Down the Rabbit Hole

What children need the most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humour, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies. — Rudolph Guiliani  I grew up hanging out with Lola Bats and Lola Estay . They didn't offer cookies like Rudy Guiliani must be doing with his grandkids, but they did fill our tummies with yummy bulanglang  and  pupur ( dishes from Batangas), and chicken sandwiches and fried chicken (Lola Estay's specialities). I vaguely remember Lolo Bats because he passed away when I was five years old. I didn't spend a lot of time with Lolo Roman but I do remember slurping piping hot arroz caldo  every time I visited his house. My grandmothers proved to be strong-willed women while I know more about my grandfathers' reputations rather than who they really were.  I find my son and my nephew extraordinarily lucky to be doted upon by my parents: They are not the major childcare...

Teachable moments are defined as an unexpected opportunity seized by a teacher to offer their thoughts on a topic or to stimulate a student's mind to find answers to their questions (Lewis 2020). As a new mom, I look to my parents to learn how I can model their parenting styles (because they're different but complementary) to how I parent my child. I also read quite a few parenting books and articles , and follow responsive parenting accounts on social media. Based on what I've observed my parents do, I think they probably read the same books and articles and followed the same social media accounts... except that they have not. They probably just figured out, over the years, that being responsive to a child's needs is a good way of parenting. And even as all their kids are now adults, they still find opportunities to teach and to model. One particular instance pops up in my mind: Anna's a relatively new driver. She's not very confident in maneuvering her car t...

I haven't visited a zoo in a long time. My last visit to a zoo was in 2019 when I went to Singapore's Night Safari with Val. For this trip to the zoo, I was with the whole family, including Val and the wee one. It's pretty exciting for me because it's our son's first time to see the animals that he's only seen photos or videos of. I really appreciate that Biboy and Barbara invited us to join them because it's such a fun trip. I didn't expect that we'd meet the resident lesser flamingoes just beyond the zoo's gates. These pink birds are known to thrive in salt marshes in Africa (including Benin) and India. They are omnivorous, but they eat Spirulina , a type of algae that thrives in alkaline water. This alga has pigments that make the flamingoes turn pink.  After we've passed the flamingoes, we encountered a few reticulated giraffes. These are mostly found in the wild in the Horn of Africa, preferably living in savannahs, woodlands, or floodpl...