What's in a Name?

One of the hardest thing to do when preparing for the coming of your child is picking out a good name. Back in the old days, people would name their child based on the saint whose feast day would coincide with the child's birth. If you were born on the feast of St. Michael, you would be named Miguel/Michael (or any other name derived from Michael). Others would combine the name of the father and the mother. (Vincent+Maileen = Vileen? Maicent?) And then there's the often used "junior" (if it is a boy, of course! I don't think there's a female version for junior.)
Personally, I don't like to use "junior". For me, it 1. lacks imagination, 2. would appear that you want your son to continue whatever unfinished business that you had. I wanted my son to have an identity of his own, so "junior" was not considered.
When picking out a name, I usually follow the following guidelines:
1. How it would sound when saying the name? (Clark Kent Roa just doesn't sound right)
2. What nick name could be derived? Are they acceptable? (Vincent = Vince/Cent/Vicente/Enteng/Teng... haaay... pwede na rin)
3. The meaning of the name (Vincent = conquering, Carlos = strong, Sebastian = Venerable)
4. The length of the name when writing it. (A very long name would take your kid too much time writing it on his test paper)
5. The possible names that could be derived by my son's future playmates (Bart Fart, Francis Panis, etc.)
My first born's name is Carlos Sebastian. In a few weeks time, his brother will be born and as of this writing, I am still thinking of a good name.

Hide and Seek

One of the hardest things that I had to do after my son was born was going back to work. Barely a week old, I wanted to spend more time playing with my newborn son. Alas, I was only allowed a week's leave and I had to go back to work which at the time was in another city.
That was more than year ago.
One of the games that my son likes to play is hide and seek.
"So what?", you might ask.
My son is now at a stage where he doesn't want to be separated from his parents. That can be a problem because we, his parents, have to go to work and we can't bring him with us. What we do is I take him with us when I drive my wife to the bus station. Then we go home and I ask the nanny ("yaya" to us pinoys) to play with him while I get ready for work. While he's distracted, I sneak out of the house and off I go to work. Thus started our game of "hide and seek" or "hunter and prey" to be more precise.
I became good at this "game". Unfortunately, so did my son.