cebu Pacific is a neighbor in Las Pinas, he helped us in our booking, Amelen - a Med School classmate and Nicolo - a brod practicing in Vigan.

Maybe the next time I'll be back there, I'll go to the famous Pagudpud beach and visit Fort Ilocandia, or visit the sand dunes of Currimao.

Jala-jala

The whole Perez family had its summer outing in Jalajala, Rizal. Tatay arranged with the Maryknoll sisters the place. It is owned and managed by the sisters. The place although quite far, is very beautiful. The place is overlooking Laguna de Bay. Food was delicious courtesy of the caretakers of the place.

My family, Jing's family, Jojo's family and Tatay & Nanay were all there.


Ogie and Regine...


As usual, Zia enjoyed the waters of the pool. Kahit ginaw na ginaw na siya, tingnan nyo...


Enzo was just recovering from tonsilitis, but when we reached the place, parang di nanggaling sa sakit, takbo na agad ng takbo. Take note of the background view.


There were 2 pools, obviously this was the kiddie pool...


We all enjoyed the place. We even had karaoke singing during the night. Matagal na rin naming di nakasama sina Tatay sa outing kaya sulit naman. Nung pauwi na kami, yun naman yung laban ni Pacquiao kay Marquez. Nauna na kaming umalis dahil may flight pa ako papuntang Laoag. Nag-road trip pa kami, kasi nung papunta sa Antipolo route (north) kami nagdaan. Nung pauwi, sa Laguna naman (south) kami nagdaan. So in essence, nalibot namin yung buong perimeter ng Laguna de Bay. Medyo nasasanay na rin sina Zia at Enzo sa long trips, di na masyado nahirapan si Judith sa sasakyan.