We love you Baby Girl and may you have many more birthdays to come! Kisses and hugs from mommy and daddy!

First, some of us   s urvived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine,  a te isaw, and didn’t worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads , sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts   (ngayon lahat may aircon na)

Riding on the back of a carabao  on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 ( minsan straight from the faucet or poso)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contacted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, ate raw eggs straight from the shell,  and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi coke zero), but we weren’t sick or overweight kasi nga……

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso , habulan at taguan.

No one was able to reach us all day ( di uso ang cellphone at walang beepers ) . And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street , only to find out we forgot the brakes!  After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewerage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations,PSP’s Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD’s,  no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, no Friendster, no YouTube, no multiply………… WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broken bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo,,,,ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. we were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns ” gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan. .pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans (tumbang preso )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay.paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.  

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO’s, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.  

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who’ve had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.  
And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were..

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn’t it?!

Is blue still “in” this Christmas? I saw lots of blue Christmas decors in department stores. I wouldn’t be going for blue this Christmas, otherwise I will be having a blue Christmas then too – heaven forbids.

Once upon a time in a far away land of Cancabato there lived King Daddy and Queen Mommy who have a beautiful daughter named Princess Cinderella Kendra.

It’s a beautiful sunny day. The magnificent blue sky is enveloped with cotton-white clouds and is brightened by the radiance of the splendid colors of the rainbow perfect for today’s occasion. Princess Cinderella Kendra is celebrating her 3^rd birthday. She is having a grand birthday celebration in the Royal Garden outside the castle where the Royal Family lives. She is dancing with her Prince Daddy while her Queen Mommy is amazed to see their fantastic royal dance. Under the shade of a huge tree is her fairy god Ate (in orange) who is holding a violet magic wand that was used to “Bibbiddi      . . . . . bobbiddi . . . . boo” to turn her into a princess. At twelve midnight, she will say adieu to everyone leaving behind her golden slipper. Her prince daddy will return that golden slipper to her and they will dance all day. The end.

That’s the interpretation of her drawing.

I have mentioned that I can live and go somewhere without bringing with me my cellphone. That’s precisely true.  . .  But, I thought for a while, can I live without internet?  Hmmm, I guess, NOT!