Baby's Day Out

Life really does imitate art sometimes. Remember the movie "Baby's Day Out"? It was about this baby who crawled his way all over New York City. Well, my 3-year-old nephew did his own version of the story last Tuesday.

My cousin Coco told this hilarious and unbelievable tale when we met up at the ICU waiting area of East Avenue Medical Center to visit our Auntie Kris.

When Coco got home last Tuesday night (wife Elaine was still in the office), their yaya told him that young Curt went missing for a few hours that day. While desperately trying to avoid either a heart attack or a yaya-homicide, Coco calmly talked to Curt and asked him how his day went.

According to Curt, while the yaya was putting baby Hans to sleep, he wanted to buy a Zesto juice drink. And when he found P2 in his dad's old pants in the laundry, he went out of the house (according to the yaya, she opened the door and assumed that Curt will not go beyond the gate). Smart Curt was able to open the gate and went to the first sari-sari store. The tindera told him that P2 wasn't enough. He walked over to the second store where he was told the same thing. Not about to give up, he reached the bakery near the village gate. Alas, P2 was still not enough. So he decided to sit on the sidewalk for awhile. When the lola who owned the bakery came out to sweep the sidewalk and asked Curt what was wrong, he told her: "I am lost. My dad is dead." (Backstory: Coco and Curt were playing "baril-barilan" that morning. Coco got tired so he told Curt that he was hit and was already dead. By the way, all of Coco's kids understand Tagalog but prefer to speak in English).

Alarmed by Curt's statement, the lola asked him a few more questions.

Lola: "Ano pangalan ng tatay mo?"

Curt: "Coco."

Lola: "Eh ang nanay mo?"

Curt: "Elaine."

Lola: "Saan ba ang bahay niyo?"

Curt: "Cainta." (backstory: Their family moved from Cainta to Marikina just a few weeks ago.)

So the lola called the barangay tanod and turned over Curt to them. The barangay people then loaded Curt into the barangay-owned jeep (Note: Curt told his dad that he rode in a jeepney with no horses on it --- so Coco guessed the jeep was an "owner") and went all the way to Cainta Municipal Hall. They looked at the poster of "missing people" there and didn't find Curt's name nor his picture. Finally, they decided to go back to where Curt was found thinking that maybe his parents are now looking for him there.

When Curt saw the bakery, he exclaimed, "That's where we buy our Zesto!". The barangay tanod thought that was a clue. So they went farther down the street.

Upon reaching the village guardhouse, Curt pointed it out and said "I don't live there!" (Backstory: Coco scared Curt once that he will live in the guardhouse if he wasn't a good boy). Since it seemed like another good clue, the barangay people continued to go down the street.

Finally, Curt pointed at an apartment and shouted, "That's my house!!!". And so Curt was happily turned over to his yaya (who claimed to be frantically looking for him).

After Curt told his dad about his adventure, Coco contemplated with the idea of shaving off all the hair from the yaya's pretty little head. He nixed that idea and is now looking for a yaya replacement.

Before the night was over, Coco bought Curt what he was looking for all day -- a Zesto.