DAY 231: November 19, 2010; FRIDAY

242 (and then some)
Days of "Strawberry Jam" without "J"

Dear Jam,

We got a text message from Daddy, letting us know that they will be in Finland for three days. *sigh* It's fun how he gets to travel around the world, isn't it? Someday, I would like you and I to travel as well. Around the world, if we are permitted.

Anyway, thanks to Antilo's subscription to magazines and catalogs in New Jersey, we get to feel that we are elsewhere. We also get to be a part of something else from somewhere else. In your case, you get to be oriented to new pictures and the words associated to them. Id est, "bad" for bag, which you told apart from shoes, you also learned the new word "eewin" for earring and spotted it as soon as we turned over to other pages, the word "up-up" for makeup as you saw that the brushes and makeup in the catalog looked like the ones we have. Thanks to MARK Avon catalog too, I get to leave you to it while I am doing my chores. When I came to check you once in a while, I would see you still immersed in viewing the catalog, muttering as you went. I had the chance to catch a line which may have meant that 'wearing lipstick entails going out of the house' or according to you "Mommy eestik buh-bye!"

Kitten, I cannot help it but I am patting my back about it anyhow. Here is another ergonomic innovation I have discovered today and this is to save power and gas utilization. So instead of slow cooking soup and heating yesterday's rice separately, I have decided to put them on top of each other. Applying the basic fact that each pot conducts heat well, thus the ease for distribution of the power. I am glad that because of this, it took only twenty minutes to cook the chicken and another five minutes on top of that to heat the soup and rice altogether. It also lessened the hassle for me to check on two different chores separately. Voila! Sumptuous lunch for you and me!

We went out earlier before work so that we can do a couple of things. We took a little tricycle ride where I allowed you to sit beside me, away from my lap and quite independently. You had a couple of minutes to get the feel of everything but I think it was the sensation of the plastic covering of the seat against your skin and the vibration from the motor shaking your innards that made you change your mind. You soon nudged me to get you back on my lap. I couldn't complain as I feel that to be a sweet gesture, knowing that though you are quite grown, you are still my precious baby. We took the cab to the DVD avenue to buy three titles for our movie night tonight! We bought (to my surprise but later on disappointment) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Shrek The Final Chapter the last of the Shrek installment, and The Nativity, of which production is unknown to me but as it was recommended to be theatrical for yours and my taste, we took it.

From there, we went to SAVEMORE Supermarket to buy important supplies for you and for our stores. Here's a picture of you going over the brochure they gave for free at the counter. You were quite the helper when we got home, you helped me place the supplies to their rightful places. We were lucky at the supermarket, Love, for having bought something off a grand, we had the opportunity to roll a ball over choices of free prizes. And there I was, inwardly hoping that we would get the green bag where we can put our grocery together to help lessen the hassle. Here! Here! Ask and ye shall be given, so God doeth sayeth!

But before we even got home, we took a little time more in Lapasan because Nohnong had almost forgotten to fetch us. Mamala was already fretting, afraid what might have happened, which was only because Nohnong fell asleep. He must have been tired from basketball so it was nothing to worry about albeit it was almost midnight. We had you to entertain us anyway with your dancing, with your smile, your posing, which finally became clear to me as Mamala explained. I asked her how these past couple of days you have been posing with your hands held up with fingers twisted to the camera. She said you were making the "peace" sign. Hahah! Oh! Rolling like Daddy, huh?
You were precious and you were a good girl the whole day. And every good little girl deserves a reward and for you, your first mini chocolate chip cookies! Not that you haven't tried chocolate chip cookies but these mini-sized variants are just the - cookie...? Heheh!

JAMovie: Shrek The Final Chapter (Image credits to copyright owner)
Now, I have to start with how (all caps to be clear about this) DISAPPOINTED I AM with the Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1 DVD that we bought. I knew there was something fishy about it, it was too good to be true in clear DVD and audible surround sound! So yes, we watched it for a while. You even relished the moment of me sobbing and gagging at my own tears as I went into a meltdown, seeing HEDWIG fall and die for protecting HARRY and HAGRID. You cried with me as you did the night we were having the cryfest over RAMONA and BEEZUS, sobbing and tripping on tears, hugging each other like it was the end of all the happiness in the world. Then as the tension was mounting, RON, HARRY and HERMIONE apparates from Bill and Fleur's wedding into modern day London, comes blackout and nil. Imagine my frustration!

So that's how SHREK came to be. And I am not disappointed to have it assuage me from being aggravated by that Harry Potter fib! That bluff! Pffft! Anyway. Perhaps, this sequel is the best in the Shrek installment yet, I think even better than the first because this is where everything comes in full circle! This is where Shrek realizes the significance of Fiona's love for him. Sorry, your mom could be such a sap. Yeah, I was crying again as you may have guessed. Go figure why as I explain. Shrek comes to a point in his life where he gets fed up with the everyday humdrum that has become his married life and having to father three and to be a friend of many as any ogre wouldn't be. He felt trapped and tired, becoming a sideshow attraction rather than being the ogre who used to draw fear from every villager. Enters Rumpelstiltskin who is popular in another fairytale, which you aren't supposed to hear until you're grown enough to understand why, who offers Shrek a magical contract that will grant him a day to be the old ogre that he loved himself to be. The consequence was, as any change is hardly detached from, and little to his knowing that everything he knew was no longer the same . All in all, he had to save the love of his life, his best friend and all of FAR FAR AWAY. Well, this goes without saying that we wouldn't know what we have until we lose them, so Shrek says and as the popular saying goes. For the most part, you enjoyed it because of Puss who became Puss in Flab from the original Puss in Boots. You kept screaming "MEEMEEN!" whenever he came up.

JAMantic of the Day:
The word "doon" must be something you picked up from Mamala or Papalo as they are wont to either speak Tagalog or Ivatan than Visayan. It's your best antic today because early in the morning, you ordered me "Doon! Ears!" telling me where I kept the earpick so I can get it and give your ears the digging you most delighted in! To note, we are all collectively worried that this pretend cough may just be serious. I hope not though.

Your MAYmah,