Gio

30th of January, 2022

Five years ago, on January 28, a little bundle of joy came into the world. He was a handsome one that caught the hearts of his parents, aunts and cousins. His name is Gio Aleksander.

But our happiness was short-lived.

You see, his mom hails from Iligan, a province in Mindanao, while me and my brother, the little boy’s father, live in Cebu, a province in the Visayas. His mom is the eldest of three girls, they don’t have a boy in their family. His grandparents at the mother side asked my brother if Gio can live with them in Iligan. They don’t have children to take care anymore as all their daughters are all grown up.

It was a tough decision for my brother but in the end, he has to concede. Both he and his wife works at Shangri-la Mactan and were not able to look for a nanny to watch over Gio while they go to work.

So a month after Gio was born, he left us and went to live in Iligan.

The highlights of his life were all celebrated in Iligan.

To be a bit part of his christening, I made the baptismal souvenirs for him. I worked overtime to finish 30 pairs of booties with a mustache. I was given less than twenty days to finish them. It was a tedious and tiresome task but I was happy to do it. It was 100% handmade with love.

I was not able to attend the christening but my girls all went with my brother to do the set-up of the venue.

That was the last important event in Gio’s life that we were able to join.

We haven’t celebrated birthdays with him.

But this year was different.

My brother, who is now currently working in New Zealand after his resignation in Shangri-la, sent me a message that Gio will be in Cebu from January 28 to February 1. They came to Cebu for medical purposes as both he and his mother are being petitioned by my brother to go to New Zealand. This is now an opportunity to celebrate birthday with Gio which we gladly grasp.

So yesterday, January 29, we prepared a birthday celebration for Gio. It was his first birthday celebration in Cebu and our first birthday celebration with Gio.

His father provided the budget for the lechon and some of the food while I provided the cake and the spaghetti.

My daughters prepared a tarp for him and made some balloon arrangements.

His favorite characters at the moment is the game Plants vs. Zombies. So we made this as the theme of the party. When he saw the tarp on the wall, he noticed right away his picture. He asked his cousins who made him a sunflower and to that they answered that he is a zombie at the same time. He was not able to notice him being a zombie.

He is my second nephew who speaks English at all times and he speaks so fast that I can’t grasp the rest of his words. This is just one of the few things that we don’t know about him being not living near us. But he is a friendly boy. He blends with his cousins as if they were living in the same roof since birth.

Before blowing his cake he first recites a Psalm phrase but I was not able to get it. So slang is this boy. 😁

After dinner, he gets to open his gifts. These gifts were our Christmas gifts to him. Yeah, every Christmas we always wrap a gift for him. His mom comes to the house to collect them before she goes home to Iligan for her Christmas vacation.

And since most of the gifts were toys, it’s playtime after dinner.

All in all it was a successful birthday celebration for the little boy. I just wish it will be every year that we get to celebrate with him.

Thank you for crashing in on the birthday party.

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That’s all for now folks.

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