9.30.2010

Little School Boy


Jared attended play school last summer and I've been meaning to share the photos of their last day in school but keep on forgetting where the photos are stored. I'll get around to it, after Oct 10, when my life gets back to normal. =)



9.26.2010

Daboon to Bawoon and other milestones

He's taken to watching the movie Up lately and just the other day, he said bawoons instead of his usual daboon.

He's also singing for most part of the day, while playing, in between bites, while watching TV. He's learnings his colors. He knows yellow by heart and can identify purple, but still jumbles up the rest.

Other milestones:

- He's perfected his 1-20 by reciting and can identify them all jumbled up. He says 10,20,30 then 100, then 1,000, 3,000, then 1,000,000!
- He draws oblongs
- He's 3 ft and 1 inch tall
- He'll be 2 1/2 years old soon
- His new words: faster (when daddy is driving the car), turn right, turn left, go down now (when he sees Jollibee or Mcdo)
- Songs I can think of now that he can sing: London bridge, Eensy weency (or is it wincy) spider, it's a small world (one paragraph), bahay kubo, leron, leron sinta, 3 blind mice, row, row row your boat, I have 2 hands, fly, fly the butterfly and so many songs I have difficulty of keeping track.

he's growing up so fast mommy can't keep up. =)

9.23.2010

Nicknames

My grandfather is Chinese. He came to the Philippines from Amoy when he was 17. My family tree warrants an entire post but the intro is necessary to understand why in our family, we have peculiar nicknames.

Angkong (grandfather) can talk in Tagalog but with a definite Chinese twang (twang!). He had difficulty pronouncing names and so it was said my cousins' nicknames were created just so he can pronounce them. The nicknames I tell you are so far from their real names.

With that, I present my cousins:

Pong-Pong (who is giving birth anytime, soon. kaya mo yan!)

Ton-ton (with daughter Tracy who is the eldest among the newest batch of cousins)

Sing-sing (and son Cyrus--the youngest for now. but not for long )

Ding-dang (not technically a repeat but very, very close)

We also have a Che-che, a Jing-jing and a host of other names repeatedly said and passed of as nicknames. =)I'm just too lazy to lift pics off their FB accounts.

9.19.2010

Confessions of a Blog Stalker

Hi, I'm Leslie and I'm a blog stalker. =)

Oh, yes, I am! I love peeking into the blogs of other people because:

1. When my baby was just born, the blogs I frequent helped calm me. That I wasn't alone in feeling I'm not a good enough mom, that most new moms are also going through the same sleepless nights, breastfeeding issues etc.

2. During my maternity leave, It was my connection to the outside world. As a person always on the go, I was happy with a baby, but unhappy I can't go out, try new restaurants, be with friends. I was updated and that was a lot of help in battling with the baby blues or maybe the reason why (aside from a very supportive family) I didn't go through the baby blues at all.

3. I get ideas of places to go, complete with photos and often times, budget you need to allocate on each place. With toddler that we need to constantly entertain, this is a big, big help!I dream, dream about the vacations we'll have and it helps to visualize things, right?

4. I read the blogs of mommies with children the same age as my son. Here, I can compare notes on parenting styles, on how they discipline their children and on milestones and developments at a certain age. It made me a wreck when my baby was younger-- why is my son not crawling yet when other babies his age already are- but I am past this and now I just enjoy reading the blogs. They're more helpful to me than the books I read. The experiences are from real-life moms who I feel I can connect to.

5. And lastly, I get to ask the mommies which products are the best they've tried and where to buy these stuff. Mommies search high and low for the best to give their babies and that makes them the best resource persons. I've made quite a few purchases based on what I've read in other blogs.

So thank you to the blogs who keep me entertained and are a source of new learnings to me. I may not know you personally, but I do feel like I have a circle of friends in blogsphere.

9.16.2010

The World is a Happier Place with Grandmas

This is my belated Grandparents' Day post

I’m the 3rd of 24 apos (grandchildren). As one of the first batch of grand children, I got to enjoy being with my mamang (grandma) longer and now looking back, my fondest memories of her center around food and the kitchen.

You see, she has 10 children and as a mother, the busiest part of the house is where the food is cooked. I remember that she’d always, always have food ready. As a matter of fact, the vendor selling bananas would eat sometimes at the house.

I remember with fondness gifts of plastic dangling earrings and clothes (terno) almost every time my lola would visit the market, the pasalubong of yummy halo—halo in empty Carnation evap tin cans, helping make bilo bilo for ginataan, and trying my small hands at grating coconut the old-fashioned way.

I remember our trips to Alabang for our summer vacation with mamang towing us apos in all, I remember the smell of freshly cooked pinipig, the smell wafting from mamang’s kitchen down to our room in the first floor. I remember going to the market with her and cleaning the fish we bought at the market afterwards. Yes, I am odd that way, actually enjoying cleaning the gut and entrails of the galunggong.

Now, with my own son, I’m just so thankful his mama/nona (grandma) is with him.

After 32 years of working, my mom has retired this year and is hopefully reaping the rewards of being a full-time grandmother to her first apo. =)


I wonder how I will be as a lola? I want to be like my mamang and my mama before me, but more beautiful and way cooler!

So, a world without grandmas, nonnas, lolas, mamas, mommys, mammitas or whatever endearing way you want to call them is a world definitely less happy.

9.13.2010

Why Condo Living Isn't for Us (Now)


a 3 month pregnant me at the foyer of the condo unit

I've seen condos being constructed left and right and even I drool over their model units but with a child, it really isn't for us at this point.

When I was pregnant and was always in fear of losing our baby, our doctor advised that the long trip to and from work (1 - 1.5 hours each way) is taking its toll on me so either we find a place near our workplace or I stop working until I deliver the baby.

Hubby searched high and low for apartments in the area and I was losing hope we'll ever find one when his colleague at work offered their condo unit.

It was perfect for us then.

It was small, sure but it was just me and him and it made cleaning so much easier.

We wake up at 7 am to reach the office by 8, and by that I mean hubby drives me to my office first then proceeds to his.

When he picks me up at night, me buy food before going home. As soon as we reach our unit, we eat dinner, watch some TV. Then settle on the foam (there was no way I can go up the loft to sleep) we set up at the living room to watch our fave series on DVD. Then hubby will make some popcorn, prepare iced tea for him and Anmum for me.

That went on for 7 months and it was the time of our lives! I never had to worry about security even if I'm left alone at times I was on bed rest. And hubby's office is just actually less than 5 minutes away. Lovely set up, if you ask me.

With the size of the unit, we still had friends over and we loved the coziness of it all. I even had relatives sleep over -- all 8 of us in an approximately 20 sq m unit. =)
We loved our stay there in a major, major way.

But with a baby, now a very active toddler, I can't imagine us living in a condo like what we had before. We need a bigger space, with a wide yard and a happy, yellow kitchen. That is the family home I dream of (though in my dreams, we have 2 floors), and that is what we have now which we just need to fill with happy memories.

9.11.2010

Telltale Signs we have a Toddler in the House

It's 4 am and I couldn't go back to sleep. Our toddler woke up to drink cold water and my, my, he's really so big now and so making his presence felt in this house.

1. Our house, or my mother's house, spic and span before the baby, is now in eternal mess. Well, maybe not eternal as we are moving out soon.

2. We have a cornucopia of baby food in the house--oatmeal and wheatgerm, koko crunch cereals, bread sticks, milo etc.

3. You couldn't sit on the couch without your bum hitting something. There is always a toy hidden there somewhere.

4. His things are everywhere. Clothes in his closet in our room, extra clothes at lola's room, and still some more at his tati's (aunt) room.

5. You couldn't watch TV properly--not when it isn't Thomas and friends, or Baby Einstein, or Dora.

6. Speaking of #5, his DVD tape collection now rival that os his dad's!

7. And, we even have Jollibee ketchup in the bathroom.

Weird, no? He adores Jollibee and he hates getting his hair wet--so our solution was to bring in his favorite inside the bathroom so we can give him at least a decent bath.

I'm sure I can add more to the list, but it is 4 am and my brain isn't functioning at full speed yet.

Gotta go and try to sleep now. We'll be in Mcdo in a few hours for our Saturday morning breakfast.

9.07.2010

Cute Jammies

Okay, my son really is so "pawisin" that his everyday outfit consists on white sandos and his briefs. In fact, he's so used to this outfit that when we dress him differently, he will go in front of the mirror and say "Podi" (for pogi or handsome).

But the mommy in me could not resist buying him these cute pajama sets.

Set 1: Monsters

Set 2: Animals

Set 3: Rocket (but he took off the bottom part)

He's gotten so big that the bottoms look more like tights. I do think they are designed to look and fit that way. Better protection from the dreaded dengue, if you ask me and doesn't he look so cute in a winnie-the-pooh way?

Goodnight Prayer

My little boy said this little prayer last night.

In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear Jesus,

Please bless my ... (looks around the room and focused one the window) lizard
(the lizard almost always appears at that window at dusk and it scares him)
Bless my ...(looks around the room again and saw the drawer) lotion
Bless my.... powder
Bless my ...(pauses and looks at me so I thought he'll say mommy) bread
(and he just ate dinner and had milk at this time)
And bless me(without hesitation)

Amen.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

9.02.2010

Biscuit + Chocolate= YumYum (I mean YanYan)


Our little boy discovered this yummy treat last weekend at a convenience store. It was pure love for him. A combination of two of his favorite food. He couldn't get enough.
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