Friday, March 30, 2012

Gymboree Music Class Day 2

Miya’s 2nd class in Gymboree was a more pleasant one. So I think it was definitely not the class to be blamed for a not-so-good turnout the last time we were there. The songs for this class were still the same from last week but Teacher Kat used different instruments and different actions for the songs. For the first song there was a part where you sing “Haaaa….haaaa” softly. It was so cute because one by one, the babies started saying “Haaaaa”. Here’s a video of the song, although I wasn’t able to capture Miya saying “Haaaaa.” Look at how attentive she is.


Teacher Kat was also happy with the class, she kept on saying that the babies were really participating. Here’s Miya “horsing” around. They were really supposed to copy what Teacher Kat was doing – pretending to be a horse.


See how happy she is during class? Every time I see her smile, I always think that the money we paid for the class is really worth it! Looking forward to her next classes!

Day 11 of 30

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Udele's Christening

Believe it or not, I never had a god daughter until I got pregnant with Miya. I have plenty of godsons, more than 10. The first one I became ninang to was when I was only 10 years old, I think, he’s a younger cousin. When I was pregnant and we don’t know the gender of the baby yet, and a friend told me I will be godmother to her son, I told her why I always get to have godsons and not goddaughters. She said not to worry because it might be because my baby will be a girl. Nagdilang anghel ang kaibigan ko!

Last Sunday, my second goddaughter, Joema’s niece, was baptised. Incidentally, my first goddaughter is also from Joema’s side of the family but we weren’t able to go to the christening. This time around, we made it a point to go because we haven’t visited Bocaue for such a long time. Joema’s family haven’t seen Miya as often. The baptism was held at Tramway, Timog.

My goddaughter, Udele.

Miya with her cousin and kinakapatid

Confession time: I fear that Miya will grow up to be a bully. She has been “bullying” her cousin, S, who’s my first goddaughter, everytime we see each other. Air quotes because at this stage, I don’t think she’s really aware of what she’s doing. She’s just following her instincts of getting what she wants. One of her playmates at our place who’s a boy and a bit bigger than Miya, she gets candies from. As in she snatched the candy from the little boys hand. I always tell yaya to tell Miya that that’s bad behavior. Although, yaya tells me there’s this other kid whom Miya is afraid of. The kid is smaller than Miya. So I guess the norm in our place is, the smaller you are the more siga you are haha. In the baptism, her cousin cried although at no fault of my daughter. See this cousin of hers is my mother-in-law’s alaga when they’re in Bocause. So during the baptism, my MIL, of course sabik with her only apo was carrying Miya. While S wanted to be carried too. My MIL carried both children, but since my daughter wants her lola for herself gently pushed S’s shoulder, not to hurt her but just to tell her "thsi is my lola". My MIL then asked her sister to carry S. But S was adamant to be carried by my MIL so she cried. Here’s a photo of Miya being carried near S para magbati sila. Poor S.

See? S is still crying
Miya’s growing up to be so smart or biba (bibo) in Filipino. She charms everyone she sees. I’m mighty proud of her for being like that. See, my hubby’s really shy so we were amazed at Miya’s personality. Although my mother would always share stories of how biba I was when I was a child. So I guess, she took that from me. But I think she’s way more charming than I am/was. In the baptism, she charmed everyone. I was afraid she's taking the limelight away from the celebrant.


Another one of her tricks: she poses like this when we tell her "Pano sleep si Miya?"

Day 10 of 30

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Tuesdays Breakfast

Our breakfast on our first year anniversary
During the days that our car is on coding, we still bring the car to work and so arrive extremely early. And since we can’t leave work before 7pm either, hubby and I go on breakfast dates instead of starting work at 7am. Oh yes, we are blessed that way, we have the luxury of not having 12 hour work days. Having a child really changed the dynamics of our marriage, we have to work extra hard for that “just-us-without-the-baby” times. We don’t really go out on weekly dates so this has become our weekly date. Our venue is oh so romantic – my office’s cafeteria hahaha! But time spent together is precious wherever you spend it. Plus, my hubby enjoys the breakfast spread at our cafeteria (we have an egg station just like in hotel buffet breakfast). There are times I hurry the hubby to finish eating so that I won’t be late (I’m such a stickler for time - we have flexi time but I still get worried if I don’t clock in before my supposed time-block). You see, I’m a fast eater while he enjoys taking his time while eating. When he talks while eating he will stop as in put down his utensils and concentrate on telling his story. I, on the other hand, inhale my food (I grew up with a brother and two boy cousins, I need to eat fast to be able to eat!) But I’m trying to let go and enjoy the time I spend with him – these are rare and precious time, I must say. During these dates, we get to have long talks about our future and our past, dream for our family – you get the picture. Yesterday, one of our topics was about hubby’s high school classmate. He told me he had a classmate who married their high school teacher haha! I never knew about that! It’s fun learning new things about my husband (although, technically that one about the HS teacher is about his classmate). We also talked about our different religions – I’m a Catholic, while he’s a Protestant. See, our topics range from the trivial to very serious. So even though, I have to wake up extra early for work on Tuesdays, this has become my favorite day of the workweek.

Day 9 of 30

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Heili's Birthday

17 March 2012

After Gymboree, we went to Makati for Heili’s birthday celebration. I can’t say it enough but I love spending weekends with these guys. Spending weekends with them is a guaranteed chillax, laid-back get-together, just hanging out, sharing stories and banters, eating and stuffing ourselves.

Miya went around the house as if she was the owner. Oh how I wish we have a bigger space she can run around in. I know it’ll be more exhausting taking care of her but atleast she’ll have enough space to roam.

Anyways, here are our photos.

Miya: Mommy, what's this?
Mommy: Anak, wag mo galawin yan at wala tayong pambayad
LOL

Miya helping Ninang blow her birthday cake

More photos after the cut....


Monday, March 26, 2012

Missed Malaysia

We’ve had another full weekend. And I think all our weekends will be like this for the whole summer. I’m happy actually about it, I just need to find a yaya soon. Our deadline is nearing! Anyways, Joema had work on Saturday, so we were at my parents' house the whole weekend. Gymboree on Saturday, and a birthday party on Sunday for Miya. So that means more blog topics for this 30-Day Challenge of mine. Weee!!! But but but because we’re at my parents house, we weren’t able to watch the Malaysian GP, which was (as always) so eventful! There was rain, there was the safety car, there was the red flag, and a lot of jumble jumbo in the lineup. Miya’s Gymboree class was already done when qualifying was being televised but I was too lazy to search for a livestreaming of the qualifying session knowing that we won’t be able to watch the actual race because of the party we had to go to the next day.


Alonzo aquaplaning in Sepang - hubby and I agree Malaysia is the most exciting leg (in the region) of the F1 season because of the rain

I’m still not done reading the reviews and the articles on the race weekend but I’m really disappointed Vettel did not get any points in this leg (he finished 11th) while Alonso is now on top of the driver’s championship after winning. I think this year will be like 2010 when the driver’s championship was up for grabs until the last race of the season. Looks like the Red Bull cars are not as dominant as last year's. McLaren has qualified for two poles in a row (but this makes you think of what kind of a driver Hamilton is hehe). While the rookies are also showing their talents (there's Perez who won 2nd in Malaysia).

If I were to watch F1, Malaysia definitely tops my list. The race is always exciting because of the rain. The winner is always unpredictable. And it looks so much fun to watch the race from the higher ground (no seats) with your raincoat and umbrellas.
 
Day 7 of 30

Friday, March 23, 2012

Mirror Mirror

I had such an enjoyable time watching this movie. It’s been months since the last movie we’ve watched in a cinema (Joema and I, because the most recent one I’ve watched is Unofficially Yours with my girl friends from the office), was it Harry Potter or Friends with Benefits? I can’t remember anymore. It was that long ago!

I didn’t really expect much from the movie, I just know that it was a different take on the story of Snow White. The movie was light and fun. Just the perfect pick-me-up movie after a dreary day. I loved the opulent costumes and set designs. Lily Collins, the actress who played Snow White has a sweet little voice, almost enchanting. While Armie Hammer, the prince was oh-so-handsome, I thought he was a perfect fit for the prince. Julia Roberts played the Queen and she was such a fun queen. Yes, she was a wicked queen of course, but she made it in such a way that you're not really irritated at her. I don't know I just loved her as the evil queen. I've missed her in roles like this because she's been doing serious movies recently. I especially loved that scene when she was lusting over the prince and was out of her wits talking to the half naked Prince Alcott.

I'm not sure why the worldwide release of the movie is still 30 March but we already have it here in the Philippines. Anyways, go watch it if you want to have fun and not think about serious stuff while watching.

Day 6 of 30

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Lookalikes

I planned on a totally different post for today but I was uploading some of our weekend photos in Facebook earlier and one of Miya's photos caught my eye. I thought she totally looked like me. Well, of course, I already know she looks like me the moment I saw her (ha!) but that photo should convince people who think otherwise. So for the other two (or may three) people who thought Miya looks like Joema, this is for you.

The photo on the right was one of Miya's photo from last weekend
And then I viewed back the album I posted on FB with my childhood photos and look for other photos I can paste side by side with Miya's photos. And I came up with this. See the facial features?

Same eyes, small button nose, tight lips..although I think my ears are bigger!
What do you think?

Day 5 of 30

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Miya’s First Official Class in Gymboree

We finally enrolled Miya in Gymboree, just a four-week music class this summer. For her first class, Joema was able to come with us and witness Miiya’s interaction with the teacher and the other babies. For trial class, he was not able to come and only watched videos taken by our yaya. This time around there were 5-6 babies and I think Miya is the eldest. Most of the babies were below 1 year old.  For trial class, Miya had only one classmate (that was on a weekday). Also, this time I’m not really familiar with the songs during the class. For our trial class, the songs were from Queen so the songs included “Bicycle”, “Rock You”, etc. which are all familiar to me. Last Saturday, the theme for the class was North Western Isle (?) songs, I’m not really sure but I think songs that originated from United Kingdom (Ireland, Scotland, England). The only song familiar to me was “London Bridge” hahaha. So even if the lyrics of the songs were on the wall, I can’t sing with Teacher Kat. Plus Miya was extra likot that time. I’m not sure if she’s really likot na at this age or just that day. For our trial class, the teacher was able to get her attention for most of the one-hour class. This time I think Miya’s attention span was shorter. At the middle of the class, the time where they were being taught to pass the ball, Miya wanted to nurse. And since she’s big enough, she tries to grab my shirt and pull it down to get to my breasts. Hay! We had to excuse ourselves for her to nurse. Also I think she was uncomfortable the whole time because she had poopie in her nappy. We didn’t have time to change her and feed her properly before the class started because Miya with yaya arrived ahead of Joema in Gymboree (they arrived late in Shangri-la while I came from somewhere else for that financial seminar). They were dropped off by Joema while he parked. We only had a few minutes for me to nurse her. I was feeding Miya in the Mommy lounge when they were called in for the start of the class so her nursing was cut short. The classes already started when Joema arrived with our diaper bag. I was a bit out of my mind also because looking back, I could have excused myself and Miya from class and changed her nappie and fed her properly. I was just really irritated and angry at Joema at that time because I specifically told him to leave home early because parking might be difficult at the mall because it was a Saturday. And guess what, I was right. I really hate it when he’s late. So there, hopefully next Saturday will be much better for Miya. No more poopie and she’ll be full from feeding before classes start. Sorry, Anak, next time Mommy knows what to do. But all in all, she still enjoyed the class especially that London Bridge part.

Saying "Hi!" to Daddy who's outside the classroom


Day 4 of 30

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

F1 is Back

My favorite motorsport (naks!) is back! And I think it’s more exciting than ever before (well, since I started watching which was 2009). There are six champion drivers this season – Vettel, Button, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso and Schumacher. Oh yes, I’m so excited Kimi is back! I love Kimi! I love his no non-sense driving, he’s a very competitive driver and he doesn’t give a shit to what other people think – Mr. Iceman indeed! Although of course I still love Vettel the best! That’s why I was so happy he still landed a 2nd place even though he started 6th on the grid. I actually don’t know how he became 2nd because I drifted off to sleep while watching the race on Sunday afternoon. Ahahaha! We were so tired on our packed Saturday that our bodies needed the extra hours of sleep (yes, both me and hubby fell asleep while watching the race). I think it was lap 28 when I drifted off to dreamland and then when I woke up, the safety car was out and it was already lap 44 haha! Vettel was on second place followed by Hamilton and Webber. I had to check my twitter timeline (yes, I’m now on twitter because most blog giveaways now require you to follow them on twitter *teehee) for the blow-by-blow account from @f1fanaticlive. Second place is good enough since Vettel actually started 6th on the grid. It's still too early into the season but this only shows they're still in it to win it.



Everyone hated that playtpus nose! All the teams have it except for McLaren. So when McLaren bagged the 1-2 position after qualifying, I read some twitted that the platypus nose is actually not needed haha!
Last year was a magnificent run for Vettel and Red Bull. Here’s hoping they achieve a three-peat this season!

Day 3 of 30

Monday, March 19, 2012

Saving for the Rainy Days

Proverbs 21:20


"The wise man saves for the future but the foolish man spends whatever he gets."

Based on that verse from the Bible, I’m a very, very foolish woman. Over the weekend, I attended a financial seminar by Bo Sanchez and this was his opening verse to us. He also told the story of a former president of a company who retired with P10million but after two years all of his money and assets were gone. The truth of the matter is, I’m like that president of the company, I rely heavily on my retirement pay if and when that time comes. You see, we have a really good retirement plan where I work in so I always thought my savings for that is enough for us. Aside from a lump sum payment, I will receive annuities once I retire. But of course, we have to change our lifestyle to live within my pension. So my hopes and dreams of going around the world when we’re both old and gray will not come into fruition.

Plus, we have a daughter now. So aside from ourselves, we have to think about the future of our daughter (and future kids if God willing). I really want a big family as in three or four kids. But with the expenses of having a child, sometimes I think one kid is already enough. So I want to be richer to have a big, happy family. And I want our family to have a comfortable home, I want to send my kids to the best schools money can pay for, I want to travel with my whole family maybe every year. So I have to save, save and save for all of these.

It was really good timing that I attended this seminar. My mother prodded me into going because they also attended another financial seminar by Bo Sanchez a few months back. It’s that time in our family life that Joema and I decided on some of the big things like where we should build our home, with that follows where we should send Miya to school. With God’s grace, hopefully our dreams of building our home will be in the near future. We’re sorting out our cashflow and looking at where we can save money. It’s really time to buckle up and save for our dreams. After the seminar, I’m really inspired to start saving and investing.

Day 2 of 30

Friday, March 16, 2012

Yaya Hunt Began

We’re now on the hunt for a new yaya. Oh yes, it’s a hunt, believe me! Our current yaya actually told us a few weeks ago that she will be leaving on 16 April. She said her father wanted her to go back to their hometown in Dumaguete. After she told me that, I told my mother. I was expecting she can get the daughter of a yaya of their friend to be our yaya. This prospect have been intending to work as my mother’s househelp ever since our current yaya left them. Our current yaya was my mother’s househelp. I was really hoping we can get that yaya because I wanted to hire someone who was referred to us. And then last weekend, my yaya announced she already bought her ticket to go home. Which struck me because our agreement was she will not leave until we get a replacement. I had to gently reminder her of this unwritten agreement of ours. The truth is, the reality of it all only hit me a few days ago. It suddenly dawned on me that she is leaving and we’ll leave our daughter to someone who is a total stranger to us. What if she doesn’t take of Miya, what is she hurts Miya, what if she kidnaps Miya. I brokedown to my husband telling him my worries. He said, even if we get a new one, we should ask my mother-in-law to stay with us even for just a month to teach the new yaya. This is the sacrifice I had to deal with for my daughter, he said. He knows I don’t live well with strangers. The yaya I can live with because I pay her to live with us. I know, she’s my mother-in-law but still I’m a believer of that saying “You can’t have two queens in one kingdom.” That’s why when we got married it was never an option to stay with my parents or stay with my in-laws. I wanted us to be on our own because I don’t really blend well with others. Oh yes, I’m an evil evil person, I hate to admit. For the love of my daughter, I will endure living with my mother-in-law even for just a while. The hubby made a good point when he said, he stayed with my parents during my pregnancy to keep me and the baby healthy and safe, and that I can do it to this time for our daughter’s sake. So I will, I will eat my pride and try to be a good daughter-in-law. Now if only, we can find a replacement.


Earlier today, we interviewed an applicant. She’s the sister of a yaya in our building. She was okay, I guess, but I’m not entirely excited in hiring her. She lives nearby our area and she has kids and a grandkid but she’s separated. My worry is she might go home any time there arises a problem in their household, which is perfectly reasonable but I can’t let her go home every single time. She also specifically said she goes on day-offs, during the entire weekend she leaves Saturday night and goes back Monday morning. I’m fine with the weekly day-offs during weekends because I want to spend those time with my daughter plus that is our current set-up. But I’m not sure if we can request her to stay on some weekends that we do need her help. Another “thing” is she’s older than us. I’m not sure if I can order her to do things, although she said earlier that for her even if her bosses are older, she will still listen because they are the boss which is good. Plus she’s very frank, she told me she just needs to hear what are the things I don’t like so that she knows what’s expected of her which is a good thing too. If I’m gonna rate her she’s a 6 out of 10 (pasang-awa). She’s okay if we don’t have any other choice, but I want to have other choices.

My mother said she has an applicant too but we want to see and interview her first as well. Hopefully, we’ll be able to “close the deal” by this weekend. I want to iron things out by next week, ask the new yaya for NBI clearance and chest X-ray before starting to work for us. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying that the new yaya will be the right one for us and Miya.

Day 1 of 30

Thursday, March 15, 2012

30-Day Blogging Challenge

I miss blogging. So to keep me fired up about blogging again, I figured why not try those 30-Day blogging challenges I see all over the internet. But since I don't really blog from home (unless I'm in my parents' house), let's make this 30-Working-Day Challenge. To up the ante, the posts should be 50% about non-Miya related that includes baby products, anything mother related, breastfeeding, etc. you get the drift. No specific topics for each day as long as I conform with the 50:50 ratio. Ooohh! This challenge is making me excited to blog again hahaha! I hope I'll be able to keep up.

The challenge starts tomorrow!

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Dream Home

Sorry if I've been bombarding the blog with posts about my daughter. But I am a mother now and my world does revolve around her, that's why I never had anything to say here when I wanted to keep everything about her private (feeling artista!). Anyway, just to veer you away from all those (cute) photos of my baby, let's talk about something mature like getting a house. Ha! Ugh! I'm really old that I have to think about this stuff. When I was in college, my problem was how to get home and not to get a home. We're currently living in a condo, a 33 square meter condo - me, the hubby, the baby and the yaya. It's a loft type so the sleeping arrangement is our family sleeps on the loft, while yaya stays on the ground floor on a makeshift mattress. It's not really ideal for our help, and I thank God I don't have a maarte househelp who wants her own bed and room, etc. I also thank God she's accepted her role as yaya and all-around help in our household. (which reminds me, I have to find another househelp because she said she'll be leaving by mid-April. Oh no! But that's for another story.) So anyway, like I said we live in a small space. I really believe that if we had been living in a real house, my daughter would have been walking even before she turned one year old. She's really brave, she's independent, she's persevering and I know she'll try and try walking again and again just to learn it. But she learned to walk a few weeks after she turned one which is okay. I just hoped she had a larger space to roam around, to walk around. As it is, after a few steps from the sofa she's right in front of the TV already. A few more steps and she's knocking on the door of our refrigerator. A few more steps back, and she's found her way to the stairs (she's learned to climb the stairs up to the 3rd step! Ayayayay!). I was adamant on finding/buying our future home this year. But thankfully I have a husband who thinks clearer than I am, reminded me to wait because we might end up with a small house again (which is what we can really afford now form our office's housing loan) and later on regret on getting it. So after carefully, weighing in our options we finally settled on our game plan - stay in the condo for a year or two to save up, buy a lot and build our own dream house. The already built houses for sale nowadays are so small (those that are within our budget) and we think we can maximize our budget by building our own home. And with that, I want to write down my non-negotiables when we build our home:
  • a backyard/patio
  • lots of windows / bay windows
  • lot area has to be atleast 200 sqm
  • breakfast nook
  • walk-in closet
  • atleast 3 bedrooms
  • one bedroom/extra room on the ground floor
  • two storey house just in case another Ondoy hits
  • no to cramped kitchen


Remember this?
 I've been pinning lots of home decors and pegs for rooms on Pinterest. I've also been drawing floorplans haha! I've been searching the internet for photos of Lyn Ching's home which I saw in a magazine before because I really really liked the living and dining are of her home but I can't find it!

We've decided we'll look at lots near my parents place. This is so, they'll be nearby wehn we do have a home. For emergency reasons, it's always best to stay close to your family. Just in case we need transpo or someone to babysit Miya (or we don't have dinner), atleast they're near to lend us a car or a hand (or food). :)

So there, I will dream, believe and claim it! Bring it!

A Love Letter to the Father of My Children

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