TAGAW

TAGAW For Bicolanos, "tagaw" means lizard or "butiki" in Tagalog. But in Cebuano tagaw means the situation of being "in extreme wonder" of something new. But why is TRYSH or REESE , who turns 14 on October 1, fondly called Tagaw? 

The pet name started when she was about four months old and we took her to Tagaytay City for the weekend. Having stayed since birth in the confines of their Condo unit, she was awed by the wide world outside. that she was obviously sleepy she tried to keep her eyes open and cried wildly whenever the bus stopped for traffic. She just wants the bus to go on so that she can watch everything. 

It was also her restrictions in the condo, while the parents were at work, that she became English speaking for hearing nothing all day but the TV and her yaya was also fairly good in the language. 

Growing up, she questions things, like why the small Mama Mary is outside while the big Mama Mary is inside the Antipolo church, or why a man before Jesus, in a mural at the UP Chapel, is washing his hands. And when there was a second collection in the church she asked the collector "Again?" 

It was also why we now call the second collection the "again". She wants everything to be in order or all should follow what others do, that in one Sunday mass at St. Jude she scolded some who don't hold hands and close their eyes during the recitation of The Lord's Prayer. 

We both love going to the malls, later with her brother Bugoy. It's always her request that we spend some hours at the mall. One time she sat beside me and said, "I want to go to the mall." I asked what she would do in the mall. She said she wanted to play and buy something. I asked her again, "why, do you have money?" She pounded my tummy and said, "No, but you have." 

She's inquisitive too that as a three-year-old I took her to my Office and she would seriously look into papers given to me for signature. Soon she'll be 18 and hinted that she wants her debut in Paris. Well, when we were in Tokyo she told me that when she grows up and has a job she'll take us back at her expense to Japan.

How I wish she had never grown to be the young lady that she is now. 

Even the joys of growing old with the grandchildren are fleeting moments too.