for them, i would consider shifting careers

i love kids. that fact is obvious to anyone who knows me and even to those who barely know me. but there are probably two kids that i enjoy spending time with the most


one is a little girl who is barely three years old, the daughter of two good friends, and my very first god daughter. at her age, she has memory gap already, because everytime she sees me, she kinda forgets who i am and refuses to come near me. but when she finally recognizes me, after i bribe her with yakult, candy, ice cream, or whatever she's in the mood for, she becomes this adorable chatterbox who i can't get enough of. to say that she's smart is an understatement. at age two, she could recite the entire alphabet and count 1 to 100. she gets unusually giddy when she enters national bookstore and sees all those books. and she speaks in pure english (which can be a bad thing later on). our conversations go like this


bianca: ninang, know what? i saw nice shoes. silver, with strings. i like it
ida: hey cool. where did you see it?
bianca: at sm manila
ida: wanna buy it?
bianca (rolls her eyes incredelously): but ninang, that's so fa (she still has difficulty with her r's , so this means far)

need i remind you that she's barely three?



and then there's my colleague's daughter, who at five years old, may probably be one of the most precocious little girls i've ever had the pleasure of knowing. she's always a distraction when she comes to the office because i would rather color books with her or read a storybook to her or sing out loud with her, than work on boring stuff like reports and presentations. and even though she sometimes acts schizo (crying one minute, laughing the next second) and she has her own vocabulary (Mommy, she ubos-ed it already), a day spent with her is always a memorable one. and i can actually hold an intelligent conversation with her.

anja: hey tita ida, i know that picture on your phone!
ida: oh yeah, nice clocks huh?
anja: no, that's persistence of memory by dali!
ida: (what the? how does she know this?) uhm, yeah, it is
anja: oh, and i know that guy who cut off his ear, van gogh
enya (her mom): and why did he cut off his ear?
anja: because the girl he liked didnt like him back
ida: (what the? most people dont even know that!) huwaw



there are days when i would rather give up my day job and be yaya's to any of these two little girls. and no, i am not longing for a little girl of my own, God forbid! it's just such a joy to be with these two, and to watch them grow smarter and even cuter, if that's at all possible

and then there are days when i just wish they would never grow up...
but even though the day will come when they will graduate from grade school, go to their proms, experience their first heartbreak, have little girls of their own, they will forever remain little girls for me...