Our playpen

We have a little playpen in our Greenhome in Legaspi Village and for the past few months. This playpen has become their little kingdom and it is from here, where they would watch "Toy Story."

According to Wikipedia, the earliest use of the word "playpen" was from the Oxford English Dictionary back in 1902.

Our playpen is square-shaped and has vertical bars, which so far has withstood the pressure of our kids. Often, Rafa would be climbing in and out of this playpen. Soon, Angel would have her way in and out too of this playpen. We have not attached anything that moves or lights on this playpen! It has no side pockets.

It should have less obstacles as possible. And best not to have too much pillows or kumot inside the playpen. Chief's keeps this stuff to a minimum as our kids could get entangled with the kumot or sleep with the pillows over their own faces.


Once, I slowly got into this playpen as Angel was watching tv. But I remained at the center. Chief was a little worried that it couldn't support my weight. And once Rafa saw me inside the playpen, he quickly jumped over and joined Angel and me.

Now, I had to get out. Sometimes, I wish, I could with our kids inside this playpen.

Extremely Close, Incredibly Loud

Last Friday, Chief and I caught the movie, “Extremely Close, Incredibly Loud” at Greenbelt Cinema. Yes, it was Chief’s birthday and we both blocked off work schedules to spend the day together.

It started with our gift for Chief. A Nestle Dolce Gusto Coffee-maker that Chief had always wanted. I got that gift from SM Makati. Just buying that gift can be a whole blog as the promo merchandiser from SM Supermarket and SM Appliance Center had different “pitches” for the same product.

Then, we had lunch at Italiannis Greenbelt. We have been here a few times and I have always enjoyed the unlimited bread, which often gets me “full” even before getting the main course.

Chief wanted to watch “The Vow” but Tom Hanks pulled us to watch “Extremely Close, Incredibly Loud.” The first scenes alone gave us some jitters. Thomas Schell, played by Tom Hanks was being buried. He died during the attacks at 9/11.

A series of flashbacks establish a scavenger hunt between father and son (played by Thomas Horn), who should have been nominated for a Best Actor Award in the recent Academy Awards. Thomas says, "if things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding." Oskar explores his father's closet, breaks a vase and finds a key in an envelope that is labeled with the word "Black". The scavenger hunt for “Black” will take him three years, but I wouldn’t reveal how the hunt ended in this blog.


It released a few tears for Chief and I after the movie, which we will probably watch when Rafael is old enough to understand the words "if things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding."