Hat Couture

My family recently escaped to cool, breezy Tagaytay for some business mixed with pleasure. (Read: My husband had to do an out-of-town location shoot and he had no choice but to have his loony wife tag along with the baby!)

When we arrived at our designated suite at Taal Vista Hotel, we were aghast to discover something missing from the gazillion things we packed for the excursion -- Niccolo’s cap!

It was always a struggle getting our hyperactive toddler to wear a cap; ten seconds was the record for the longest time he allowed something to lay on his head before impatiently yanking it out. We figured our mischievous menace must have surreptitiously ditched his cap somewhere in our condo before we boarded our vehicle bound for the windy hills.

Since the weather where we were was chilly and damp, proper protective headgear was an absolute essential for babies. The harassed Mommy therefore had no choice but to flee the scene in search of a kiddy hat. The first store I stumbled upon turned out to be a gift boutique. All they had available were cheesy souvenir hats labeled “Tagaytay City.” Desperate as I was, I didn’t care. I hurriedly picked out the least awful one I could find that would fit my child and prayed the imp would let it stay on his head for at least twenty seconds.

When I got back to the hotel, I tentatively put the brand new blue hat on our son. I then stood aside, let him be, and instinctively started counting to twenty under my breath. As I did this, I observed our little one amble over to the mirror, carefully check himself out and suddenly break out in a gleeful smile.

Then, he proceeded to run around the room like an energizer bunny, dance like a dizzy duck, and bounce up and down like a crazy kangaroo on the bed…… with his hat still on his head.

With amazement, I realized that more than sixty seconds had passed from the time I began my countdown. I stopped and simply looked on in amusement. By some strange twist of fate, our tot was actually thoroughly enjoying his silly, silly hat.

In fact, from that moment on, he adamantly refused to remove his floppy hat. It thus came to be that we ended up spending the remainder of our trip with our very own Mad Hatter.

Lo and behold… the new poster boy for Tagaytay City’s children’s hat couture line!

Visit Tagaytay now!

Aha! Miss Tourism Philippines has just found her successor!

YIPEE!