Jan 27th 05
Posted by arnoldgamboa in Family
Last Saturday (January 23), I was attending SW@P (Seminar on Worship @ Praise) together with some leaders of Grace Place. Sometime in the afternoon, Joy called up and asked me to go home. Johann is sick and we need to bring him to the hospital. I am a hypocrite if I will say that I have not felt any regret for not being able to finish that wonderful seminar and eventually not participating in a great worship experience in the evening. But one thing I realized: being a father means putting your family ahead of whatever personal plans and enjoyments you may have. Sure I have missed the seminar and the concert — big time! — but never did I think that I should hold back and suspend what I had to do for my son. Hayy! Tatay na talaga ako. :D
I remember that exposition on the wedding at Cana by Max Lucado in his book “He Still Moves Stones”. He said that God might be busy managing the entire universe. But if you will call on him, if he needs to stop working on a brand new planet, He will stop and personally attend to your needs. Of course, God is all powerful — he can never be too busy. That is just to show how much he loves us and we’re always number one in His to-do list everyday.
By the way, to those who prayed from my son, especially my grace group, thanks a lot. He is now ok, recuperating. I hope to see him recover the weight he lost during the weekend sickness very soon.
Dec 28th 04
Posted by arnoldgamboa in Family
Last year, it was our first Christmas together. Johann was still in the darkness of his mother’s womb back then. This year is incomparable. The best Christmas ever — Johann’s first!
Johann unwrapping his gifts
“Hmmm.. I wonder what this is.”
More pictures here.
Dec 13th 04
Posted by arnoldgamboa in Family
If you don’t know what to do with your money and you simply want to waste it away — no sweet — here’s an idea.
Last Saturday night after a tiring family day, I wasn’t feeling well so I had to take a quick nap. After sometime, there went the high flying kicks of my son , Johann, to my face. When he does that in the morning, he means playtime. And so, I knew he wanted to play with Dad. But I’m sick, remember? I’ve got to find a work around.
Johann, in his sucking stage, wants to suck anything — i mean, literally anything. In fact, it seems that he preferred to suck non-toy objects. And he has favorites. Number one in the list is our television remote control. I already had it fixed for broken ‘internal organs’ due to injuries sustained from being thrown to the floor for quite a number of times. And we have to keep the remote always sanitized if in case he sucks again (what a term!).
The tissue paper. Oh, he loves that. He sometimes even fall asleep still holding the poor tissue paper. That means, we need to keep our eyes open, he might swallow it all the way.
Included in his top ten list is his mom’s and dad’s cell phones. I know, I know, it’s not the best object for babies to play around. But what can I do? He uses his secret weapon — crying — every time he wants to play with it.
Going back to being kicked and sick in bed. As I said, I have to find a way to distract his attention. Being half asleep, I couldn’t find anything but that one that is always placed in my pocket — my Nokia 6610. So a grabbed it and — “There, play with it.” And so he did.
After gaining some strength I woke up for dinner. Had to text several guys. Then suddenly, the phone went off. I thought my battery’s low, so I recharged it. Nothing seems to be happening. I tried my battery on my brother-in-law’s phone, and it’s working. Hmmm… Something’s not right. Afer several tries, I gave up finding ways to make it work and simply planned to have it fixed in the mall the next day.
The next day came. After church, we went to Glorietta’s Goldcrest to have the phone fixed. The phone technician said, he thinks the problem is the software. So it has to be reinstalled. The only damage is P500 and my phone book lost. P500 is fine I thought, my phonebook’s loss hurts but I can bear it. So I gave a go signal.
I was following the software installation and noticed that the installation (Flashing) keepings failing. From the IT perspective, I know there’s something wrong. The technician just doesn’t want to admit it because he told me he is quite sure that the problem is the software. Talk about ego.
I asked him if there’s something wrong. He finally said, probably. I asked him to ask the other guy, probably more knowledgeable that him. The other guy recommended that we change the Flash IC. Technical term, but it simply is an internal component of the phone that seems to fail. The cost — P2,500. I had to breath hard. P2,500 is P2,500 now a days.
The thing with our current urban society is, they have managed to manipulate the minds of people that without a cell phone, “you’re out!” (as the popular teen star search favorite line says). You can’t live without it. That’s what I felt.
So.
The IC was processed and after 30 mins, the guy went back. Sir, ok na po. Gumagana na. Kaso paso sira na po yung LCD. Nung binuksan po namin yung phone nyo, parang basa. Nag short circuit po siguro yung mga pyesa kaya pati yung LCD na damay.
My phone was soaked wet. Soaked wet? By whom? By what?
By my son. By his saliva.
Magkano naman yung LCD? I asked. Sir, P,2000 po talaga bentahan namin, bigay ko nalang sa inyo ng P1,500. Oh, well, whatever. Sales talk.
The total damage — P4,000. Enough to buy gifts for Christmas. Enough to buy food for the flood victims in Real, Quezon. Enough to send a poor child to school for 1 year. *teary eyed*
The *teary eyed* was a joke. But I did feel that my P4,000 went to nothing. The first time I saw my son after I had my cellphone fixed, I immediately said, as if he understood me, No more cellphones, ok?
If you don’t know what to do with your money and you simply want to waste it away, that’s the way to do it. Or can you just donate it back to me?
Nov 24th 04
Posted by arnoldgamboa in Family
Yesterday, Joy took random pictures of Johann while in his playpen. While we were reviewing the pictures last night, Joy said, “You know, I remember I have a picture similar to this when I was a baby”. So I asked her to look for it. And here, see for yourself the similarities.
Take a closer look at how the arms and legs are placed. The have the same stare. And the chin, how “Joy-ish”. The forehead. Ha! Very Dacer! Johann obviously got my nose — sorry, son. But the round, glowing eyes of him mom, how captivating.
I’m particularly amazed on the coincidence of this picture being taken on very similar positions, including the camera shot angle.
