Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Can't Fight This Feeling: The song of my life

Back to the 80s. That's my mood last weekend. I actually wanted to do a full post on My Top 10 Favorite 80s Songs (The Search is Over, Right Here Waiting, Bizarre Love Triangle, Always on My Mind, In My Dreams!!!) but I realized I liked waaaay too many songs from that period. It's an impossible task! They don't write songs like those anymore. Lyrics are very important to me. I'm a writer. I really pay attention to the words and the 80s was the best decade for music and lyrics.

REO Speedwagon's Can't Fight This Feeling is the song I sing to my baby Iñigo. It's a funny lullaby, sure, but that was what worked when I was desperately snatching songs from my memory one nap time. It's one of my most favorite songs. It's also the story of my life.

I've always run away from commitment. I never wanted to get married. Never wanted to have kids. Ask all my friends—they always initiated the friendship; I'm never the one to say hi first. I always need to be convinced that I want friends and I want love. I'm so glad and grateful that Vince and my friends and my sons prove to me every day how wrong I am to be so afraid.



Thank you so much for being the candle in the window. I'm finally finally home.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Signatures of love

Dear Johnson's Baby, after watching your new TVC, I want my babies to star in your commercials!


I really adore Johnson's Baby's new commercial called Signatures of Love (click here to view it!). I keep clicking on the replay button because it's that cute. Especially when I see the baby's eyes light up during his bath and tickle time of the toddler! I see my own children and how wonderful it is to have kids. Who'd have thunk it? The girl who never wanted to have kids going all gooey over a cute video.

That's because whenever I see babies and kids laughing with their parents, playing with their mom or dad, jumping into their arms, sharing a knowing look or smile, I know I am witness to a deep and endless love. Even more wonderfully, I have that same love because I have my own kiddies!

I've always believed that love is a verb. You can't possibly love someone without doing something about it. You can't love someone if no action preceded that commitment. I confess that I fell in love with my babies a few weeks after I gave birth to them. Of course I loved them even while they were in my tummy but I think I loved the idea of them. Love demands action and the action involved holding them in my arms for hours at a time, suffering through the sleepless nights, comforting them through their screaming fits, bearing the initial excruciating pain of breastfeeding—all these made my love real.

Johnson's Baby wants to highlight the actions that prove our love for our kids. That's why they launched the Signatures of Love campaign. What's your Signature of Love? Is it starting the day with baby bath time? Is it the bedtime rituals that make you rush home from work? Is it preparing your kids' baon together?

For Vito and me, it's our Monster Mama game. I pretend I'm a monster and my favorite thing to eat is baby kili-kili. So I'll hunt Vito around the house—very easy to do since he's shrieking haha—and when I catch him, I'll tickle his armpits and he'll laugh and laugh and say, "Again! Again!" For Iñigo and me, it's Tickle Time, which you'll see in this super cute video Vince made:



Another Signature of Love I share with my kids is breastfeeding. I still breastfeed 14-month-old Iñigo but I don't nurse Vito anymore, but I know that when I breastfeed/breastfed them, my kids love nothing more in the world than the comfort and nourishment I provide for them.

Make your own Signatures of Love video and submit it to Johnson's Baby's Facebook page. For example, you can take videos of your baby's bath time (with Johnson's Baby Top-to-Toe wash!) or how you take care of him after an afternoon of play (by giving him cold juice and dusting him with Johnson's Baby Powder!). Just share with other moms and dads how your Signatures of Love make your parent-child bond even deeper, stronger and happier. I definitely want to see your Signatures of Love!

Sunday, July 07, 2013

Sunday breakfasts

Most days, our breakfast usually consists of oatmeal and juice, or cookie butter on bread, or cookies. The kids love cookies! Most of the time, it's cereal, like these multi-colored oatmeal stars. They're Quaker Oats Twinkles, fruit-flavored cereal made of oats, wheat and corn. Healthy and delicious!
Yes, breakfast time is also learning time!

But Sundays, Sundays! Sundays are breakfast love! Here are a few that Vince and I have prepared:
Raisin pudding. I baked this. It's really quick and easy. Just soak old bread in milk and cream and sugar, sprinkle with raisins (or chocolate chips) then bake! It's based on Nigella Lawson's chocolate
chip bread pudding recipe but no rum.

Oh, this sinful breakfast is all Vince. It's pancakes and bacon and syrup and sweet spreads. Vince sometimes makes French toast, slathers it with Nutella then tops it with crispy bacon. The combination of sweet and salty, the soft and the crunch is to die for!

This is my usual Sunday brekkie. Toast, egg, sausage, cheese. That's toast with garlic and butter. My eggs are always sunny side up sprinkled with Italian seasoning and truffle oil. The cheese is Parmesan crisps (my how-to here!). Sooo good!

Sometimes we do a big English breakfast (toast with jam, creamy scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes, sausage and bacon). Sometimes it's Pinoy all the way with fried garlic rice, tapa or tocino or longganisa or Spam. Mmm! What's your favorite breakfast?