The Life of a Stage Parent

We were all very excited when we learned that Jakjak had been chosen as the OshKosh B'gosh ambassador a few weeks ago. He beat over a hundred other tots for the title (according to the newspaper). What was cool was that he did it, like a boss. :)

Thursday night. We have spoken to Jakjak about the fashion show the following day. We told him what he should expect, what not to expect and how he had an obligation (sort of) to do it (being the winner of the contest). At that point, we had realized that we had indeed become stage parents. Sigh.

Call time for practice was at 7 in the morning. Tough. On a non-school day, we are all still asleep at that hour. Add to that about an hour's worth of travel to get to Paragon and it was a recipe for a moody morning. Surprisingly, we made it to Paragon in one piece. We were hungry (too early to make breakfast) but not frustratingly mad. In fact, everything was calm and serene that morning. At least until the practice got on its way. And it all ended in a high note where everyone was free to do anything until the 2 PM call time for hair and makeup. For us, we went home.

In the afternoon, the mood had changed. Jakjak did not want to be on the show (that's what he thought anyway). He started acting up all through hair and make up. Thankfully, mum managed to calm him down after a while (after a long while). And with only minutes left before the show, he was finally up and about and playing with the other kids as if nothing happened. Mum decided that she would be the one to stay backstage with Jakjak, which meant I had front stage duties. It was more difficult than I had expected. I didn't think there would be so many people. I decided on photos rather than video (which I think now was a bad idea), because I was thinking that we can get a copy of it from Kidstyle. But it was alright, it wasn't easy to get good shots (the official photographers had the best location after all), but I managed somehow.

The shots could have been better, probably if I had training shooting events. But all went well. The show was over. Jakjak surprised everyone, even us. He was totally in to it. He ramped up the catwalk like he owned it. And it was the first time he did it. We are so proud of him for being a star in his own world. We hope that he did OshKosh (and Jay Gee) proud.

These two photos courtesy of Jules Estrella. Thanks Bro!

Ambassador Duty

Mum and dad saw an ad in the paper that OshKosh B'gosh was holding a model ambassador search for the brand. We both looked at Jakjak and smiled (more of an evil grin actually). While we had to buy our entry to the contest (you had to purchase a certain amount worth of OshKosh products), we figured it was just fair. Jakjak needed new shoes anyway (or so we kept telling ourselves), and that alone was already more than half of the required purchase. So we got him the shoes and told him all about the contest. There was a little bit of hesitation between the 3 of us then, but we thought, what the hell, let's just do it anyway.

We have always believed that Jakjak was photogenic. But since we are his parents, we thought that was just natural. I mean, no parent would dare say that their child isn't cute or adorable, right? So we have always just kept that between ourselves. While on the topic of photography, it's also best that people know how shy Jakjak is in front of the camera. Or so he says. What he always tells people, is not always what he is. To be honest, he is far from being shy. Well, at least not too shy to be a charming little prince.

What followed next were a few photo-shoots  After all, we did have to prepare him for modelling duty if needed. A few good shots here, a few good shots there, and more hours of frustration than was required and we finally had something to send to the contest coordinators. It's not that he was difficult to shoot, in fact, most of the time he was in the mood to do the shoots. It was just, well, we never really had modelling experience. Both the model and the photographer. So sometimes it was awkward, and sometimes it was hopeless. Most of the time it was just full of fun and silly things. And that was how it went on most days. And all that labor of love brought us to the interview and screening day.

On hindsight, we did not really get Jakjak ready for any interview. We just told him that there would be one. That they would probably ask him about himself, and that if they did, he can tell them anything he wants to tell them. We knew that he would have to model his clothes and told him to just follow instructions from whoever was coordinating the shoot. We did not tell him what to say, we did not teach him how to pose (goodness, we probably should have). We just let him do whatever he feels like doing and have fun doing it. It looked like he did have fun while we were there. Too much fun probably as he was in a most cheerful mood all day. So we figured, he did good. He did very good, that he received a round of applause from the crowd. After that, was the excruciating wait for the results.