The afternoon has been as gray as can be, and while I'm grateful for the cool breeze playing among hanging greens on the wall outside, I'm on the brink of being swamped. I can't seem to finish anything right. Josh is waiting for Ate Nita to finish getting her first COVID vaccine shot in Gen Trias (at an outdoor coffee shop, he assures me). Amy and Daniel are both napping, and so is Ate Neng. Paul, Francis and Ate Rose are out in the garage working on bike stuff Josh assigned them before he left. I'm flitting from task to task while catching episodes of I Hear Your Voice but my heart isn't in any of it. I've no reason to be like this; I enjoy my work, I'm good at what I do, I'm in no hurry. But my mood is what it is, gray.

We celebrated Daniel's baptism (finally) last Saturday in MTQ, with all the fans on and doors open, with about half of the community in attendance. The rest, and my parents, watched over Zoom. It was a beautiful Eucharist: Minda and Nene arranged the flowers around the altar and the baptismal font, and Nene sewed a white garment to drape over Daniel. During what would usually be the profession of faith, Father Paolo poured water over Daniel's head and anointed him with sweet-smelling chrism. Yan-Yan sang "Circle of Life" under his breath when Josh raised up a bewildered Daniel, at Father Paolo's request, to present him to the congregation. We posed for a few photos, masks on, after the mass, and Amy gathered up some of the flowers to bring home.

The past month found us gingerly venturing out of the house for fleeting dates and family trips. The first, an hour at Quezon Memorial Circle for me and Josh to buy larger pots for the plants which, thanks to the abundance of sun and rain, were fast outgrowing their teensy condo 6-inchers. It was a drizzly weekday afternoon, and very few people were around, so we got hotdogs and soda and ate them in the van. We tried to bring Amy there that weekend, but the guards wouldn't let us in. (This was before IATF declared that children 5 years and older were allowed in outdoor public venues.)

The following week, we stayed at a family friend's rest house in Laguna, and Amy learned to use a pedal bike for the first time. She loved it and has biked every day since. We even brought her bike to St. James for Pops' birthday, and she biked around with Terrence, the friend she made during our last visit (was it December or February? The months just melt into each other). Despite the looming threat of another Taal eruption, everything went well.

WordPress isn't letting me add any more photos to this post, so let's leave it at that. I have the last episode of I Hear Your Voice to finish, while it's a holiday.