Three Balloons

Ada.

As soon as she saw me walking in, she got up from the little table and yelled, 'Tita Anna!' I was trying to get the three balloons through the small door. When I got to the TV room, she was already jumping up and down in anticipation. Yaya Cora said, 'Say hi first to Tita Anna and Mama and Papito.' Of course the excited Ada
could not contain herself. When I finally made my way to the TV room, the first thing she said was, 'Hi Tita Anna! Is that for us?' Duh. Who else would I get the balloons for? I nodded my head while she hugged me while the two other kids looked on.


Originally, I was planning to give her the shark because it was Téa who was into ponies. But then, the Manang Ada had other ideas. She quickly grabbed the string that was attached to the pony balloon. I tried explaining to her that I had planned to give that one to Téa and that she could have the shark. Eventually, Téa just agreed to let Ada have the pony balloon. And once Ada had the pony balloon, she forgot that she was eating lunch and ran out to the living room. I just knew that I had once again messed up her schedule as I always do. Instead of her eating and then doing her Kumon, I had made her so excited! So what did she do with the balloon? Ada danced around the living room while singing one of her made up songs.


Before Ada left for Kumon, she said, 'Tita Anna, I don't want you to leave anymore.' I found it so cute and so adorable that she did not want me to leave. I had not been in Makati for two weeks because I was sick. So I guess she really missed me so much. In fact, every Thursday, I have to remind her that I am leaving for my other house for the weekend. She hates that. And she knows that summer is almost near which means that I will not be with her for around two months. Blame the fact that I totally missed the registration for summer class. I don't know how to tell Ada that for two months I will not be sleeping with her, going to the park with her and giving her baths sometimes. I guess I'll just have to visit her 'cause I'll miss her so much!

Téa.

The first thing she told me was, 'Tita Anna, where have you been? I want the pony!' Of course, by the time she had told me that she wanted the pony, Ada had taken the string and had run to the living room. I thought that Téa was gonna hate me or throw a fit, but she did not. I just told her that the shark was a special shark because he could breathe above water. She actually bought my stupid explanation and happily took the string of the shark balloon. 

In between running around the living room, she would come back to the TV room to tell me stories. And then she noticed my hair. When I had long blue hair, she called it Mermaid Hair. So she was rather surprised that my hair was so short and that only the front was blue. 'Tita Anna, are you a boy today?' she asked me. I laughed so hard! I can imagine why she thinks that I am a boy. My hair is so short that. . It's just really short. 'Why'd you cut it?' she asked. I told her that I had gotten chicken pox from her Fernandez cousins and that my long hair hurt the blisters on my face and on my head. She ended our conversation by saying, 'Good. I don't want you to be a boy!'

While Ada went to Kumon and while Gusto went to sleep, Téa joined me and mom. I had to go to school to finish my clearance and little Téa girl wanted some ice cream. Since I was feeling nice and since mom was feeling extra nice, we took Téa with us. Not only had I messed up Ada's schedule, I had also messed up Téa's sleeping time. I took quite some time getting people to sign my clearance form. After having one person sign it, I met up with mom and Téa in the garden. She was running around the garden with her shark balloon and pretending that she was under water with it. I stayed with her and mom for about an hour while waiting for the next person to sign my clearance. I had to leave her while I went to the guidance. I told mom to take her home. When I got home, mom said, ''Téa didn't want to leave without you.' Awwww.

Gusto.

I knew exactly what balloon to get for Gusto. He has been into Spider-Man lately. He calls Spider-Man My-Man. And then later on we found out that he actually says Spider-Man but he says it so fast that it sounds like My-Man. Anyway, Ada had already gotten her balloon and  Téa was happy with her shark balloon when I finally handed Gusto his balloon. 'Spider-Man!' he yelled. I tried to run after him while he ran to the living room. I wanted to hug and kiss him, but he wanted to play with the balloon. What did he do? He tried to climb the glass door while screaming, 'Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Spider-Man!' Yes, he thinks he's Spider-Man.


While the three kids were running around in the living room, I went to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water and to look for food. As I was exiting the kitchen, Gusto ran to me. 'Anna! Anna! Anna!' he said while he hugged my legs. Yaya Cora saw what Gusto did and she was like, 'You miss Tita Anna?' And he just kept saying my name over and over again. Honestly, I miss it when he wakes me up at 6AM and my class is at 2PM. I miss it when he grabs my popcorn and then gives me his cute smile. Maybe he also misses tricking me and writing on my books and stealing all my pens. 


It was nap time already and Yaya Cindy had to bribe him to go to sleep. He didn't want to go to sleep because he wanted to play with his balloon. Mom told him that he could sleep with his balloon. And that is exactly what he did. Gusto went to sleep while holding on to the string of his balloon. Somehow seeing him so happy made me so happy also!