Sweet Life With Mary

(To get myself disciplined in updating this blog regularly, I am choosing to join Nablopomo for this month. Nablopomo stands for National Blog Posting Month where bloggers are challenged to post everyday in November. Eden, the blogger who started the group, had recently initiated, for people who do not want to wait till [...]

A couple of mornings last week, I was out early in the morning and Jack had to get Mary ready for and take her to school.  After the first time, I asked Mary how the morning went and she bitterly complained that Dad made her eat eggs and she did not like them. 
(Jack and I [...]

No, not Mary’s.
(Though, technically and biologically, Mary is my first baby.)
I mean, my little sister, Val.  It’s her birthday today.  Happy Birthday, sis!
I was almost 13 when Val was born.  We had gone back to school after the holidays and as my uncle came to get us from school, he mentioned that my Mom had gone to [...]

The on-going Advent Treasure Hunt that I had devised for Mary to enjoy this holiday season is yielding one very rewarding find FOR ME— Mary’s ever-improving reading skill.
Mary is not one of those very early readers (y’know, like that Hooked on Phonics commercial where a little boy who “just turned 4″ is reading out loud from a [...]

Jack went to visit his mom and sister in Iowa last week and when he was getting ready to return, he asked me what I would like for pasalubong? Good hubby, knows exactly what to say to his Pinay wife.
Then, he asks, “What is MY pasalubong?”
“No, that’s not what the word means in Tagalog— YOU are supposed to [...]

Mary is so excited about Halloween.  She has been counting the days until Wednesday when she gets to dress up in her witch’s costume and wear it to school as well for trick-or-treating out at the Pearl Street Mall and around our neighborhood.
I remember getting excited around this time of the year when I was [...]

On the Occasion of My Ate’s Birthday
Ate - two syllables - “A”- pronounced as in apple. - “ah’-te” means “Eldest Sister.” 
Much of the close family relations that Filipinos have are said to have been inherited from the Chinese.  Certainly, the name affiliations we use are derived from the Chinese, not sure which dialect- Mandarin or [...]

How an Edward Jones representative had me waxing poetic (and nostalgic) about Philippine street snacks
As I was coming back from my Walk/Jog yesterday morning, this guy was also walking up to my driveway. He was dressed in a nice suit, good-looking so I did not feel threatened when he came up to me.  He introduced himself, [...]

 (Happened on September 24th.)
As part of purposely enjoying my unemployed days, I walk Mary to Kindergarten.  The school is about a mile away and we leave at 8:00 am for a class start at 8:40 am.  This way we do not hurry and Mary also gets some playtime at the school playground.  We take Mary’s [...]

I had no concept of playdates.  This is quite foreign to me.  It is not something that I was able to glean from books, movies or TV shows as part of an American childhood. 
It was the same as my discovering that the best translation of sundo is “ride”.  Back in my elementary days, there was [...]