Miya's Graduation from Nursery

20 March 2014

I've posted a photo of Miya on her graduation day but didn't elaborate on it. Finally, I have the chance to blog about its entirety. Her graduation day fell on a day that I was on bed rest. I was bleeding almost the entire month of March. I was praying and praying and praying that the bleeding will stop and I will be well enough to attend Miya's graduation. Hurrah our Lord is most faithful and very generous, He granted my prayers. My bleeding stopped a few days before Miya and I was well enough to attend her graduation. I was still on sick leave then because I was advised by my OB to rest so I didn't have to file for another leave to attend the ceremony. Anyways, the graduation was at Club Filipino in San Juan. My parents-in-law were able to come with us. When we got there, Miya was led to the "backstage" with the other students while we went to get our seats. We were seated at the side where we can see Miya while she performs. Unfortunately, inatake ng hiya ang anak ko. I thought we were past this because she performed well on stage for their school's Family Day and Christmas Party celebrations. Oh well! We were seated in front and she would ask me to go with her.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At one side of the venue were photos of the children and something was written on it. I had to hold back tears while reading it. I told Joema we should have brought tissues haha.

We had some time for photos before the program started.

With my little "graduate"

For the first part of the program where the students did the opening prayer, national anthem and their opening song, Miya just stood there. Haay! She wanted me to come on stage with her. As I've said, I thought we were already through this. Well, apparently not.

For the Nursery class's first performance, they danced to the song "Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko." But my little girl wasn't in the mood to dance.

After that, I had to come with her backstage and convince her to sing for Mommy and Daddy. I promised she would get an ice cream as a reward after the program haha.

Smiling backstage before their second performance

For their second performance, the Nursery class danced to "Da Coconut Nut". Before their dance started she was whispering to from the stage, "Mommy, yung ice cream ko ha!" LOL Here's a video of her. Too bad she was facing her teacher who was seated at the center of the stage, you can't see her face while she's dancing.

Backstage, I saw her interacting with her classmates. It's nice to know that she plays with other kids now. Her teacher's feedback before was she doesn't interact that much with her classmates. They said it might be because she was very talkative already and prefers to talk to her teachers instead of her classmates who are not as verbal as her.

She exchanged accessories with M. Medyo over na tuloy sa accessories because her top is bejeweled. We didn't have to change their shirt because they were about to use their toga but she was sweating so much I had to change her other top.

Eating cookies with P

My little graduate

Then it was time to call the students for each level and present them with their awards. Miya's awards were Inquisitive Student award and Imaginative Student award. I told my hubby it was "consolation prize" awards hahaha. Kidding aside, Miya is in a progressive school so they don't really rank the students. They give the awards based on the personalities of each student. So many students got the same awards as Miya. Still, we are very very proud of her. This is a milestone for her. We still don't have the official photos of the event from the school so let me post these from our camera.

For the last performance of all the students, Miya just sat there again and did not sing nor dance hahaha. Hay naku talaga! They performed the theme song from Bagets (the program's theme is the 80's if you haven't caught it yet). 

After the program, we collected her yearbook which is a really great souvenir of her first year in school. I was so tired after the program but it was all worth it. Thank God, I was well enough to attend this.

Family photo outside the venue

Dinner with my in-laws after the event

Field Trip to Nido Science Discovery Center

28 February 2014

For Miya's last field trip for SY2013-2014, her class went to the Nido Science Discovery Center at SM Mall of Asia. Joema and I went with her. Sorry I don't remember how much we paid for this but I'm pretty sure you can google the entrance fees.

This was outside by the entrance of the center

Our first stop inside was at the planetarium. We waited for a long time inside the planetarium, unfortunately, there was some technical problems so they asked us to do the other galleries first.

I realized this was actually Miya's first "theater" experience. Fortunately, she didn't get scared when the lights were dimmed and she watched the whole show. We didn't prep her for it or anything because I realized it late that this was a "pseudo-theater" experience for her. As I've xpected she asked a lot of questions but she was mostly watching the show. The planetarium show was made for kids. The first part of the show has Big Bird and Elmo from Sesame Street as story tellers. They discussed about the moon and stars. And then the second part is a story about the outer space with the characters looking for different kinds of planets. But yes, we want back to the planetarium after going around the center. Here are more photos of Miya going around.

I love this photo...my litle girl waiting in line

Walking with her classmates around the center

Blurry photo but shows how participative she was in the different galleries

The video above shows a monitor where you can have a 10 second video of yourself. Miya was the one talking saying "I cannot reach it" because she can't see the video while it's being played haha.

Miya was so interested in this gallery. I was 7 weeks pregnant that time so I was telling her how big our baby was then.

"This is our baby"

She didn't want to leave this gallery. We moved to the next two galleries after this but we had to go back because she was really interested. :)

Here she is infront of a replica of Lolong, the largest croc (or alligator) found in the Philippines

Here's a preview of the show at the planetarium. A Chinese friend of Elmo and Big Bird sings "Twinkle, twinkle Little Star" in Chinese.

I wish I had more photos of Miya doing the interactive things in each gallery. But they're either blurry or I wasn't able to capture it. This was a good science center for the kids. Most of the galleries were interactive so the students really touched the exhibits and had fun with them. All in all this was a good first time experience for Miya in a science museum.

Buntis Serye @ 25 Weeks (aka Reveal of Baby Minion's Gender)

It's been over a month since we knew Baby Minion's gender. We had an ultrasound for my 20th week (26 May 2014) checkup. It wasn't the usual routine we had when I got to the clinic. Usually my OB is the one who does the ultrasound and then we discuss things afterwards. But on that day, there was another OB who was doing the ultrasound before our actual check-up. Since both Joema and I work near my OB's clinic, I usually go there first and then have my name listed and then wait for our turn. I text Joema that he needs to go to the clinic when we're one patient away from being checked up. Since the routine at my OB's was different that day, I had my ultrasound without Joema. I told the OB not to tell me the gender of the baby.

Me: Ay, ultrasound na po agad? Pwede ho bang wag muna malaman yung gender ng baby kasi gusto ko malaman pag andito na yung asawa ko.
OB#2: Sige...pwede naman.

And then she proceeded with the ultrasound, she immediately saw the genitalia of the baby.

OB#2: Ito yung heartbeat, okay naman...blah blah blah. Sige tama na baka masabi ko pa yung gender ng baby.
Me: Pwede ho ba ulitin mamaya yung ultrasound pag andito na yung asawa ko?
OB#2: Ah sige. Dadating ba sya? Akala ko kasi hindi talaga sya dadating for the check-up.

During our checkup with Dra. Alfiler she began with:

Dra. Alfiler: O balita ko, Cris, ayaw mo pa makita yung gender ng baby nyo kanina habang wala si Joema. Bakit magbabago ba yun kung kasama mo si Joema o hindi?
Me: E kasi po gusto ko kasama sya pag nakita namin.
Dra. Alfiler: Bakit ano ba gusto nyong gender?
Me: Siya po boy.
Dra. Alfiler: Bakit Joema pag girl ba hindi mo mamahalin yung baby nyo? blah blah blah

So I started thinking siguro girl yung baby namin! I wanted a girl because I want Miya to have a sister but Joema prefers to have a boy. So anyways, after the checkup we went back to the ultrasound room and did the ultrasound again.

Did you hear the glee in my voice? I was delighted to hear we're having a boy. Ganon pala yun talagang kahit anong gender kahit may preference ka, you still get excited. And then later on I figured, this is God's way din of not letting Miya feel jealous of her sibling. Miya has such a strong personality so a sibling of a different gender will not come as a challenge to her. And also, it's a good thing I get to shop for baby boy clothes hahaha! I already started shopping actually.

Here's a photo of our baby's genitalia.

On our last  check-up (20 June 2014), we had our congenital anomaly scan (CAS). Happy to report that baby's all well, complete everything and everything seems normal. Unfortunately, based on the result of my glucose challenge test (GCT) I had high blood sugar. So I now have to undergo further glucose tolerance test. I'm trying to reduce my intake of sweets and white rice and bread so that I can keep my sugar low. Hopefully, the results will be normal and won't result to gestational diabetes. Otherwise, I'm feeling okay. Baby Minion's kicking up a storm in my tummy. Funny story, during the CAS while the OB is using her probe to see the specific organs of our baby. But baby minion was pushing back the probe. As in, we can see it on screen that he was using his hand to push back. I can also feel that, when he gets sikip inside he tends to move a lot. That's why just recently, I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to sleep since my belly's a bit big now and he keeps on moving when he feels "cornered" hahaha. It's also a bit surprising that I don't have linea  negra yet. I should check back when I had it with Miya, how far along I was with my pregnancy with her. And although my skin got dark with this pregnancy, it's still not as dark when I was pregnant with Miya.

Here are my latest weekly pregnant photos.  I take these photos inside the washroom at work hence the tiles as my backdrop haha!

19 weeks and 1 day pregnant (20 May) - wearing an And Apparel dress

20 weeks pregnant (26 May) - wearing a  maternity blouse. This was a hand-me-down that I had since my first pregnancy

20 weeks and 1 day (27 May) - wearing an And Apparel dress

21 weeks and 3 days pregnant (5 June) - wearing a jersey dress that was given to me

23 weeks (16 June) - wearing a Mango dress

25 weeks and 1 day pregnant (1 July) - wearing a Latch a Babe nursing dress 

See, I can still fit into my non-maternity dresses like those And Apparel dresses which I think I can still wear until my 9th month since those are made from stretch material. I got those from Catalogue63 back when I was not yet pregnant. Although I don't think they produce those dresses anymore. But they have ventured to Elin now, which offers non-maternity, maternity and nursing dresses. The only maternity wear from those photos above is the blouse which I used with my first pregnancy as well. I paired it with my black maternity pants. Some pregnant women don't believe in buying maternity clothes while pregnant. While I don't use maternity clothes 100% of the time for this pregnancy, I still believe there are maternity staples that I need to have. And most of my non-maternity clothes are as I've mentioned made from stretch fabric so it's really comfortable to wear and my tummy doesn't get ipit (haha can't think of the English word for that right now).   I also have to mention the Latch a Babe nursing dress which I scored when they had their Mother's Day sale. I bought a bunch of them since I can use them now and until after I give birth when I'm already nursing our little boy. Their dresses are the most affordable nursing dresses  you can buy in the market. This post is not sponsored ha, I don't get paid to blog about these brands it's just that I'm very happy with these purchases that I want to share them with you preggy mommies.