Birthday Boom-erang

I was up earlier than usual even if I had just enough sleep to complete forty winks (sigh). My husband, who normally sleeps on till the alarm clock rings (often just lets it go on and on) was able to sit up and managed to croak the Happy Birthday song to our daughter. Whew! 10 years...my baby is now starting to be a little lady. She was a preemie... 10 years back I got startled by a cockroach which made me jump which, in turn, caused a tear on my water bag that led me to give birth a month earlier than expected. She made it! She's always made it. Even if at first she would not descend the birth canal, as I squeeled like a pig to ease her out... Even as I tearfully left her in the hospital for 9 days due to a blood infection (sepsis neonatorum)... my baby decides to grab a chance at life and now she is indeed the finest work I've ever made in my entire life!

I whipped up my kid's favorite spaghetti while dropping entrecards here and there well, thanks for my call center training I've become a certified whiz at multi-tasking (hahaha). We (my youngest son and a household help) brought the food to my daughter's school. Her classmates, much to her delight, serenaded her afterwhich we served her classmates pasta and cake. She was the highlight of the day and I felt how much she enjoyed her celebrity status if even for that one special day in her life. It's just too bad that I was not there when she blew the candle, I had to leave for a couple of minutes as I thought the food was not enough so I had to go to the "Pancit Malabon" branch in Dasmarinas to order 1 "bilao". Only to find out when I came back to my daughter's school that the food I brought was more than enough. Ugh! talk about wrong decisions! Well anyway, waking up early and in between the throughs and fros was worth it!

Having a love for nicely written literary pieces, I stumbled upon a poem written by a mother to her daughter. Read on... this is sooo Ally!

I have this little angel. For me she left her wings.
She has no idea how much happiness she truly brings.
She brightens up my days with her smiles and her laughs.
Her face, it is so perfect, she's sweet and soft and pure.

Sometimes she can be willful and sometimes she is demure.
She tries her very hardest to please and do what's right.
She gives the greatest hugs from morning until night.

Every person that has known her sees this light within her soul

I know that in this whole great world, she has a special role. She's helpful and considerate to everyone she knows.
This light in her shines brighter as my angel grows.
When she sees someone is sad, it opens up her heart.
She wants to do all that she can; she wants to do her part.

She'll squeeze away the sorrow and make me forget about my pain. She shows me where the sun is when we're hiding from the rain.
I know that God must love me, He showed me with His Grace I knew just how completely when I saw my angel's face.

And in that very moment when she came into my world,
I knew that she was so much more than just my baby girl.
She would be my sunshine, with a sweetness that won't end.
And when she grows up one day she would be my closest friend.
She would be the reason I would always try my best.

For my little angel baby girl would be my greatest test.
When God entrusts to you an angel, who has left her wings for you.
Encircle her with love with everything you do.
Let her know God made her, and that He trusts you with her care.

Be sure to make time for special moments with her to share.
And when at night she finally says her prayers and goes to sleep
I Thank Him for my angel, and ask for Him to always keep A watchful eye
and hand to protect her from this world. Protect my little angel; protect my baby girl.

An Angel Left Her Wings by Tina M. Marascia from Family Friend Poems
But wait! ... there's more ...

And for the benefit of those who have no idea -- i am including a picture of how a "Bilao (pronounced as Bi-La-O)and Pansit Malabon looks like:

BILAO:

PANSIT MALABON: (rice noodles with shrimp brine as sauce, with lots of different seafood like squid, shrimps, mussels, pork, lots of fried garlic, chicharon or puffed pork skin and onion sprouts/leeks am not sure which, and of course boiled eggs)