Couch Potato Day!

I hereby proclaim that today will henceforth be called Couch Potato Day! Last month when Christopher asked our housekeeper Manang Bebang if she would rather have a washing machine and dryer over a color TV, I thought he was joking. And when he asked her that question, I truly believed she would choose the washing machine, because it would mean less work for her. But lo and behold, when I arrived home from a 24-hour duty (making a blind beeline for the bedroom of course), Christopher literally pulled me back out to the living room just so I could gawk at the new color TV he has purchased. Proudly bought with his own money, glaring shamelessly into my sleepy eyes was the god of the couch potatoes. I had no choice but to grace his expectant face with the appropriate response. That is, to gasp and squeal happily the way a proper female should when her man feels proud about something he just bought (hehe!). So Today, I declare, is Couch Potato Day. No paper work. No chronicling of patients' histories. No going over tomes for textbooks. No exams to worry about, written, oral or otherwise. And for Christopher, no craning of necks to inspect X-ray plates. No rushing to the hospital to do rounds. No going over what I call his "bulalo" pictures of before and after scenes in a trauma unit. Couch Potato Day. Woot-woot. ... I think we both deserve Couch Potato Day. This month Promise has been such an Ironclad. She has two whorls on her head instead of one, and Manang Bebeng says it is something to watch out for. My baby has a temper... And my does she have a temper! In the afternoons when her nap has been so rudely interrupted, mostly by her parents coming home and finding her irresistibly hug-able and kiss-able and pinch-able and squish-able, she bawls like there is no tomorrow... or that she wants tomorrow to hurry up. Now na. There is no forgiveness for her mom and dad who are mere humans under the spell of her cuteness. We couldn't help it. We try. But we couldn't help it. She's just too cute. So, in the course of our daily absences in her life, she has taught herself to turn over. Nanay Ring has reported waking up twice and finding our little munchkin happily sucking her fist and kicking her legs while trying to bob up and down on her stomach. I'm so proud, I actually squeezed her again and made her cry. It's amazing. Christopher and I would watch her sleep and happily tell each other, "Can you believe, we made that... :)" People are still not done deciding whether or not she looks like me or him. The temporary consensus is that when she's smiling, she looks like me...

But that when she frowns,there is no contest, she looks like her dad.

Fair enough. :) I doesn't matter who she looks like. She's adorable.

Anyway, it has been a very hectic month. I just had my oral exams last Friday and Christopher just took an inter-hospital exam yesterday. We barely bothered to say hello and goodbye with the way things were eating up much of our time. One friend asked me to kiss Promise for her and I realized I lately barely even had time to kiss her for myself, which is sad. I promised myself I would spend Couch Potato Day being her couch. And she loves the TV... which worries me. She would stop temporarily with her crying whenever the Coco Crunch commercial is on and then remembers to resume crying the moment it ends. Anyway, I was busy pretending to study for my Oral Exams last week. Our consultants seemed to be stepping up the game and were giving us advice on what and what not to do. I had practice with one consultant who graded me on a Clinical Examination or CEX. She told me to watch my non-verbals, because apparently I was looking bored with my patient the whole time I was interviewing her. Our training officer, Dr. Ben Vista gave us practice sessions. My supervisors have a litany of pointers longer than them saints. I appreciate and set them all to heart, but come day of exams, I was still up to my neck with nerves. What with the "one time big time" press release: You only need to pass 3 things in this training program: the written exam (which I probably already failed); The oral exam (which I felt severely unprepared for); and the grand rounds presentation (for which I still do not have a patient to present). When I left home that Friday I whispered to my daughter to pray to Papa Lord that mommy doesn't lose her job kasi wala tayong pambili ng milk. :) Here's another thing. The day before Oral Exams was my birthday. I woke up feeling particularly woozy. Tope gave me the grizzly bear kiss (yiiihii!). He was sitting on a newly bought plastic chair, engrossed in a textbook. I sat on his lap for that good morning gift (wink-wink!), then... CRRRRAAAACKKK!!!!! Plastic chair broke in 3-4 pieces. Severe pain in left ankle. I was torn between crying from the pain and laughing at ourselves. When Dr. Vista saw me entering the conference room with my left ankle in a tight bandage, his first words to me were: "Charmie, does that have anything to do with you not being pregnant anymore?" And in my mind...What a loaded question! What the hell do I say?! Fancy telling your consultant snippets of what was supposed to be a sizzling new chapter to your love life gone wrong! So there I was, doing rounds in crutches, and the next day bravely entered the exam room, doing my best to hide the wobble. It's ironic how I most literally almost broke a leg for those oral exams. Sheesh! I tried my best not to dig my own grave in there. I swear! And I barely made it out alive. I was panicking in my heart and making futile conversations and jokes with my consultants but in my head, I truly believed I was fried fish. When they told me I passed, I couldn't stop smiling. I arrived home still smiling despite the fact that I was from a 24 hour duty and tired. Promise was bawling, of course, but that did not stop me. She's going to have to bear with her parents biting and squeezing and squishing and hugging her for the rest of her life...

It's the price you pay for cuteness, honey. :)

Anyway, like I said, it's Couch Potato day. We had a small joint celebration of birthdays already past. The Menu: 1. Fettuccine in cream sauce (ala Amador :) 2. Mexican Tacos (Filipino Style :) 3. Pork Barbeque 4. Chocolate apple cinnamon Ice cream for just deserts. And Manang Bebang refills our glasses as well as our plates the moment we lick them clean. And there's The Time Traveller's Wife on HBO right after UFC. A chick-flick and a guy-flick; the couch potato god is good and fair. And Promise has been on my lap for nearly the whole day, crying at intervals, gathering her strength for the next rebellious outburst until she decided it was a useless battle and fell asleep in my arms. Now she's an angel... kasi tulog. Hehehe!

I'm fighting the urge to squeeze her tight and wake her up and start the battle all over again. I can do this all day long and never grow tired of her. I don't care. My Oral exams could have gone awry. I could have failed. But even if I did and I had something like this to go home to, I think I'll be just fine. And Tope is sitting next to me like he has no intention of ever leaving the spot he has made for himself there. And he takes my hands in his to stop me from carrying out my evil plan of secretly taking one tiny munch out of those itsy-bitsy little baby fingers... And then we tell each other one more time, "Can you believe we made that..."

And I just love Couch Potato Day...

Don't you? :)