Hong Kong Disneyland 2013 – Day 2

4 November 2013

We started our second day early to have breakfast with Chef Mickey. This is one expensive breakfast buffet but seeing Miya’s face so excited to have her photo taken with Mickey was priceless. By the way, once seated you are given a stub that you need to present so that you can have your photo taken with Mickey. Kami kasi we went straight to Mickey to have our photo taken, hinanapan kami nung stub hahaha.

 

MIckey even hugged her. Sulit na!

High five, Mickey!

During breakfast. You would think my daughter was all smiles during breakfast. But no, she didn't want to eat the whole time and wanted to go out. Haay! Di namin nasulit yung buffet.

Since Miya didn't want to eat, Joema took her outside after he ate. So I followed them after I finished and had some photo op outside.

We just sat there and made lambing with each other while hubby took the photos. Love these shots!

 

 

We went up back to our room to refresh before heading out to the park.

This was taken at the mini-lobby on our floor.

 

Elevator shot

We missed the Ajeros and de Guzmans.

More photos after the jump...

Miya's Christmas Party in School

Their school Christmas party was held on a Tuesday, 17 December. I wasn't supposed to go with her as their circular said that parent's attendance is not mandatory. But I felt so guilty letting her go alone with yaya so I used my one and only annual leave left for that day and went with her and yaya. Good thing I did because I was able to see her perform. I'm still amazed at how she has grown this year (in terms of participation in school). From non-performing to performance levels even after a crying fit! More on that later. We arrived at around 12noon at their school. Their school programs never really start on time so we waited for a bit. While waiting, I let Miya stay with her other classmates. I observed that she doesn't really mingle with her classmates (as we were told by her teacher during her assessment for the first semester - I forgot to blog about this!). She just stayed with their teacher assistant while her classmates played with each other. Miya is the youngest and smallest in her class. It took her just a moment to let go of the teacher aide and she was knocked down by her a classmate who was playing round-and-round with the others. Her classmate bumped into her but because she was small she fell to the floor. She cried, my poor baby! She wasn't really hurt but I guess because it happened all too fast and that a lot of people were there, she cried. This was before the program started so I thought she might not want to perform during the presentation.

Look at her eyes :(

But alas, she has really overcome her shyness during presentations! Here are some her videos. The first one was with her class while the second one is with all the students.

After the program, it was exchange gift time (photos after the jump).

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas!

We spent the 24th at our home just the three of us. Joema had work that day so it was just Miya and me the whole day until Joema arrived in time for dinner. I asked Miya to paint some of the pages from her big drawing book as her gift for Daddy.

I cooked Pesto Spaghetti with breaded fish for dinner for my little family. And they both enjoyed it.

See the almost empty plate?

And then we let Miya eat ice cream hehe. We basically let her eat anything she wants this holiday season.

Patiently waiting for her ice cream

Yum!

Daddy Santa bothering the little girl

After Miya gave her gift to Daddy

We started opening gifts around 9:30pm. It's good that we started early because Miya was so hyper afterwards she fell asleep around midnight already.

Here's a decent family shot.

For Christmas Day, we went to my parents' house and stayed the entire day there.

With Lolo and Lola after Christmas Day mass at the Parish of St. Therese

I hope you all have a blessed holiday season!

Hong Kong Disneyland 2013 – Day 1 (Prelude)

Two more days before Christmas! I can't believe it! I feel I've never been around here for so long. I have so many things to share with you. I’ve had problems uploading photos here in Blogger but now, I’ve finally found a solution. So expect a few posts from me during this Christmas break. First up is our trip to Hong Kong Disneyland last November. We prepared for this trip for almost a year as we wanted our whole group to come along. Unfortunately, only three families pushed through with the trip and we encountered a few mishaps along the way but we’re all so happy we finally got the chance to travel abroad with each other and our families. Our last out-of-the-country trip was to Kota Kinabalu and that was a few years back.

 

3 November 2013

We took one of the earliest flights out of Manila (via Cebu Pacific) and arrived in Hong Kong around 8am.

We had breakfast at McDonald’s first and then we ventured out to Disneyland Hollywood Hotel where we are booked to stay.

That's Miya saying "Weee"

 

TIP: We bought our Disneyland park tickets from China Travel Service’s booth at the arrival section of HKIA. We got 15% discount from the regular rates. But they only accept cash payments so be sure to have your money changed first before heading to their booth.  

From the airport, we rode the bus going to the MTR Tung Chung station where we rode the MTR to Sunny Bay station and then rode the connecting train to Disneyland.

With Lola during the bus ride to Tung Chung station

From the Disneyland entrance, we walked a few meters to go to the parking bay for the shuttle buses where we rode to take us to our hotel.

With Mommy Charline and Mommy Janice

 

Cute photobomber behind us

Unfortunately, we arrived too early for check-in. It’s the hotel’s policy that they really give out rooms at 3pm no matter what time you arrive. You can opt to go straight to the park to explore or like us we opted to explore the hotel grounds (or take a nap which most of us did). TIP: Time your arrival at the hotel so that you won’t waste any time. For us we wasted almost half a day just waiting for our room. We didn’t have the energy to get out of the hotel grounds and explore Tung Chung or mainland HK so we opted to rest at the hotel lobby. The kids were able to nap and some of the adults. But for me, I was exhausted chasing after Miya and waiting to get comfy inside our room.

Miya had a grand time exploring the grounds of the hotel. She particularly loved the play area.

 

 

 

More photos after the jump...



On Miya’s Weaning (and Toilet Training)

Two Wednesday (27 November) nights ago, I realized that Miya didn’t nurse the whole day. And then I realized I don’t even remember the last time she nursed from me. It’s only until now that I’m writing this that I feel a bit melancholy about the whole weaning thing. It was me who initiated to wean – mother-led weaning. It just became too much for me after we came back from our HK vacation (which I have yet to blog about). Miya wanted to nurse even when we were at the park even if I told her she can only nurse when we’re at the hotel. The last straw was on our flight home. On our flight out from Hong Kong when the plane took off, Miya wanted to nurse so I let her. Unfortunately, she also pooped in her diaper the moment we lined up to board. I didn’t have time to change her nappy before take-off. And since she’s nursing during take-off she started to drift off to sleep, so I kind of nudge her every once in a while and told her not to sleep because we need to change her nappy once the seat-belt sign is turned off. But she fell asleep. The moment the seat-belt sign was off, I took her to the lavatory to change her. I thought she won’t wake up because she’s too sleepy (we took the first flight out of HK to Manila early in the morning). But she woke up  while I changed her nappy. Afterwards. she did not sleep the entire flight.  I thought I could get some shut-eye because I was exhausted from our trip. My parents went along with us but Miya’s at this stage when she wants to be with me every waking hour even though my mother was there to help me out. While trying to sleep, Miya went back to me and wanted to sleep on my lap and play with me. And then I broke down, I started crying maybe because of exhaustion, maybe because of frustration, maybe because of PMS (I got my period on the day we left HK). I’m not sure why but I felt awful! I felt guilty! I felt ashamed!

On the plane ride home, I told Miya she won’t nurse from me anymore when we get back to Manila because she’s already a big girl. And that’s what we did. We started reading Maggie’s Weaning again. And whenever she wants to nurse, I only tell her she can do so for 10 counts on each breast. She only nurses during night time and when she wakes up because that’s the time when we’re together during weekends.  And all the time I count 1-to-10 everytime she nurses. She’s agreeable to this. I think it’s really because she’s also ready to wean. She nurses for comfort and not really for nourishment anymore because she eats whatever we eat. So I told her I can kiss her and hug her whenever she wants to nurse. And then that Wednesday came or the day before that or whatever day it was that she did stop nursing. Although there are still some slips when she asks to nurse, only I tell her she’s big now and doesn’t need to, she doesn’t insist. Yesterday morning she woke up and saw me changing and saw my breasts. I thought she wanted to nurse again but when I told her not to, she started playing with my breasts instead hahaha (sorry if this is TMI for you – that’s what breastfed babies do).

From my phone, her last photo breastfeeding taken in July 2013

Miya’s a big girl now and no longer a baby. She stopped nursing but I’m glad she’s still extra close me. She still prefers me for her dad. She still kisses and hugs me. Nothing changed except the nursing stopped.

PS: The following Thursday after that Wednesday, she insisted on not wearing a diaper during the night. And we tried for two days. But I don’t think we can let go of the diaper just yet because she doesn’t wake up to pee. I wake up feeling that our bed is already wet from her pee. Although she’s almost 100% toilet trained. She pees and poops in the toilet now. We only ask her to wear nappies when we go out and when we sleep at night (this last one is mainly because I want to get continuous sleep. But I think during weekends, I can let her sleep without her diaper. My concern is if we start doing this, she might object to wear her diaper anymore even during weeknights.

Gawad Kalinga - Part 1

15 November 2015

Last Friday was our annual division team building. And it was very timely that the theme of our team building for this year is Giving. And I'm proud to say that I'm part of the coordinating team who made this team building possible. We chose to have a team building where we can give back to the society. This was planned months ago and we chose Gawad Kalinga as the NGO we can partner with. We decided to devote our time and manpower in helping build houses in one of their communities. Did you know that recipients of their houses need to put in "sweat equity" for the houses? They need to work for 1600 hours as equity of the house. After completing 500hours, they can live in the house. And they can't choose the house that they live in, the awarding of the house is done on a random basis. In turn, they put it equal efforts in building all the houses in the community. GK isn't only about building houses. They are trying to build hope in people. They believe that poverty is a thing in your mind. That you need to believe that you can overcome poverty. That people need to act to rise up from poverty. I'm very happy to volunteer for GK. I believe in their philosophy.

Our morning was spent doing the build activities. Here are photos of that very fulfilling day for all of us.

One group was tasked to help in trasnferring sand. This is done by forming a line and passing the sack of sand to one another until it reaches the other en dof the line.

Another group was tasked to transfer hollow blocks.

Our group was tasked to paint the walls of the house.

More photos after the jump...

Pause

I have a few posts lined up because we recently came back from a vacation. But I haven't had the heart to write about them thinking about all the people who lost their loved ones, their properties and almost everything they have due to Typhooon Haiyan (Yolanda). Most Filipinos who were luckily spared from the devastation are helping out in their own little way. Honestly, I have been waiting for the right time to make our donations. I know most people are donating now but hopefully more will be left when international aid are no longer coming in. I can only imagine what is going through the minds of the people affected by the typhoon. The magnitued of what has happened and how this will affect their future keep on bothering me. I can only pray that the Lord will give them the strength and hope to go about their daily lives.

I will be back with posts about our vacation, hopefully soon.

Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween! As promised here are photos of Miya's Cleopatra costume. We used Miya's costume three times so my effort in making her costume paid off hehe.

Migs Halloween Party - 19 October

We had our "party" at P and H's house. Party in quotes since it's really just our usual tambay on Saturday nights. The only thing different was the kids were in costume and we gave out candies to them.

               Miya eating her treats

Flyfish Halloween Get-Together - 26 October

This has become an annual tradition for us since 2011. And it's so much fun to celebrate with these guys because every year we add a new baby (or babies) to our group.

School Night Out - 28 October

This is an event organized by Miya's school. The parents were asked to create booths for the children. And the children had fun going around the different booths to do the activities and get their treats.

DIY Cleopatra Costume

Halloween is becoming one of my favorite holidays because I get to dress up Miya in costume hehe. If you've been a long-time reader of my blog, you'll know I DIY'd her previous costumes here and here. So for this year, I decided to do a Cleopatra costume mainly because of her hairstyle hehe. It's hard to find pegs for Cleopatra costumes for toddlers but my main inspiration is our goddaughter's costume (store-bought) a few years ago.

It's also hard to find tutorials on how to do a toddler costume for Cleopatra so I relied on this video on youtube which is a tutorial for a Cleopatra costume for adult but you can just basically scale down the size for your child.



For the materials, I bought the following (pretty much everything from Carolina's Megamall except for the gold fabric which I bought from the store beside Fabric Warehouse (also in Megamall):

1. gold fabric - I can't find the same snakeskin fabric she used in the video but the material of the fabric I bought is almost the same with the one she used, I think
2. different colored stones for the accessories - bought from Carolina's (Megamall)
3. gold material for the headpiece - bought from Carolina's (Megamall). They don't have stretchy material that I can used so I also bought the next item on my list
4. garter - but I don't think this really worked so you can skip using this material
5. velcro straps
6. pentel pen - instead of using black paint
7. glue gun - borrowed from a friend. But I found out it's better to use super glue instead (more on that later).

I really just followed the steps from the video (although I didn't use the Modge Podge for the edges of the fabric. It's easy to do the rectangular parts to be used on the arms. The method she used in the video to make a circle didn't really work for me so I had to find circlar objects as my base. But I found it hard to find a circular object as my basis for the neckpiece. And I have to adjust the size to Miya's size as well. And then instead of using black paint, I used black pentel pen.

Basically I went all out with the beadwork hehe. As you can see, using the glue gun in sticking the stones is not going to give you a clean look (unless I'm really just an idiot in using the glue gun hehehe). There were a lot of excess glue and the stones tend to fall off rather easily. I also had a hard time gluing the velcro onto the fabric.

For the headpiece, my friend gave me her son's toy snake that I can use and a canister of gold spray paint. But Miya didn't want a snake on her head so I just used the stones again. I also glued the garter inside the gold accessory. However, I found that this didn't remedy the "stretchy" concern on the headpiece so I just added velcro on either ends of the headpiece. Sorry I forgot to take a close up photo fo the headpiece.

For the white dress underneath, I bought a white fabric to use but again didn't get to use it because I got tired doing all the other accessories haha. I also remembered Miya had a white plain dress so we tried that on her with the finished accessories and it already looked good so I opted not to DIY the white dress anymore.

To complete the look, I also made sandals for Miya. Well, I bought gold sandals from SM Store and then added the colored stones onto it. This time I used the super glue instead of the glue gun. As I've said I found it easier and better to use the super glue because the stones really hold up especially the velcro onto the fabric.

Next post for the complete look.

Of Saving and Bags

I came across this brilliant idea of saving weekly for 52 weeks and topping up the amount every week from Frugal Honey. In her case she didn't immediately start the "challenge" due to lack of right motivation, I on the other hand have a few items on my list that I would like to buy hehe. Like her, I'm going with P10 top-ups and by the end of the 52 weeks I will have P13,780. I'm already on my 8th week so 46 weeks to go!

As for my reward at the end of the 52 weeks, I plan to buy a leather bag. See, my fascination with leather bags started with reading all this blogs about designer bags (coincidentally, you can read a very interesting article also from Frugal Honey on buying designer bags as investments). And then some of my friends are so into buying designer bags. Now, I don't have the means to buy these expensive bags, I can only dream. But then I thought, what I really wanted was to have a good leather bag that will last for years, right. So why not buy a locally crafted leather bag instead of dreaming about imported designer bags (which they say is that expensive because they're handmade or something). And then I tried researching on local leather goods that will not hurt my wallet. Here's a rundown of the locally available leather bags that I've discovered:

Cuzo

I really liked their Celine large tote when I saw it on Leona Panutat's (of L'Indochine) tumblr account.

It's affordable at P3,950 but when I saw the bag in person (they have a few bags in stock in select Black Shop stores), I didn't quite like what I saw.

Sinude

This brand I first found on Facebook when I searched "leather bags in Manila". But I didn't find any style that I was quite drawn in. So I just kept them on my list.

Tweetie de Leon for Ava

I love the orange and navy combo and then pink and orange combo. They're currently on sale!

Katre

 I discovered this brand when Liz Lanuzo (of Project Vanity) posted a photo of Mayfair on her IG feed.

And from there I fell in love with almost all of their pieces.

City 2.0

Mayfair

Piccadilly

Camden

Bags by Rubber Tree

This is another IG find, this time from Anna. I love how soft their totes look. If you can tell, I'm more inclined to like tote bags.

Can you tell which bags I like the best? I love Katre. So I will probably choose from their different styles. I actually asked hubby to gift me with the tote hahaha. So that I can buy the Piccadilly from my savings but I've seen some photos of the bag and looks like a big bag for me. Might probably get the Mayfair instead and maybe a Camden and a Sloane wallet if I can have it hahaha. But I also really like the color combination of the bags from Tweetie De Leon's collection. So yeah, I can't wait for the 52 weeks to be over so that I can buy these babies.