BEST GIFTS

FOR MY birthday last week, my kids surprised me with handmade cards. They handed them to me early in the morning on the 21st, accompanied by a flurry of hugs, kisses, and giggles. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are always wonderful reasons to celebrate your birthday, just as there are countless reasons to maintain a positive outlook on life. Let me say it plainly: receiving greeting cards from your children is the absolute best gift a father could ever ask for.

My three kids are my ultimate source of inspiration. Seeing their faces in the morning completely replenishes my arsenal, giving me the strength to stay on, move on, and hang on through every challenge life throws my way. Of course, I still flare up sometimes, scold them, and find myself wishing I had more time to spend with them. But I won't dwell on that today. A child will always be a child—by turns naughty, demanding, and incredibly sweet—just as a father must always be a father, forever carrying a profound soft spot for his offspring.

As parents, we can get so consumed by our relentless daily routines that we become completely oblivious to the small things. To my kids, there is no better way to express their love than by translating it into heartfelt words and colorful, chaotic artwork.

Here are my children's recent masterpieces

This one is from N-yel, my eldest.

Yes, those two photos on the front are of Manny Pacquiao which he (likely with his Mom acting as a co-conspirator) clipped from an old newspaper. My wife and kids love to tease me that the world-renowned boxing champion and I look like two peas in a pod. This is especially true whenever I sport longer hair with a middle split and bangs framing my face, or when I let myself go unshaved for two or three weeks. But if you read closely, did my son actually scribble the word handsome in there? Regardless, I choose to interpret his entire message as: "Hey, my dad is the champ!"

This one is from Dudoy, my second child.

This boy has not outgrown his absolute obsession with dinosaurs. Not even a little bit. He still loves to collect dinosaur figurines, watch dinosaur movies, read dinosaur trivia, stomp around acting like a dinosaur, and think like one. So, what else would you expect him to use as my visual representation on a birthday card? A massive T-Rex with a gaping mouth ready to devour its prey was the obvious choice (though this time, he cropped my photo into the scene and drew a birthday cake as the T-Rex's target). Looking closely at his drawing, I realize my little dinosaur lover actually loves burgers more than anything else. But for "dinosauring" me on my special day, I told him I won't let him have even a single bite of my next burger. Just joking, of course.

And this one is from Eya, my youngest.

My little girl with the missing-tooth grin absolutely loves writing love notes and doodling on paper scraps or the margins of her notebooks. (Just the other day, I overheard her Mom telling her to stop sending sweet-nothings to her classmates, one of whom happens to be a boy!) For my card, she went all out, using vibrant colored paper and a scented pen for a change—and why not? It was her dad's special day, after all. The heavy erasures on the page were likely the result of her older brother trying to "edit" her work. The highly unusual, jagged cuts along the corners were definitely her doing, as she still tends to transform her artwork into a chaotic mess whenever she gets her hands on a pair of scissors.

JUST LIKE all the other random letters and impromptu notes I have received over the years, I will keep these cards safely tucked away in my personal drawer. I know all too well that the day is coming when they will no longer do this for me or their mother. One day, they will grow up and barely recognize the versions of themselves that wrote these pages.

The he-he-he's, the hand-drawn emoticons, the dinosaurs, and the scented notes covered in heavy erasures will soon become a thing of the past. They may not always remain as outwardly sweet as they are right now. Like so many of my fondest memories, these moments will eventually be anchored to a fleeting era that no longer exists. But I secretly hope they never entirely stop sending me handwritten cards.

My kids truly love to pour out their sweet-nothings and flaunt their creativity whenever they make cards—whether it's for their Mom on Mother's Day, for each other's birthdays, or during Christmas. Sometimes, they do it when there is no occasion at all.

Whenever the mood strikes my youngest, she draws simple stick figures surrounded by "I love you's" and "I miss you's", naturally embellished with misshapen hearts and smiley faces. Then, pointing eagerly at the figures so I can see, she will chatter away in her sweet little voice: "This one is you, Daddy; this one is Mommy; this is Love; this is our house..."

I will hold onto these stick figures for as long as I can.