It's a MelloYello Life

Today I have the flu.  I decided to stay in bed and rest as advised by my friends and family. BUT, as restless as I am, I turned on my laptop and searched for Asperger's documentaries to better understand my son K. You see, I have been struggling with him lately.  Unlike before, he's more withdrawn and would rather not share anything about what happened during the day.  He doesn't know it, but he hurts my feelings when he says : "I'd rather not talk about it". I know that the AS makes him blind to emotions because he simply doesn't recognize them, thus making emotions irrelevant. I find this hard to deal with but it's something I need to accept and work with everyday to prepare him for life. Anyway, allow me to share with you a video I found on You Tube about a teenager with AS. Reuben is a lot like K, being very literal, the bullying, confusion in the supermarket, self-confidence issues. Among all the videos I've seen, this is the one I can rela...

I really don't know if there is such as thing as Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder, but I can relate to the following joke and it's making me worry a bit: Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests: I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So I decide to put the bills backon the table & take out the garbage first.. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the ...

I'm quite sure that for most 13 year olds, going to the mall, and hanging out with friends on the weekend is a normal activity. This isn't so for my son K. Having  Asperger's Syndrome (AS), K has difficulty socializing. He isn't an introvert or anti-social. He is simply incapable of recognizing and responding to verbal cues from others.  A couple of years ago,  buying his own burger and fries at McDonald's was enough to make him sweat nervously and clam up.  He needs to rehearse what he needs to say to the cashier before he gets in line to order. It takes him forever to muster up the courage to get in line.  Lately, I've been "training" him to buy the stuff that he wants so he has no choice but to do it. I was excited and nervous when he told me that his good friend A invited him to go to the nearby mall and play network games. K, got down all the details of the "play date" and relayed them to me. I was happy that he finally had the urge to ...

I'd like to think that there is still something I can do to help save what's left of our dear old mother earth. I've been bringing my own shopping bag to the grocery and refusing plastic bags when I buy something from the nearest convenience store. I have been trying to reduce my use of drinking straws as much as I can (speaking of which, can't someone invent reusable ones already?) and just recently got myself a pair of green shoes. Yes, they are literally and figuratively speaking, GREEN. Enter Simple Shoes , the first biodegradable shoes I've encountered so far here in the Ph. I was going to buy a new pair anyway and the designs were interesting so I decided to try some. The soles of these shoes are made from the recycled rubber of tires and the laces are made from PET bottles. They use HEMP   to make the body of the sneakers (no, I did not attempt to light up my shoes) because it is one of the strongest and most breathable fibers available and apparen...

The Recto Train A and the LRT Ticket I've lived in Metro Manila all my l ife and never been to Ongpin. Shame on me, I know. I just never had any time (or interested friends to go with) until now. So, one Saturday, Alice, Oh, Rhy and I decided to go on an Ongpin food adventure. We took the LRT 2 from Cubao to Recto. You can go through Gateway Mall from the MRT (the one that goes through EDSA) to get to the LRT 2.  The four of us met up at the Isetann Mall close to the Recto stration and got on the jeep going to Divisoria (P7.00) and got off at the Aranque Market entrance. From here we could easily navigate through the Binondo Food Wok Map which I borrowed from my officemate Kat and find our way into the heart of Ongpin. Thanks to my dear officemate Kat, we had a Binondo Food Wok Map to help us through to get to the heart of Ongpin. Sights, sounds, and smells of Ongpin! The streets were narrow, traffic everywhere, the heat was really on! But we happily strolled through...

Thanks to a Samsung event I attended for work, I got to try some variants of the Messy Bessy line. If you aren't familiar with the brand yet, Messy Bessy manufactures home cleaning products which are all non-toxic and environment friendly.  They are available in selected supermarkets nationwide at reasonable prices. The Samsung organizers launched their new microwave, french door refrigerator, and front load washing machine. I was  hoping to win the raffle and take home a neat home appliance but I wasn't at all disappointed when they handed me the Messy Bessy gift pack.  I tried the all-purpose cleanser on my bathroom sink. It had a pleasant eucalyptic scent which I love! The texture is quite grainy which worked like a scrub on its own. Like Axion. Another favorite is the Minty Orange Surface Cleaner. You know how when you're cooking and you mess up your kitchen counter WHILE you're cooking and need to clean up as your cooking? This is the perfect solution. Since...

Given my association with the world-renowned Philippine Madrigal Singers, people naturally ask whether my son K also likes to sing. You know, I believe I haven't heard him sing more than 10 times in his entire life. K reacts to music. That manifested when he was about 3 years old and we were on a taxi home and the radio was playing "I never had a dream come true". All of a sudden I heard sniffling. K was crying! I asked him, "What's wrong?" He just shrugged and buried his head into my lap. When the music stopped, he explained that "the music made me cry".  Another instance was at the end of the first Harry Potter movie, he begged me to stay and finish the end credits. I asked him what he was waiting to see on the screen. He said he wanted to finish the music. I noticed that since then, he prefers soundtrack or theme music than songs with lyrics. However, K would occasionally grant us a song or two when we had our Magic Mic moments, but not happil...