Sophia Clarisse is 14 today!

I woke up early today. 1st of March 2011. Helped her for school, with her two boxes of choc'late cakes.

It’s been 14 years. And I still have sweet imaginings of those small footsteps running around our house like a little pixie. That time when our house looked like a pre-school where every wall was covered with the color chart, the alphabet, the numbers 1 to 10, etc etc. Everything was General Patronage, we only play nursery songs or Mozart, and watch original Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and all of Disney’s Princesses, and Sesame Street, too for everyone’s entertainment including us, adults. We went strictly child friendly. Have one room solely for her toys, all safe, non-toxic, mainly plush, educational, interactives :). I started to grow her little library of kiddie books, art works, supplements. I hope I didn’t bore her with those choices (though I am sure now that I did :( ). I come home from CITEM, and personally hand wash her laundry only with white Perla soap. I don’t mix soiled baby clothes with ours. I have always been a weird peculiar mommy. At 41, I still am, I started young :). She never got any of those rashes on her tush, my mom and I got her 4 sets ( 12 each) of Bird’s Eye cloth diaper, which Lola Miles tidied up all lose ends to make her precious one comfortable and safe. I only used Pampers and Huggies alternately at night or when we shop or when we visit her pedia. She had a complete round of inoculations and boosters. Her pedia gave her first piercing. (Lola) Tita Marie gave her first hair cut. She was surrounded by branded, expensive kiddie furnitures, above all she was in the company of people who loved and cared with all might and sincerity. I had a nanny during her first two years only because I was thinking of a major adjustment at work. Lola Meding gladly lived with us to oversee the nanny. It was such a secured life for me and my little one.

I was kinda literal as a first time mom. As usual, I tried to read about how to raise babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers, graders, and now adolescents. Theories and practical “magics” from olden times can always come handy. My first 9 years, my own mother, and grandmother had been very helpful. Sometimes I dunno how I would have survived my green apple years as a young working mother without the two of them.

And survived we did. Raising her. From nursing to teething, from weaning to potty training, from her pedotontics to her developmental pediatrician, swimming class, piano lessons, ballet, her learning challenges, modifying our home to help her deal with ADHD, from traditional to Montessori schooling, camping, Sunday school, graduation, dances and school presentations.

I have seen it all. And seeing some more. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to play that role as mother to my daughter. I remember getting some accusations in the past, not much about how I was trying to raise her, but more about how my personal relationships intertwined with my parenting. So they say. I think they were wrong about that.

It’s been 14 years. Look at her.

"She scoots, she bikes, she skates, she does pirouette, she rides the roller coaster and all the stuff i already consider as extremely life threatening physical activities arrgghh, she camps, she sleeps over,she commutes and takes the streets on her own, she cooks, shes’s techy, she still tells me her secrets, and above all, she's so so not into boys! (at least not yet).

Mommy already excited about the up and coming years.

Meantime, she's 14 today. I gave her time-off from her tutorial classes. She will be having a little "cake" party in school later. Her father and i got her a new ITouch, fourth gen, 32 gig :) ... she is so adoring it!

Happy birthday Sophie!


♥♥♥ Some baby Sophie stuff ♥♥♥


Two pink lines, they say. I remember coming home at Julian Eymard for a family weekend gathering. I was so lazy, and groggy and sleepy all the time. I usually was playful with the boys. But nah, not that afternoon. Mama was already suspicious. The boys were playing innocently trying to get their Ate's attention. I was living with my boyfriend for almost 6 months, I called for cousz Jerome to goto the nearest pharmacy for something. Everyone went quiet. I went to the toilet silently. I came out to see each and everyone of them by the bathroom door :). And all I said was, "they were supposed to be pink and two. But these were purple (and two). My mother could not contain her joy. She embraced me and called my boyfriend right away. Who was doing some plumbing in the house, which noise and mess, I could not take. That figures. I went to back sleep with that sweet pretty smile smacked on my face.



I was not contented. I went to see my good friend Thelms at Gotamcoville. I prodded her to to accompany me to Madocs. She was hesitant. It was past 6 in the evening, no labs, no doctors, unless for emergency cases :(. I won over her. I told her about yesterday morning at Julian Eymard. I showed her the two lovely purple lines. I questioned the reliability of test packs those days. I am getting a frog test. She gave me that "Oh-my-God,-Irms,-are-you-really-pregnant-look?!" I paid double. Special lab test. I had the paper on my hand in just a few minutes. I told Thelms, it didn't say anything. Thelms disbelief, ayun o Irmz, naghuhumiyaw na POSITIVE!" After x no. of years of starving myself, Maymay and I piggin' out at Mcdo jusz across Madocs. 7th July 1996.


One of the many ultrasounds we took. The first one was for the gender. The next ones were biophysical. Then doppler's. My OB suspected that 80% of my mom's congenital was on me. On my 3rd trimester, Sophie had a heartbeat but no chest movement. I was optimistic. I still am.


3-1-97 12:16 pm Baby Girl of Merza, Irma Dr. Sese (her 1st pedia) Dr. M Lim (my Ob gyne) - - - - Sophie's hospital wrist tag.