Happy Birthday To Me Also

Birthdays... whenever i think about birthdays, i get this feeling of foreboding... like an oncoming rain. It's that same feeling when you look at a clear blue sky and somewhere in the horizon, you see a dark cloud. Well, it's okay if you tell me that I'm weird but if you heard my stories about guests not coming because my party happened on the day when all public vehicles at our province decided to go on strike or the Mayon Volcano acting up and threatens to erupt or that one time during my 9th birthday when the storm was so strong that my uncle had to pose as though giving me a mock up gift just for photo op sake... maybe you'll end up saying, uy, kaya pala... This came to a point where my mom finally decided - Hey, let's stop all this bull. Here's some money, go treat your friends out - thus, the birth of my looove for gimmicks/ night outs (college life. yahoo! hello, tequila! come to mama!). it seemed to work though because it's like i've finally found a way to trick nature and all calamities. good weather and rowdy friends - the perfect combi. No more parties at home. New dress, immaculate shoes and stockings but no guests. Well, that's my boohoo story.

When I became a mom, I thought less about myself. I thought about my child. I think about Zoie and my overtime at the office. I think about my guilt days when i leave the house and she's still asleep and i come home and she has gone to bed plus those weekends when i had to work or sleep because i'm dead tired. Look at me, I'm blogging right now while resting after a day out shooting here at the office. A very, very good Mom. So, what's my point? All these cannot interfere with her birthday because when it's her birthday, I feel like it's my birthday also.

The first year of her life, i convinced hubby that a trip to Davao was the best idea for her birthday celebration. So, i made a plan and contacted my relatives there. We left 2 days after her actual birth date. But what did I do on her birthday? I gathered up all her ninangs and ninongs and we ate at Congo Grille in El Pueblo. My hubby said, I thought trip lang ang gagawin but I dragged him to the restaurant and we had dinner. Zoie celebrated her actual birth date with 20 guests at a restaurant whose only indication that it can be for kids was that ugly Gorilla face on the logo. I invited all of them to the Makati branch and when I did an ocular, wow, there was no restaurant. The branch closed down. I had to re-send invites. Sa El Pueblo na lang. It was a fun dinner composed mostly of my friends and hubby's family. No food was kid-friendly. There were no balloons. But there was Zoie sitting like a happy bee on her tall chair.



Zoie's cake was Spongebob's pineapple house but without Spongebob. It was a very delicious cake from Sugarbox.

We left for Davao after 2 days and my relatives were so happy to see us.

They live hours away from the city so we rode their truck to get there. My uncle planned a beach party for Zoie. We stayed at their farm and the scene was truly that of a barrio. It was beautiful. My uncle's house was fairly modern. My uncle owns the vast land. He had his workers roast a pig for Zoie and brought a sack of durian to the beach. I stepped on the durian sack, mind you. The durians were very thorny. So we spent the day swimming in this beautiful beach. Forgetful me forgot the name of the beach.

That's my muro ami.

The next year was a challenge. Zoie understands parties already. She has attended a few and she loved Jollibee. So the busy mom went to book Jollibee Guadalupe branch two weeks before her birthday on a date that is after her birthday. On her birthday, the family ate at North Park and again, after 2 days, we celebrated at Jollibee. The look on my daughter's face was priceless. I'm glad I was able to convince hubby to say yes to my plans. I even went to buy party things at Divisoria leaving my shoulders with bright red marks because of the weight of everything I bought. My budget fund came from my rakets. I don't know what I would have done without it but I'm sure hubby will give me budget. What can I say about the Jollibee party? I'll say that even if the party was at night and ended very late, the host was thankfully full of energy. I had cameramen for friends so I got the coverage for free. I have friends who love her so they all went to the party not to mention all of Zoie's friends from our building.


This year is different. Zoie is now a preschooler. She will be celebrating her birthday with her classmates. I will be cooking a ton of spaghetti, fried chicken and hotdog. I will buy ice cream. My bestfriend, Sam, will bring ham and cheese rolls. Some of my friends will help me out at school. Her teacher will be the host at the party. I've planned for backpacks for giveaways but with an everyday shoot including weekends i'm thinking of a way to sneak all of these into my life. I've ordered the cake. Gosh, gosh, I will pay for it soon, i promise. No time to go to the bank. We're recycling last year's banner. Hubby doesn't want to interfere with my plans. Have to buy that party dress...

Why am I doing this? In the middle of a hectic work week, I sneak in all of these because somehow it's my birthday too. All those missed parties are finally pushing through with good weather, good health and great guests through my Zoie.