Father's Day with my One and Only

This is only the second father’s day that Alan is truly a father to me — since it’s the second we are celebrating with Angel.  But even before we had our own child, I would celebrate the father that Alan is to his now 15 year old son.  Even before we got married, I knew how good a father Alan was to his son, and I always looked forward to that day when he can be a father to my own flesh and blood.

Yesterday we went around and celebrated the day with the family as has been the practice in years passed, and then he and I drove to get his Father’s Day present (despite my allergies.)  We had a fun time browsing and he was telling me that this year, he can really feel what Father’s Day is because he can truly relate to Fatherhood from both sides of the spectrum.  He said the good and the bad — I told him the good and the challenging.

One thing that made me fall in love with Alan was the thought of how good a father he can be to my son or daughter way back when I could still see stars twinkling even in the daytime.  Now that he is here helping me raise Angel, I fall in love with him each time I see him playing or holding Angelo lovingly.  Sometimes I’d leave father and son to lull each other to sleep while I clean up in the kitchen, and it is always such a heartening sight to see them lying next to each other, fast asleep.  Not only is it because they look like the older and younger version of each other, or as Alan says, the Big Me and the Mini Me — but because they are such a sight to behold, lovingly cuddling one another, more so now that Angel loves to put a hand or arm across the shoulder or chest of whoever is sleeping next to him.

We have our challenges like most couples and yet we strive to overcome them and face them head on as a couple.  It’s not always easy, but we are trying our very best.  I know that he had a happy father’s day, and I will always strive to make that a special day for my one and only.

Allergies

I got hit badly by allergies yesterday, no thanks to the fact that I had lunch in my sister-in-law’s house where they now have 2 pet cats. I’ve been asthmatic from birth, but this is the first time that I’ve been hit by allergies so badly. And to think Mom had at least half a dozen cats back home — give or take one or two at any given time — but I never sneezed, got teary eyed or got so affected like this. My eyes are better now, but I can still feel some discomfort. As much as I’d like to down another Benadryl tablet, I can’t afford to go drowsy here at work. Just a few hours more and I can go — and I can be comfortable again.. I hope.

One thing about Spring is the fact that it means all the allergens like pollen, ragweed, and dander run amuck in the atmosphere. We never heard of this back in Manila, but when I got here, I found myself having asthma attacks not during the winter months when we would expect it to come, but rather during the spring and summer months when the allergens are thick in the air.

This has been one of the many adjustments I’ve had to make. Living with asthma since I was a child was never easy, although my asthma attacks are nothing that required major medical intervention. They were mostly allergic reactions to dust or erratic climate changes which were mostly occasioned by the typhoon season while I was still in Manila. Otherwise, I led a pretty normal life.

I’m just glad that it looks like Angel did not get the weak lungs my siblings and I got from my Dad. He has been adjusting well, perhaps partly because he was born in the spring (May 2004) which allowed his lungs to adjust to the allergen-infested air we breathe here.