Watch your mouth, Mommy!

We found out that having Xofia watch TV later in the night towards her bedtime contributes to her restlessness during the night. There are nights that she'd sit up in the middle of her sleep and whimper. It's scary. There are also nights that she'd continue popping bubbles or calling TV characters with eyes closed. So we stopped the videos right away. Her nighttime activity must only include light play. No excessive mental and physical stimulation. Not even potty-training. It settled her a bit, and I was afforded an additional snooze time.

It's amazing how she accumulates words everyday. We talk to her in straight, big people words, no baby-talk allowed in the house. She'd repeat the words you said and get those words real fast. Before you know it, she'd be talking to you using those words. It's wonderful! Well, only for those words you'd like for her to learn!

Last night at the dinner table, while I was busy strapping her to her seat, she grabbed my soup bowl. Because you never know what two-year olds do with ceramic soup bowls, I hurried to yank it from her hands. In my haste, I stubbed my little toe! Because it was so darn painful, the F-word escaped from my mouth.

Xofia looked at me and said with such gusto, "f**k!" She was beaming ever so proudly, I was lost and sat there unbelieving and immobile.

The three of us, me, my husband and sister looked at each other and laughed.

Big mistake, Mommy. Big mistake.

Catastrophies everywhere, is this really happening?

Luzon has been ravaged with flood courtesy of typhoon Ketsana, the worst the country has seen. I don't have to see the news and scour the internet for information, help is needed everywhere. If you have something extra to spare, please don't hesitate. The universe or the power greater than the universe know how to repay you. And what goes around comes around. We need not experience the flood ourselves to see how horrible it is. Please help.

The very same day that the rain never stopped falling in Luzon, I was somewhere north of Cebu fishing, unaware of what's happening farther up north in the country. We had few rainfalls and a considerable wind, but that was that. Since we were offline practically the whole day, we didn't know what happened until we came home late that night.

We were supposed to be in Manila today, for Xofia's checkup. We postponed because there are two more typhoons looming by the Pacific. In Indonesia a killer quake has claimed lives and more are missing. A tsunami triggered by an earthquake struck Samoa. It's all just happening at the same time, it's overwhelming to say the least.

What are we really doing, in our part, to take care of the earth? Is it too late to be doing something, to at least ensure that our children and their children will still have an Earth to call home?

Do we even care to be bothered?