Love your Parents - If you ask me why than read this post

When you came into the world, she held you in her arms. You thanked her by wailing like a banshee.

When you were 1 year old, she fed you and bathed you. You thanked her by crying all night long.

When you were 2 years old, she taught you to walk. You thanked her by running away when she called.

When you were 3 years old, she made all your meals with love. You thanked her by tossing your plate on the floor.

When you were 4 years old, she gave you some crayons. You thanked her by coloring the dining room table.

When you were 5 years old, she dressed you for the holidays. You thanked her by plopping into the nearest pile of mud.

When you were 6 years old, she walked you to school. You thanked her by screaming, "I'M NOT GOING!"

When you were 7 years old, she bought you a baseball. You thanked her by throwing it through the next-door-neighbor's window.

When you were 8 years old, she handed you an ice cream. You thanked her by dripping it all over your lap.

When you were 9 years old, she paid for piano lessons. You thanked her by never even bothering to practice.

When you were 10 years old, she drove you all day, from soccer to gymnastics to one birthday party after another. You thanked her by jumping out of the car and never looking back.

When you were 11 years old, she took you and your friends to the movies. You thanked her by asking to sit in a different row.

When you were 12 years old, she warned you not to watch certain TV shows. You thanked her by waiting until she left the house.

Those Teenage Years

When you were 13, she suggested a haircut that was becoming. You thanked her by telling her she had no taste.

When you were 14, she paid for a month away at summer camp. You thanked her by forgetting to write a single letter.

When you were 15, she came home from work, looking for a hug. You thanked her by having your bedroom door locked.

When you were 16, she taught you how to drive her car. You thanked her by taking it every chance you could.

When you were 17, she was expecting an important call. You thanked her by being on the phone all night.

When you were 18, she cried at your high school graduation. You thanked her by staying out partying until dawn.

Growing Old and Gray

When you were 19, she paid for your college tuition, drove you to campus, carried your bags. You thanked her by saying good-bye outside the dorm so you wouldn't be embarrassed in front of your friends.

When you were 20, she asked whether you were seeing anyone. You thanked her by saying, "It's none of your business."

When you were 21, she suggested certain careers for your future. You thanked her by saying, "I don't want to be like you."

When you were 22, she hugged you at your college graduation. You thanked her by asking whether she could pay for a trip to Europe.

When you were 23, she gave you furniture for your first apartment. You thanked her by telling your friends it was ugly.

When you were 24, she met your fiancé and asked about your plans for the future. You thanked her by glaring and growling, "Muuhh-ther, please!"

When you were 25, she helped to pay for your wedding, and she cried and told you how deeply she loved you. You thanked her by moving halfway across the country.

When you were 30, she called with some advice on the baby. You thanked her by telling her, "Things are different now." When you were 40, she called to remind you of an relative's birthday. You thanked her by saying you were "really busy right now."

When you were 50, she fell ill and needed you to take care of her. You thanked her by reading about the burden parents become to their children.

And then, one day, she quietly died. And everything you never did came crashing down like thunder. "Rock me baby, rock me all night long." The hand who rocks the cradle ... may rock the world".

Let us take a moment of the time just to pay tribute and show appreciation to the person called MOM though some may not say it openly to their mother. There's no substitute for her. Cherish every single moment. Though at times she may not be the best of friends, may not agree to our thoughts, she is still your mother!!!

Your mother will be there for you; to listen to your woes, your braggings, your frustrations, etc. Ask yourself "Have you put aside enough time for her, to listen to her "blues" of working in the kitchen, her tiredness???"

Be tactful, loving and still show her due respect, though you may have a different view from hers. Once gone, only fond memories of the past and also regrets will be left.

DO NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED THE THINGS CLOSEST TO YOUR HEART. LOVE HER MORE THAN YOU LOVE YOURSELF. LIFE IS MEANINGLESS WITHOUT HER. Source URL: https://bollywoodsexygirls2012.blogspot.com/search/label/Family
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Retro Christmas Card - Broke 80s Style!

I was tagged by Kim Kasch to post the 4th pic in my photo album. Since I have dozens of photo albums--both in physical form as well as digital--spread out all over the place, I assumed she meant what passes as my main family photo album. And so here we are.


This is a pic taken in 1984, when I was 8 years old. That's me on the right, my younger brother Jose on the left, and we're holding our 10-month old baby sister, Kita, in our lap. I actually remember taking this picture. My mother had gotten the idea to start a new tradition with the birth of our sister, and that was to harass family members and friends with cutesy holiday picture cards. What, you thought this fad was something new in the digital age? Pshhh! What? The old photomats were accomplishing this feat long before the advent of Photoshop and Kodak EasyShare software! With what I assume must have amounted to cardboard and string, but accomplish it they did!


Anyway, my mother didn't hire no fancy-shmancy photographer. She didn't take us to a studio. No, she tacked up a bed sheet on the living room wall, sat us in the middle, and snapped this photo herself (haha!). And it shows! But, hell, we weren't rich, so this just had to do.


But it accomplished the goal. Here we are, our mother's children. Needless to say this was a happier time, despite all that we did not have. And despite what was about to happen . . .


But, for this one moment captured in time, we were happy and oblivious. Life had had its ups and downs even by this young age for me, but the fact that I'm still smiling in photos at this point just goes to show that the worst had not yet happened.


And to me, that makes this photo very special.


I'm supposed to tag 4 more people, but I hate tagging people. So those of you who read my blog, if you have a blog and feel like doing this, be my guest. Consider yourself tagged (you know who you are). Then post in my comments section a link to your blog entry. 'Kay? Thanks!
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Xmas Photos -- Now With More Cheeks!!!

Visited Lisa's family on Christmas day. And as promised, I took plenty of pics of our nephew and little chubster of a niece. Chandler got his Elmo, which he just loves very, very much. He calls out his name every chance he gets!



Here he is getting into to trouble in one of his eldest cousins' rooms. He got attached to this sparkling glitter microphone and would not let go for the life of him. Between this and dancing to all the Beyonce music videos on MTV, I think Chandler may have a future career ahead of him in showbiz. Either that, or dress up in drag! Haha, I kid of course (you hope?)



Of course, no get together would be complete without little miss chubby cheeks herself, Arianna! Everyone was so happy to see her, all but fighting each other to get to her first! Here she gave me a big smile as I took her picture. She's such a calm and well-behaved baby, I think I've mentioned. Here she looks like an escaped pink convict from the Prison of Cute!!!



Chandler's older sister, Ashley, got to her first. Arianna was quite taken by the Christmas tree. She's 7 or 8 months old now, so everything is a curiosity to her -- especially if it is big and has blinking lights!



And of course, Chandler was not immune to the powers of her cuteness, either. I swear, this boy loves his little cousin so much! He wouldn't stop kissing her cheeks all night. Here he's trying to feed her. So cute!



After a while, Arianna had enough of all the doting attention and numerous hugs and kisses from Chandler. Check out the expression on her face -- LOL, priceless!


It was a long and tiring day, but overall I'd say this Christmas went smashingly and on a pretty low key. Which I definitely needed. A stark contrast to Christmases past, I must admit. Phew!
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Rare Sighting

Due to divided obligations (read: in-laws complications), my family celebrated Christmas a day early this year over at my Aunt's home in Queens. If you think I'm camera phobic, my family's even worse. It's like pulling teeth getting anyone to stand for a pic, myself included. So the above pic is a rare event indeed. In this you get two for the price of one -- my sister and me!


My baby sister, Kita, is much more like me than my brother, Jose, but we all share a lot of the same quirks and sense of humor in fact. It was fun getting to see my (very) small family together in one place, so I had a good time tonight.


Tomorrow promises to be tortuous as we wrap the last of the presents and then visit Lisa's side of the family in the north Bronx. I'd rather be spending the day at home playing Prince of Persia for the PS3 (read my side bar further down the page), but Christmas is a day of compromise and grinning through it. Well, isn't it?


Nah, it won't be so bad. If anything, I should come back with plenty of cute baby pics! I can't wait to see my nephew, Chandler, and niece, Arianna. They're truly the life of any gathering in Lisa's family now. :)


Hope everyone is having a good Christmas! May your days be merry and bright, and all that jazz.
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Two Thanksgivings - Of Nieces And Nephews

My family was having Thanksgiving in Queens this year, while Lisa's was in the usual place in the north Bronx. Stupid me waited until the last minute to decide that renting a car was preferable to riding the subway back and forth all day long, but alas EVERY SINGLE rental place was all sold out. Luckily, we were able to borrow my sister-in-law's car for the day, and despite horrific traffic tie-ups in Queens, the day went smoothly. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!



This is Lisa's sister's son, Chandler. He's only 16 months old, but he looks bigger for his age. I believe he's 28 lbs. He was really happy to see his auntie, and every time the warning light lit up on my camera, he startled giggling hysterically. I swear, every single picture of his looks like this one! Afterwards, he spent most of the night running around and kicking his ball around and soaking in all the attention he was getting from all the ladies in attendance. Definitely a ladies' man, this one.



Lisa's brother and his girlfriend just had a baby this year. Her name is Ariana, and she's 6 months old. She's also the darling of any get-together. I mean, look at those cheeks! She's the chubbiest and most well-behaved baby I've ever seen. Every single woman there was trying to steal her and keep her for themselves all night. Even Chandler gets excited when his baby cousin shows up. He went running straight up to her and gave a big kiss. Then he pointed at Ariana and said: "Baby!" It was too cute.



She was loving my camera. She kept grabbing it and stuffing it in her mouth. It must be baby drool-proof, though, as it still works. Yay!



Lisa kept getting Ariana to smile all night. Here she was just fed, so she's extra happy. The babies in Lisa's family are generally well-padded, if you know what I mean. Which is how babies should be, no? :)



I just couldn't resist taking one last pic before she left for the night. Here Ariana is all decked out in a pink pea coat and matching hat. Stylin!Source URL: https://bollywoodsexygirls2012.blogspot.com/search/label/Family
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Becoming Catholic: The Unbecoming

I mentioned it in passing here before, but once upon a time I was a Catholic. That's something that surprises people who know me, because I rarely bring this fact to light in general conversation. And for those who really know me, well my views on organized religion are well known, to put it mildly.

This all came about because my mother, for whatever reason, wanted to fit in with the largely Hispanic population living in our part of the south Bronx during the 70s and 80s. She was as Caucasian as the Queen of England, but in high school she hung with a mostly Latina crowd and I guess it rubbed off on her. She spoke Spanish fluently, but never took classes. I guess you could say it was "street" Spanish. In any case, she dressed and spoke like her friends, and had the same taste in men as them (which probably explains my f.o.b. Dominican father). I never did get the chance to ask her, but I think their religion rubbed off on her as well. Much to the chagrin of my little brother and I. For, sometime around the age of 4, we found ourselves being forced to attend mass on Sunday mornings. A year or so later, she also enrolled us in children's Bible study classes, which I did not exactly enjoy. I was never that kid who loved school, academic or otherwise. But in the beginning I remember being a devout Christian, pretty much believing everything the teachers and priests told me to believe.





Fast forward to age 7 when my baby sister was born. My mother suddenly decided that all three of her children should be baptized. We had to attend special preparatory classes for three months before the church would allow us the honor of washing away the sins of our souls. In the pic above, you see my brother Jose (right), my godbrother Angel (center), and me all dressed up on the day of the ceremony. My mother picked her best friends and their children to be our "god" family. These people really were a second family to us at the time, so I thought it was a swell idea, although by this time I had started to have doubts about the whole Catholic faith (more on that later). I would eventually learn that my mother's mother, my grandmother, was not so happy with the prospect, and that this caused a great deal of friction between the two. My grandmother is Protestant, you see. And I'm guessing she thought my mother was taking her little "Latina fantasy" a little too far by damning her grandkids' souls via idolatry.





Here you can see us before the water in that cauldron is poured on our heads. My godbrother (hidden behind the lid), me, and my brother are listening to the priest as he reads the important words that will save us from hellfire. My mother in the red dress seems downcast, as do everyone else for that matter. Maybe it was the solemnity of the ceremony. Or maybe there was some tension that us kids weren't aware of. My godparents are directly behind us, and my grandmother is behind them. I can tell just from looking at her face that she's upset, because I know her moods so well.





I have to laugh at my expression here. This is usually the face I make when either: (a) I'm annoyed; (b) I don't want my picture to be taken; or (c) all of the above. I hadn't yet completely turned against the Catholic faith at this point, but the beginnings of some tough questions were already forming at this age. My discontent with the religion, and eventually ALL religions, would come to a full boil after--wonder of wonders--my mother died so tragically.

I once asked one of the Sisters at the church if all people go to heaven.

No, she replied, only those who believe in Jesus do.

But what about if I'm good my entire life, never doing crime or being spiteful to others?

No, she repeated, only those who believe in Jesus will enter heaven. A man, no matter how good his deeds, cannot be with God at the final judgment unless he is baptized and saved first.

This did not sit well with me. I thought it didn't seem fair as a kid, like as if something was not right with the universe as I saw it. My grandmother echoed the Sister's explanation when I asked her the same question, which eventually led me to rejecting all religions. This was a major moment in my life, the asking of this one fundamental question. I believed in good and evil, and I believed that any moral being should do as much good in life as he can. I didn't see what saying rosaries, praying to statues, and getting doused by holy water had to do with having a happy afterlife.

So, ironically, although my baptismal was supposed to be the turning point towards a deeper understanding of my faith, it in fact served as the first step to my eventual removal from religion altogether.

Bet no one at our church had anticipated that.Source URL: https://bollywoodsexygirls2012.blogspot.com/search/label/Family
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1st Birthdays

I recently attended the first birthday of my nephew, Chandler -- Lisa's sister's son. It was held in her Grandmother's backyard in the northern Bronx. Of course we got there on time and were almost the only ones there. Because of, you know, BPT (Black People's Time), LOL!



So this only meant we had more time to play with Chandler by ourselves. His parents were busy trying to get things organized.





As you can see, here he is looking very tired. He was sitting listlessly until we got there, probably thinking: is anyone going to show up for my party? Aww!




So Lisa gave him some watermelon, and that pepped him right up. This boy loves to EAT!!! The minute he senses food in the vicinity, he gets happy.




Now the first guests are starting to trickle in. He's going to greet them.




A gentleman always shakes hands with his guests. He sure got around on those chubby legs -- meeting and greeting people and charming them with his smile. He was around 3 seconds from dancing to the music here.




Here he found the snacks and grabbed hold of a cheese puff, which he proceeded to play with in his mouth for like 5 minutes until it was soft enough to swallow. He was a hit with the bigger kids who came by. They all had a blast.




Eventually Chandler's mother came and got him so that the cake cutting could commence. He was stunned by all the faces staring and singing at him here. (ha, ha)




See the devilish smile on his face as the cake is cut? He doesn't know what's going on, but he can bet it tastes yummy!!!




Lisa's younger brother came by with his newborn, our second niece. Her name's Ariana. Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks? Everyone was in love with her, and I got the honor of holding her for half the night. She drooled all over me!


All in all it was a fun, though, exhausting day. I don't know how parents do it!
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The Stork's Been Working Overtime

I'm 31, which means I'm in that prime time of my life where all my friends, co-workers and siblings are starting to get the urge to pass on their genetic code -- i.e., have little ones. Well, luckily none of *my* siblings have done so yet, as I'm the oldest and it's my prerogative -- no, my DUTY -- to be the first to have a kid. :-)

But Lisa's younger brothers and sister have been working big time to beat her to the punch. Her sister already had our cute little niece some time back, but just last year gave birth to an adorable baby boy whom we believe will turn into quite the rambunctious fellow in about T-minus 11 months (he just turned 1 last month). Right now he's at the cute phase where he can walk and pretend to carry on a conversation, but I can only imagine what he'll be like the day he discovers the word "no!"

Her brother's wife had a baby boy roughly three months before this, so for the past year I've been introduced to two new nephews out of the blue. Then her baby brother had a girl just a few months ago (talk about weird -- I first met him when he was still watching Sesame Street, fer crissakes!). So that's three (count em) new little boogers in the wife's family that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere. That's a lot of birthdays to suddenly have to remember. Lucky for them, they're all cute or I'd likely want nothing to do with the brats -- I kid, I kid.

Anyway, a good friend of mine, C, had her baby girl last year, too. And now my oldest friend in the world, B, is the proud father of twin girls as of this past week. Holy hell! What's going on here?

As anyone who's married and in their 30s knows, you very quickly start to feel the pressure from both family and friends to "get with the program" and start being fruitful and multiply and all that biblical goodness. Lisa and I have our own personal reasons for waiting a while before we create the clone(s), and the sometimes not so subtle hint from others doesn't sway us one bit (ha!)

But it makes me feel old, to think of all these friends I knew since I was a teenager suddenly becoming parents and all responsible and stuff. Wow, they are *so* brave! I feel like I barely got my own shit together, that the thought of introducing a baby into our lives now is like begging for chaos. Lisa feels the same, which is why we get along so well. But we have our days where even we discuss when the right time might be. Not now is all that we can agree upon.

Someday, though. Someday . . .

In the meantime, I have a whole gaggle of cute, drooling babies to play with and bribe with candy behind their parents' backs. It's not such a bad thing, being the cool "uncle," eh?Source URL: https://bollywoodsexygirls2012.blogspot.com/search/label/Family
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