Legaspi and Washington Sycip Park in Makati

Today, we chose to give the stay out helper a day off and bring Maia with us. I had some tests scheduled at the hospital today and we decided we might as well make it a family day.

Like Father, Like Daughter.
Killing time while waiting for me to finish my hearing test.

We planned to leave the house early so we can bring Maia to the Ayala Triangle Garden to run and sweat all that pent up energy out but both Tibs and I dismissed the alarm (after panicking a bit thinking it was still a work day and we had overslept then realizing it was in fact already Saturday) and went back to sleep for another hour. We were too late for park time after I finished all my lab work so Tibs decided to take the little girl to the nearest park to the hospital -- The Legaspi Park (near Greenbelt1).

At 11 am, it was already scorching hot. But when Maia saw the playground, her face just lighted up and she immediately took off her sandals and ran to the slides barefooted. Despite the overwhelming urge to play and enjoy the slides however, it didn't take long before she declared - "tara na Mommy, punta na tayo sa mall (mall is something new in her vocabulary by the way, something she actually learned just today)". The heat was probably that unbearable.

Greenbelt was just a walking distance away from the park so we decided to walk and just take turns carrying the little miss if she gets tired from walking. Good thing we decided to walk because what we thought was to be just a short cut ended up eating up almost an hour off our day. We went inside the Washington Sycip Park which is just right across the Legaspi Park because we were trying to avoid getting hit by the painful rays of the sun and we thought it would be a lot cooler passing thru a shaded area. Tibs and I used to frequent Legaspi Park to run but this was the first time for us to pass thru Washington Sycip Park.

The koi pond was an instant hit to Maia. She spent almost 20 mins just staring at the fishes and feeding them with skyflakes.

Spontaneity seems to be giving our weekends a lot more color these days. Life seems to be telling me to let loose and live in the moment! Well, after this weekend...I will probably be doing just that!

Dancing in the Rain

...crawling in mud and jumping on puddles.

Mud Play! 

Yes, that's what the little girl did with her cousin Gogol yesterday. Back home in Cavite, she's been bugging me to let her bathe in the rain. But of course, with our house situated just beside the road I just couldn't let her do that by herself. So it was always a NO (because I was never always in the mood to bathe in the rain with her).

Since we had Maia, we've never been home to Antique during the rainy season. We've always scheduled vacations during summer and holy week when both Tibs and I are allowed to take long days off from work. But last Friday, we had to be back home to Antique to personally say our final goodbyes to my 101-year old grandmother. And what great timing, it has been raining (and raining hard at that) since we got here.

When the rain started pouring hard yesterday, my nephew (just fresh from a bath actually) seized the moment and ran out to enjoy the rain. He was running, jumping and dancing with glee. The mere sight makes you want to join him already. So I can very well understand how the little girl was feeling. She was tugging on me but since we still hadn't rested enough I thought her immune system is still compromised and it's going to be a bad idea to let her join her cousin for an afternoon rain play.

To keep her occupied and nurse my guilt as well, I went to make her a paper boat to play with while waiting for her cousin to finish his rain play. She happily took the boat from me and immediately set it sail. She loved watching the boat drift thru the rain puddles but it eventually got stuck and she wanted to run out and fix it. I relented, decided to set aside my fears and let the kid enjoy this rare moment.

Enjoying a muddy crawl with cousin Gogol

Sometimes, it does feel extremely good to just let go, have fun and enjoy the play!

They were shouting in glee and literally dancing in the rain!