Richelle's Ramblings

A sampaguita by any other name is still a flower

2008-06-21T18:42:00.003+08:00

Last April, my husband Aldrich and I were driving along Ortigas Ave., on the way to his brother Iven's house in Cubao. Raine and Aidan were with us in the car, along with their yayas. Just as we stopped at the red light in front of Greenhills Shopping Center, a boy of about 8-10 yrs old tapped on our window and peddled his garlands of sampaguita. Feeling sorry for the kid, we bought around 3 strands, and hung it on the rearview mirror. I then taught Raine how to say sampaguita.

Me: "Raine, this is called sampaguita."
Raine: "sampetita"
Me: "no, it's sampaguita."
Raine: "sampatita"
Me: "sampaguita"
Raine: "sampeti ..... flower"

Dumbfounded, Aldrich and I could only look at each other and manage a wry smile at being outsmarted by a 2 yr. old kid.

Of Eyes, Ears and Nose(trils?)

2008-06-21T18:27:00.002+08:00

It's so amazing how smart kids are nowadays.

A couple of months ago, I was teaching Raine the parts of her face, and how many they are. I'd ask her in Chinese, and she'd answer me, like ...How many eyes do you have? She'd say "Two" ...How many ears do you have? She'd say "Two"
But when I asked her how many nose do you have, she'd still answer "two", so I'd correct her and say "only one nose, Raine".

This happened quite a number of times, until finally, she managed to get the better of me. I was asking her again.

How many eyes do you have? "Two"
How many ears do you have? "Two"
How many nose do you have? "Two" but when i corrected her and said "one", she inserted both her fingers into her nostrils, and said, "two".

my precious ones

2007-09-12T22:26:00.001+08:00

18 months
Originally uploaded by richellesy

Raine and Aidan ... they are my two treasures ... the reasons why i am striving to be the best mom in the world.

Aidan is one month old

2007-09-12T22:22:00.001+08:00

30 days
Originally uploaded by richellesy

my son, aidan riley, is now one month old. he was born aug 11, 2007, at 11:11 in the morning. he was 3.5 kgs and 52 cm long. from a scrawny newborn, he's now a healthy little baby boy. he's truly a blessing from the Lord.

Raine's party

2007-03-13T23:45:00.000+08:00

Raine's party
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

this is how my little princess looked during her 1st birthday party last Feb. 18, 2007. It being Chinese New Year, her grandmother bought her a chinese outfit for the party. doesn't she look sooo cute? i can't believe how fast time flies. not too long ago raine was just a tiny baby in my arms. now she's a little girl ... on the way to becoming a lovely lady.

My 6-month old princess

2006-08-31T23:10:00.000+08:00

Raine is 6 months
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

time really flies so fast. this is how big Raine is now. she's already crawling (commando-style), and wants to stand up and start walking. pretty soon, she'll be running all over the place ... and driving me up the wall with all her questions. but right now, she's still my baby girl, and that's all that matters. :)

the loves of my life

2006-06-19T22:40:00.000+08:00

Raine is 3 months
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

my baby and my hubby :) don't they look so cute together?

Mothers

2006-05-14T16:41:00.000+08:00

4 generations
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

4 generations of women. 3 mothers, and one mother-to-be (in probably 30 years time). can't help but wax sentimental. it's my first mother's day as a full-fledged mom, and it's such a glorious feeling! :)
happy mother's day to all the mothers out there, esp to my mom and grandma. :)

Toothless Smile

2006-05-08T15:05:00.000+08:00

an honest to goodness smile
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

that was taken this morning. isn't she cute?

Mini Me

2006-05-07T16:23:00.000+08:00

with my baby girl, Raine
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

Raine is turning 11 weeks on tuesday, and she's starting to talk .. rather, make cute little cooing sounds when she's happy or trying to tell me something. in fact, she's turning out to be quite talkative. makes me wonder .. is a there a budding tv journalist out there somewhere in my baby?

Happy Baby

2006-04-29T16:51:00.000+08:00

Smiling Raine
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

This was taken around 3 weeks ago, in Manila. It's the only smile my sister was able to catch on camera. What a precious sight!

Raine Alexis at 19 days

2006-03-13T17:26:00.000+08:00

19 days 005
Originally uploaded by richellesy.

that's how my baby girl looked yesterday when we took her photo. she's sooo cute. :) i know i'm biased since i'm the mom, but who cares?

My baby girl :)

2006-02-27T13:40:00.000+08:00

after 9 long months, i now have a baby girl. Raine Alexis Kho was born via normal delivery at the Iloilo Doctor's Hospital on Feb. 21 at 5:42 pm. she weighed a healthy 6.71 lbs (3.05 kg) and measured 50 cm. when sleeping she looks like her dad, but when she's wide awake, her big eyes will undoubtedly tell you that she looks like her mom.

now the harder part comes in ... that of rearing and raising a God-loving child. but i'm sure with God's help, we'll more than manage.

Happy Birthday Dad

2005-09-21T07:10:00.000+08:00

Today is my dad's birthday. he would've been 57 years old, if he didn't die of a heart attack last june 2004.
i miss my dad. i wish he was still here. he'd be so happily looking forward to being a granddad, what with 2 babies on the way (mine and my brother's). he's always wanted grandkids.
oh, my dad wasn't perfect. far from it. he had his faults like everyone else. but he tried his best to be a good father and provider to all 7 of us kids (which wasn't easy). and no matter how many heartaches and headaches i gave him, he always forgave me for it.
we weren't that close anymore when he died, mostly because i was so stubborn. but i was a papa's girl when i was younger. back then, i'd wait for him to come home before i'd go to sleep. i'd sit in my little rocking chair, watching Pugo and Tugo on tv while waiting for my dad. he'd always have something for me, usually food i liked to eat.
at first he didn't like the profession i went into, since it's not normal for a chinese girl to be in the media and all. but later on, he came to accept it, and even bragged to all his friends about me every chance he got. he'd always complain tho that he's lost his identity, that he's not known as rudy sy anymore, but as the father of richelle sy. but i know he did all that complaining with a really proud heart.
despite all the hurts i gave my dad, i really hope i was able to redeem myself, that in the end, he left this world still with me as his girl. i miss my dad so much.

rock baby rock

2005-09-02T06:20:00.000+08:00

for the past 6 weeks i have been hooked on rockstar:inxs on startv. i look forward to wednesday mornings for the performances, and thursday mornings for the eliminations. watching this reality show is a refreshing change from american idol, because all the rockers here can really sing. mig and the others have really kept me company the past few weeks that i have been on bed rest and house arrest.
mig ayesa, of course, is one of my favorites. support your own, ika nga. but he's truly deserving since he very talented and humble. his heartfelt rendition of "baby i love your way" a few weeks ago was tops, but he's equally good singing rock songs.
anyway, today mig thought that he might be in the bottom three because of mixed reactions from the jurors. but of course votes from pinoys poured in from all over the world (including my votes), and kept mig out of the bottom three. those who weren't as lucky were jd, ty and jordis. at the end, ty was booted out.
i may be rooting for mig, but i truly m sad to see ty go. he's such a nice guy and great singer. i wish inxs booted jd out instead. he may fit the bill as the next lead singer of inxs, but his attitude towards the other rockers is a definite turn-off.
i'm just wondering how all this rock music is affecting my baby. :)

my new best friend

2005-08-25T07:40:00.000+08:00

so far, i'm just going 13 weeks, but i'm starting to wear out my closet.
i don't know about my panglabas clothes, since i'm still under house arrest, but i can't fit into some of my pangbahay clothes anymore. i only have 3 serviceable jogging pants, and 1 pair of shorts that aren't too tight around the belly.
so today, i did the unthinkable. i raided the hubby's closet for boxer shorts that i can wear. at least they're comfier, and don't make garter lines around my slowly-expanding belly.
so it's true after all what my pregnancy book says ... that a pregnant woman's best friend is her husband's closet. :)

gender issues

2005-08-18T07:37:00.000+08:00

i saw a really interesting episode on oprah this afternoon. i don't know if it's an old episode or a new one, since i'm not a regular oprah viewer, but it certainly struck a chord somewhere in me. the topic was about transgender kids, or kids who realize early on that they are born into the wrong bodies.

the show featured pubescent keila, who binds her breasts everyday and has an injection every month to stop her period because she believes that she's a boy. she is now called caden, and sports a boy's haircut. then there's 9-year old hal, who tried to commit suicide at age 6 because he didn't want to be a girl (hallie) anymore. his parents finally decided to allow their little girl to become a boy. there's 5 year old dylan, who, young as he is, knows that he is a girl trapped in a boy's body. and finally there's elizabeth, a gender transplant who was named lee in her former life. the show talked about the kids' struggles, as well as their parents difficulties in accepting the "condition" of their child. what really amazed me tho, is how open the kids are about how they felt with their parents, and the parents' willingness to accept the changes in their kids. oh of course there's the father who couldn't accept that his son liked to play with barbie more than play football, but he eventually realized what was best for his son in the end.

it also made me think hard about the kids i'll be having.

everytime someone would ask me what i'd like my baby to be, if i want a boy or a girl, i'd say as long as my baby comes out healthy and normal, i'd be more than happy with that. sometimes i'd jokingly ask the husband what he'd do if our baby turns out to be gay, and he'd reply that he'll send the baby back to my womb to get its gender right.

but what if that actually happens? what if 5 or 10 years down the line, my son would tell me that he wants to be share my clothes and my make-up, or my daughter would insist on going to the little boy's room because she's really a boy trapped in a girl's body? how would i handle that?

coming from a devout christian family, and chinese at that, being gay is not really accepted in our culture. it's generally considered a sin (since the Bible says God created only two sexes) that should be prayed over and prayed about until the phase wears off. people should just be male or female, and not in between. churches that have so far accepted gays and lesbians, like the episcopalian church in the US which anointed a gay bishop, are not only frowned upon, but heavily criticized.

it is all too easy to judge and say something is right or wrong, but what if it happens to my own kid? would i allow him/her to be gay/lesbian if that's what my kid wants? i don't know. i don't have anything against gays or lesbians. in fact, i've a lot of bading friends and i find them to be really fun to be with they're very creative and are amazing persons who make great and true friends. but i guess it would be a case of my maternal instinct battling with my christian upbringing. as a mother, i'd want my kid to grow up to be who he/she wants to be, to live life to the fullest and achieve whatever dreams he/she has. as a mother i'd want to accept my kid no matter what and who he/she is. but my christian upbringing tells me that being a member of the third sex is wrong, that wanting to be the opposite sex is not glorifying to God at all.

i suppose at the end of the day, i'd just have to pray real hard that God preserves and protects my baby, that my baby comes out strong, healthy and normal in His eyes. after all, it's what's inside that counts and what He sees in our hearts.

life in the province

2005-08-17T07:38:00.000+08:00

ever since i retired from active journalism more than a year ago, i haven't written a single political or economic or socially-relevant piece. the few blog entries i've written are merely ramblings and musings of a bored stay-at-home wife and homemaker. nothing interesting worth reading really, so much so that i myself got bored writing those ramblings after a while. after a while, i just stopped writing altogether.
it isn't that politics isn't interesting. on the contrary, it is very very interesting, so much so that a lot of people i know (or rather, used to know) talk about it day and night. controversies popping up left and right regarding wiretapped conversations, witnesses for hire, impeachment proceeding, chacha, con-con, con-ass, jueteng briberies, constantly rising oil and crude prices and the endless rallies are enough to keep one occupied for days and days.
but one thing living in the province has taught me is that not everything revolves around politics, or rather, on things metro manilans think are important. i've heard it said time and again that metro manila is not the philippines, but i just realized that when i quit my job and relocated to iloilo. it's just so peaceful here, with none of the tension and stress of the metropolis. oh of course there are a few rallies here and there by local chapters of militant groups, but on the whole things are quite. it's like we live in an entirely different country. a coup can happen in manila but for people in the provinces, life goes on. sabi nga ng mga tao dito, nagugulat na lang sila kasi iba na pala ang pangulong nakaupo sa malacanang.
i know i've complained time and again that life is boring here, but at the same time, it's quite nice to live life as an ordinary citizen. sometimes it's more blissful living in ignorance of all the sh--ty things the government and government officials are capable of doing.

Another Life

2005-08-13T06:20:00.000+08:00

i just came from my ob yesterday for my monthly check-up. yes dears, m finally pregnant again, 11 weeks now to be exact. :) it was just amazing hearing my baby's heartbeat, proof that i really have another life growing inside me. (i actually heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time last month during the ultra-sound, but i guess it failed to register since i was simply too happy with the fact that i was actually pregnant.) anyway, my ob says things are going well so far, except that i still have to be on bed rest (more like house arrest since i seem to do a lot of walking inside the house) for the next few weeks until m totally in the clear.

it's really been hard keeping this pregnancy thing to a selected people for the past 5 weeks when all i've wanted to do was shout to the world that m finally pregnant again. see, i was spotting the first few weeks of my pregnancy. since i had already miscarried my first baby, i didn't think it was prudent to make an announcement at such an early stage. after all, it's kinda traumatic having to explain to people how come you're not pregnant anymore.

but now that i haven't been spotting for almost 2 weeks now, and now that my check-ups are more positive, i feel more confident about my news. the downside is, along with pregnancy comes all those horror stories like symptoms and pregnancy food and stuff. but that's another story altogether. :)

laziness

2005-07-28T06:00:00.000+08:00

i just got off the phone with josh, whom i called in my usual bored state. true to form, i received quite a sermon about getting off my lazy bum and starting to write again, whether in my blog or elsewhere. as i checked my blog, i realized he was right.
i didn't realize that it's been exactly a month since i promised myself to start writing again, a whole month of doing nothing but being bored at home with nothing to do. oh don't get me wrong. i have managed to do a couple of things, like watch a couple of sex and the city dvds, pirated dvds of monster in law and herbie, religiously followed the travails of darna and the developments on encantadia and sugo (kapuso pa rin siyempre), and finished reading harry potter and the half blood prince a day after it was released. of course this drove josh up the wall, since according to him, i had to spoil everything by saying someone died (check out josh's blog entry about it).
but this is nothing compared to what i used to do ... like running around chasing interviewees for soundbites and coming up with supposedly well-written and thought-provoking stories. back then, i felt on top of the world, as i was changing history or something. i guess i could still do that here in iloilo, but how, i don't know.

new year's reso?

2005-06-28T13:58:00.000+08:00

the past few days i've been reading my friends' blogs. suddenly i was overcome with shame over my own blog. it's gone unnoticed for so long, di lang siya inaamag. napaglipasan na ng panahon. i swear i'll begin posting on my blog again. i guess it's time to get those creative juices flowing ...

Pregnant no more

2004-10-23T02:38:00.000+08:00

2 days ago i had a miscarriage. turns out i had a blighted ovum. the fertilized egg failed to develop into an embryo so my body naturally expelled it.

i had spotting monday night, and by tuesday night i was bleeding so much and having cramps that i knew something was wrong. my husband aldrich immediately broght me to the hospital wednesday morning, where it was confirmed that i miscarried. my ob immediately did a d&c on me and cleaned out my uterus.

at first i was really sad and disappointed, but when i found out that there was no fetus, therefore no baby, it was easier to accept. i just think of it as a practice session, that God was just checking if my system works, and it does! :) next time it won't be a draft anymore.

i know that in His time, the Lord will allow me to get pregnant again. a lot of my friends say it will be easier for me to get pregnant next time because my uterus has been cleaned and the environment is more conducive to conceiving a baby.

right now, i'm just enjoying the fact that with the bed rest required by my doctor, mom and mom-in-law, my hubby has to take care of me. it's nice to be babied once in a while. :)

ramblings of a bored pregnant woman

2004-10-07T08:03:00.000+08:00

i've been married for almost 3 months, and i'm now 7 weeks pregnant. i used to be a hard-hitting journalist but i gave all that up for marriage and motherhood. i never thought i'd say it this soon, but i'm bored.