Kris on ‘the only man’ in her life

Kris Aquino and five-year-old son, Joshua, sleep in the same bed.

When Kris wakes up at around 8:30 in the morning, Joshua stirs and follows his mom.

Says Kris, "I see to it that half of my coffee is milk because he likes sipping coffee with me. If I don’t let him, tug-of-war will almost likely ensue and I don’t want that."

Then son bombards her with music from characters from Sesame Street, including nursery rhymes. He has learned to operate the CD player and he couldn’t help it.

Joshua, by then, will be off to school and Kris on her way to her noontime TV show.

There are more arguments on the way.

Joshua insists on wearing a shirt he had outgrown and Kris tells him to try another one. There is no way son will give in. Then poor Mom relents.

Says she, "I just have to let him have his way because I read somewhere that if children insist on something, it is one way of expressing themselves."

More arguments on her work-a-day world.

Son still wants to drop her Mom in her place of work.

"Mom, hatid only. ABS-CBN lang," he pleads.

"No, son, you will be late for school," she rules and it is final.

Then maid reminds her of the must in the day’s budget – gasoline for the car, snacks for Joshua, etcetera.

Son has a long day in school and so does the mom.

They see each other around five or five thirty in the afternoon at home and that is the time Kris is glued on the computer.

Says Mom: "This is the time he will try everything to distract me and make sure my attention is fully on him. He’d say, ‘Mom, I want to buy Royal (an orange brand)’ or ‘I want to go to Julia’s house’ (his three-year old friend in the neighborhood) or ‘Mom, you cook na.’ He knows most of the time that if I was home, I’d cook dinner for us."

At home, Joshua is comfortable on just kamiseta and short.

He is five but wears a size 12 bottom.

About his footwear, he wears anything else but Nike and has a lot to complain if it is another brand.

He watches Sesame Street and is fond of the character in Toy Story voiced by Tom Hanks.

By this time, he got used to her celebrity mother lording it over television and his father figuring in action films and also in another TV show.

Joshua gets to watch his Mom’s noon time show only on a Friday but on a Sunday, he is tuned to The Buzz. "When he hears the first few bars of the show’s theme music, he’d be glued on TV and when he sees my image on the television screen, he’d put his lips on the TV monitor," she relates.

But seeing his Mom and Dad on television is no big deal for Joshua. He just got used to seeing them in another medium that curiosity was out of the question. "For Joshua, seeing me and his Dad on television regularly is just a way of life."

But like his parents, Joshua got his taste of the TV cameras when he figured in a Purefoods TV commercial endorsing chicken nuggets.

Mother is in it as well and for the shoot, Kris was the director’s link to Joshua who has an entourage of his yaya and speech teacher.

"For him to emote and get instruction from the director and assistant director was real tough," she relates. "Everybody in that shoot can say that I was probably the most tired person in the set because I was not just taking care of myself but of my son as well. But when you see the finished product and reflect on the actual work involved, you somehow feel a certain pride for your son. He has no stage or camera fright or anything like that. And he has a way of using his eyes which you cannot learn easily. I think that is innate or inborn."

But Kris didn’t have to exert effort to persuade her son to do the commercial because chicken (along with spaghetti) figures as one of his favorite meals.

"It’s fun rearing him because you don’t have to coax him to eat," says Kris. "Ever since he was a child, he has no objection to intake of fruits or vegetables. He loves kangkong and is fond of asparagus but only the fresh ones. Ayaw niya ng nasa lata. His first commercial isn’t a put on. He really loves that line, ‘Mom, I want more’ and he is crazy about chicken. Sometimes, I had to limit his intake of rice because I don’t want him to be super fat naman."

But Kris considers herself an indulgent mother in another sense.

She doesn’t totally rule out junk food – "You only get young once" – but she makes sure nutritious food doesn’t lose out.

Born June 4, 1995, Joshua Aquino-Salvador has formidable family lineage. He is son of presidential daughter and grandson of Cory Aquino and son of the equally-famous and much awarded actor, Phillip Salvador.

How that brief but controversial liaison came to be was public knowledge. One way or the other, it served as The Education for Kris Aquino who earlier ventured into movie acting and found her niche in TV hosting. That experience probably rendered her more sensitive and more understanding on the nature of human relationship.

She learned the joy of loving and learned just in time that she had to be fair to her own self as well.

For now, her life revolves solely on her son and her career.

Bonding became very strong when Joshua was operated on when he was 10 months old and that was the time mother got the hindsight that her life, from that time on, would revolve solely around her son. "That was the time it dawned to me that he needed me and that when things go wrong, the first thing children do is look for a mother."

Even as Kris is loveless at the moment, she is sure about Joshua’s role in her life.

Proud Mom concludes: "He is one person that no matter how exhausted I am and no matter how down my spirits are, when he embraces me, all of that disappears. If I feel some burdens, they are completely erased when I am in his company. I guess the role he plays is that he is one person who gives me the most joy."