Due to the O-bon festival/summer holidays, Aya’s piano class won’t meet for two consecutive weeks. But in order to make sure that the kids still get to practice their lessons even during the holidays, they were given sheets of paper where they will color objects corresponding to each day they practiced. If they have practiced for more than 4 times in a week  –  they will get nice stickers from the sensei.

If you think about it, there’s absolutely nothing exciting about getting stickers on a piece of paper. But you know how kids are – they want to impress not only their sensei but also their classmates. So I guarantee you that Aya will definitely make sure that she gets all her stickers at the end of the holidays.  🙂

The point of practicing, of course, is not to accumulate stickers but to enable the children to hone their skillls. As the old adage goes, practice makes perfect.

Children have an amazing ability to learn things fast. I myself am amazed at how fast Aya is learning how to play the piano. I’m beginning to feel that the pace of their class at the music school is becoming a tad too slow for her. For instance, they would still be playing by one hand at a time whereas Aya could already play the same piece using both hands.

Still, it still takes time to master a particular piece. Perfection is not achieved overnight.

Here is a video of Aya playing “Risu no komori uta,” or A Squirrel’s Lullaby. I’m pretty sure that this song is familir to some of you, but I don’t know if that is the same title in English. I just translated it directly from the Japanese title.

She does a lot of wriggling, no? Maybe instead of becoming a pianist someday, she’d end up as a dancer! Haha, what a thought.

Whenever I am with Aya in Filipino gatherings, most of them would often inquire: “How old is she?” And after being told about her age, they would make the dreaded expected follow-up question: “So kelan nyo susundan? Wala pa ba kasunod? (So when’s the next one? None yet?)”

Aya and her gummy grin at 11 weeks

Others are not so discreet and would unabashedly tell it to my face: “Sundan nyo na! (This would be literally translated, “Follow it up!” But perhaps “Make another one!” would be the more appropriate translation.)

Easier said than done, folks. We never said that we don’t want more.

In those situations, I usually just whip up my standard response: “Yeah.” “Uhm….?” “We’re trying.” “We’ll wait and see.”

You see, there’s a bit of a story before our daughter was successfully conceived.

I wrote all about it in my pregnancy blog. But I guess, everyone else became too preoccupied with the fact that there was a new baby, than to be concerned with the so-called “problems” prior to conception.

“The ovaries are not working anymore.” That was what the doctor said. “It would be very difficult for you to have children.” Those were his words during our consultation session. I had already been given a second round of hormonal injections a few weeks before, and the findings still indicated that the ovaries were simply not responding at all.

As Baggy and I stepped outside the clinic, I couldn’t help but cry. I wanted children, although I didn’t want them so soon. I was only concerned about my overall reproductive health. I wanted children later, and wanted to make sure that I could still have them when the appropriate time comes.

But the thought that we could very well end up not having any children made me feel sad and dejected. Wouldn’t that be the greatest paradox of all – just about the time you feel you are ready to have children, that’s the time you find out that you can’t?

I was about to start on prescribed medication – to induce ovulation – when wonder of all wonders, I got pregnant.

Tell me, how was that possible? Just about the time the lazy ovaries finally decided to crank up, the window of opportunity for fertilization presented itself. Some may call it a miracle.

Being pregnant all of a sudden threw my plans out of whack. But sometimes, having something you don’t want is infinitely better than wanting something you can’t have.

Would Aya become an “ATE (elder sister)” someday? My doctor still says it’s impossible, given the lazy ovaries’ preference for sporadic hibernation. But I know, for one, that he has been wrong before. Aya is a living testament to that.

For another, I know that there’s always hope. 😉

Personally, I wouldn’t mind having only one child. For me, Aya is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I really couldn’t ask for more. Wouldn’t YOU want to have a child as adorable as this one?

Oh yes. I can be fun and trivial too. 🙂 My way of relaxing on a Friday night, after a lonnggggg and exhausting, demanding week at work.

I found this cool site through my wicked sister Lai, who’s now back to blogging after a long hiatus. Welcome back, Evil K.

So, you want to find out who my celebrity look-alikes are?

According to the results above, I bear 70% resemblance to LARRY KING. Not bad. I have long fantasized being a broadcaster, lol. Hey look, we wear the same spectacles! And man, look at those foreheads! I really should ease up on that shampoo I’m using. 😀

Thanks to my hairstyler at my favorite J-Cool beauty salon, I could *almost* pass off for a redhead like JULIANNE MOORE.

‘Nuff said. 😉

There are at least three main activities that occupy people in Japan during summertime:

1. Swimming at the pool or the beach

When I first got here, I was surprised to know that swimming pools and beaches are open only during specific periods in a year, i.e., July-August. Boohoo. In the Philippines, save for typhoon seasons, we get to enjoy the pool and the beach 365 days a year. And the waves there won’t look as if they were trying to eat you (see photo at Hasanuma beach below). 😀

Aya and Tatay running away from the giant killer waves! Taken in 2005.

During the one and only time we went to the beach, to our dismay we found out that it was just too crowded for comfort. And as you can see in the photo, the place wasn’t that great at all. And get this, everybody takes a “break” between 12 to 1 pm, and again sometime during mid-afternoon. As in, everybody gets their butts out of the water and waits for the announcement when it’s okay to resume swimming. How KJ is that?!!

2. Attend matsuri or festivals

Lots of dancing in the streets, beautiful floats, people chanting and drinking booze having fun. My favorite is buying food like chikin karaage (fried chicken) and furankufuruto (frankurter) at the stalls. The Tsukuba matsuri is held every year during the last weekend of August or first weekend of September. The giant floats, called “nebuta,” are quite impressive and are worth watching.

3. Watch hanabi, or fireworks
Hanabi = ?? = fireworks. “Hana” is flower, while “bi” is fire. My most favorite of all is the Tsuchiura Fireworks Festival, although it is held in October.

Actually, we don’t even have to wait for festivals to enjoy fireworks. We can do that right at our own frontyard. Here are some photos of Aya enjoying her Hello Kitty-inspired “lusis” fireworks. 🙂

I can’t imagine doing something like this if it wasn’t Christmas or New Year’s eve. Needless to say, doing this made me nostalgic all of a sudden. I just miss the times when I would have fun making the “watusi” pop like crazy and holding the “lusis” as it fires and ebbs away into oblivion.

Sometime ago I received my very first award since I started blogging. This is the Thinking Blogger Award, courtesy of Gypsy and Dimaks. Thanks a lot, guys. I am truly honored. 🙂

I’m now returning the favor and will now bestow this award on five other people.

Here goes!

Shai Coggins – who hasn’t heard of her by now? A highly creative, awesome mom-blogger-enterpreneur. She will always be an inspiration to all bloggers out there. I serendipitously stumbled on her blog while in search of a recipe for chicken sopas. I’ve been hooked ever since. 🙂

Annamanila – now you are truly multiawarded! How many awards have you received already? And here’s one more! Indeed, we are so blessed to have you in our blogosphere. Truly you have a drawing power with your words.

Frances – an amazing writer, her posts are insightful and very engaging. I believe that hers is one of the top emerging blogs in the Filipino blogosphere nowadays. She recently picked up my thoughts on scientists learning to communicate effectively and expounded on it with such verve and passion in an entire post of her own.

BW – one of the unique bloggers out there who could write about anything under the sun, and engage readers to discuss IDEAS. I could never forget our interesting discussion with Dimaks about life on other planets and Carl Sagan’s philosophies. Unfortunately for us, he frequently hibernates from blogosphere to attend to his more demanding offline activities – but when he does come back, he usually does this with a vengeance. 🙂

And the last but not the least (oh, why do I have to give out only 5 instead of 50?):

Senor Enrique – winner of the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards for Photoblog of the Year. He truly deserves the Thinking Blogger Award, not only for the photos, but for his insightful description of people and events in Manila. Take in his luxuriously rich and vivid photos, but also don’t forget to take time to read his very perceptive observations.

Ok guys, with the exception of Annamanila, I don’t know if you’ve already been given this award before. But if you haven’t, then you know what to do. Pass it on. 🙂

Update: I would just like to add that this happens to be my 200th post. What an appropriate opportunity to mark the occasion. Oh boy, I never thought that I’d get this far. But…here I am! Thanks to all who’ve been patiently reading my posts. Kore kara mo yoroshiku ne. 🙂