Flyfish Christmas Party 2015

It's the middle of December and for sure you've been attending Christmas parties left and right. Over the weekend, we hosted our annual Christmas party for the Flyfish Gang.  We've been friends with this group for more than 10 years now, we've been together for when we were still single until one by one each of us got married and now almost all (but one) has a family of their own. Our Christmas annual picture grows almost every year. It's so fun to see our pictures every year.

We set up the tents in our backyard for the kids. And then they run around pretending to be zombies. And then when some of them got tired, we set up Inside Out for them to watch. While us adults had our chikahan.

Miya playing with the kids

Javi and Micca inside the tent

My happy baby

Javi with his Ninong Mands

The little girls

Our annual group photo 

Halloween Costume

When I was about to make this entry, I remembered I was not able to blog about Miya and Javi's costumes last year. It's a good thing Miya's been the one suggesting her costumes since last year. I don't have to think about what she'll be. She chooses and then I execute. For Javi on the other hand, I still get free reign over what he wears. Without further ado, here are the costumes of my kids from last year and this year.

2014

Last year,  Miya chose to be Sheriff Callie. I actually asked her around August last year, what she wanted to be for Halloween. I wanted to know way before I give birth so that I'll have time to prepare if ever. She chose to be Sheriff Callie because the sheriff cat wears a pink cowboy hat, pink kerchief and pink boots! 

I thought the costume was simple enough. We only had to buy the different elements of the costume and put them together so I didn't actually prepare anything before I gave birth. A few weeks before Miya's school Night Out (annual Halloween fair), I asked my mom to buy the hat and boots at Divisoria. She had a hard time finding the hat. She said she scoured Divisoria for 3 hours until she found a pink strawhat. A friend told me that for her kid's cowboy themed birthday party they bought straw hats for the guests and she just sew the edges to look like a cowboy hat. So that's what we eventually did. I wanted to buy a vest for her for her top but we didn't find any at the SM Store so I bought her a chambray top instead with pink pockets. We also bought a pink handkerchief to complete the look. I cut out a star from the leftover gold cloth we have from last year's costume for the sheriff badge. And voila!

Yihaa!!

Meanwhile, Javi used a puppy frogsuit that was gifted to him.

He was only more than a month old here

For our Migs annual trick or treat, Javi wore an LA Lakers frog suit instead of the puppy one.

2015

For this year Miya wanted to be Disgust from Inside Out. So I told her we can dress up Javi as Anger hehe. I had a hard time buying a green wig for Miya, it's either super expensive (almost 2thousand pesos) or other colors are available but green was not. So I went to Instagram and found this really cute store which sells handmade beanies: Posh Dollies. I asked if she could rush doing my order, I think I ordered only a week before our trick or treat but she was able to deliver anyway. The beanies were affordable, the one for Miya only cost P500 while the one for Javi cost P350. For the clothes, again I ask my mom to buy them coz again like last year, I'm pregnant and can't go around scouring the malls for the costume. But I bought Miya's leggings while Javi's red shorts were already on hand. I also used a red bandana that Miya used in her Linggo ng Wika program in school as Javi's necktie.

When I was taking her photo at the right, I didn't know why she was posing like that. It was only when I did this collage and posted this photo on IG did I realize that she was doing Disgust's pose!

Si Anger na hindi hahahaha! Happy baby as Anger. 

Our 7th Anniversary

Joema and I celebrated our 7th year anniversary last 8 November. We went out to watch a movie and had dinner afterwards. We watched Spectre.

Tummy pic before we left the house at 21 weeks and 5 days

At the parking before the movies

There's no other way of watching the cinema after we discovered the Director's Club

Since we now live in the area, we ate at Vieux Chalet. The restaurant was still a bit far from our place and the roads leading to it are dark. I wanted to back out when we got to the dark roads haha.

I told Joema I thought this was the most smooth sailing year of our marriage so far. I think we kind of got the hang of each other and I think the addition of our kids really made our marriage stronger. Plus, I think we both now know that marriage is hard work. You have to be committed to make the marriage work. Praying for my husband also helped a lot. We had so many blessings to be thankful for the past year, so many reasons to celebrate another year ticked off our married life. Here's hoping and praying we stay together till death do us part. No plan B for us, honey!

Family Day

Over the weekend, we went to Miya's school for their Family Day. Their section was assigned the color fuschia pink which was a happy accident because Miya's favorite color is pink.

Binata na anak ko

My babies

The first agenda for the day was mass with the other families and then the program for the Family Day started. It was held inside an airconditioned convention hall but because of the number of people who attended, the place got kind of hot. The program were hosted by ABS-CBN talents Andre and Ginger. But I don't think they did a good job considering that their audience were mostly kids. Sure the adults were there to listen to them but they had a lot of spiels during the hosting which I don't really appreciate because it kept the kids waiting. Haha! Sorry about that. There was also a magic show which again I think the magician was not fit for an audience like that. His spiels were not suitable for young children, he kept saying that magicians are not cheaters (because they tend to lie or deceive their audience, right?) because they are faithful to their girlfriends. Duh?!?!  Plus the show as a bit long for the children's attention span. By the middle of the magic show, most of the kids became weary and started standing up and asking for snacks hehe. 

Uhaw na ang baby

Hulas na hindi pa nagpeperform

Anyways, the highlight was the performance of the children of course. Here are Miya's videos.




And then of course, there were games. As I've mentioned in my previous post, Miya doesn't like participating in games because she doesn't like losing. Good thing, we were able to convince her to join. The first game with her Ate (since I can't really do anything physical because of my condition) and then the second game was with Daddy. She even won a Lego toy from the raffle!

Game with daddy

Happy with her raffle prize

I really appreciate activities like this in school. Although we can go out as a family, it's still worthwhile to spend the day as a unit and go on activities like this to celebrate our child and watch her perform.

My loves

Inside the classroom after the program

Updates

This blog has become a once a month thing. I feel guilty for not documenting our lives here as eagerly as before. But what can I do. Every time I want to write something or something happens, I'm lazy to even open the write post tab of Blogger hehehe. So here I am trying to condense in this one blog post all that has happened ever since.

Miya

• She's thriving in her big school. This week is their 2nd term Paper Games and we've been reviewing since APEC week. I'm proud to say she finds Math easier than Language ahahaha. She's not like me because I like studying. She on the other hand needs to be prepared to study. I mean she can absorb and understand so much when her heart is into studying but when I force her to study and her mind is somewhere else then our study time leads to nowhere. 
• She really loves the water. I was able to attend one of her swimming classes in school. The basic thing that was being taught was not to be afraid of the water and she really enjoys it. She's one of the students who is not afraid to follow the coach's instructions and be on the water all by herself. 

During swimming class in school

• We're so much alike that there are times that we tend to fight a lot. I'm not proud of it but we tend to argue so much. There was one time on our way to school she blurted out, "Hay salamat, hindi tayo nag-aaway!" Hahahaha. Yes, she's really like that. She talks like an adult. 
• She's brave. We went to Sta. Elena Farm for their school field trip and she tried on every activity there. She tried horse-back riding, the zipline, riding the boat and the carabao, fishing. 

Zipline!

• She doesn't like losing. That's why she doesn't like participating in games hahaha. When she attends a children's party, I tell her she should participate in the games so that she'll get a prize. She tells me she doesn't like, and even if she doesn't participate in the games she still gets a prize - the loot bag hahahaha!

Javi

• He started walking already but because he's so likot we tend to always be just behind him or someone still holding his hand. He doesn't even pause to turn while walking. He just does it with no care. 
• Miya is malikot. But a lot of people were telling me then that iba ang likot ng lalaki kaya mag-intay daw ako kay Javi. Yep, they were right. Iba nga ang likot ng little boys. Javi is really malikot. He won't stay put even if he's carried. He will push you and will start crawling or walking wherever he wants to go.
• He is gala and maarte. Before he goes for his afternoon walk, he knows it immediately when they put on his shoes. I don't know where he got it but even inside the house he wants his shoes on. Hahaha! 

Yehey gala na! 

• Unlike his Ate, he doesn't like the water. Houston, we have a problem! The first time we dipped him in the ocean, it was only for a few seconds. The first time we dipped him in a pool was only for a few minutes because he started crying. We tried dipping him in beach water again but he still doesn't like the feel of the sand on his feet. Ang arte talaga! We're hoping he'll soon overcome this because Joema, Miya and I all love water. Pano kung sya hindi? 

Look how awful his face is kawawang kawawa hahaha

• He is so matakaw! He is at the stage where he will try anything you put in his mouth. Even before he turned one, we started feeding him table food. He wants to eat when he sees someone eating and he will get mad if you don't feed him. That is why his body easily bounces back even after getting sick and losing a few pounds because of his illness. 
• He is malambing but at the same time when he gets mads, he really gets mad! He will cry and cry until you pick him up and carry him and console him. Sometimes even after that he will still shout and cry. 
• He blabbers on and on. He can say mam-ma (for mommy), a-di (for daddy), te te (for ate), yoya (for lola), hai (for hi hehe). We don't understand much of what he says but he will blab and blab and blab.
• Like his Ate, he also likes music. When Miya sings "God gave me you" he will join in on the singing! As in he says la la la or whatever it is that he says hahaha. But we definitely know it's singing.
• He has weaned and he has been sleeping through the night. I think he last nursed middle of November. This makes me sad because I wasn't able to breastfeed him as long as his Ate. He doesn't even try to nurse anymore even during day time when we're together. He weaned on his own but mommy-led as well. During the day, he feeds from a bottle before he naps. And then before bed time at night, he also has one bottle. I want to start weaning him from the bottle as well. We'll try giving him milk from the tetra pack (we give him fresh milk/soy milk). And if he's satisfied with that no need for bottle before sleeping. I don't want him to get hooked to the feeding bottle's nipple.  

My pregnancy

• I'm currently 25 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I was put on bed rest last week because I experienced contractions for two days (felt dysmenorreah like pain). 

Taken last Sunday, 29 Nov 2015 at 24 weeks and 5 days

• Every pregnancy is really different. For this one I had nausea until maybe my fourth month. Although until now I'm easily nauseated. 
• The baby started really moving by the 18th week. She/he (I will alternately use either pronoun) now moves a lot and when my tummy is pressed he kicks back hahaha. 
• We've had our congenital anomaly scan on 22nd week. I was nervous all through out the scan. But everything seems to be A-OK.
• My OB does the ultrasound every month during our checkup but we still don't know the gender of our baby, our choice. We don't plan to know it until I finally give birth. It will be a surprise. We already have one girl and one boy so think of this as a bonus round. :)
• I'm a guilty mother. I haven't been as careful with my eating habits this time around unlike with Miya and Javi before. Sorry, anak!
• I'm not sure if I will be able to publish a blog post I started about how we found out I was pregnant. That's another guilty mother post. 

Baby Bashful's first photo - no fetus and heartbeat yet but there's already the yolk sac and gestational sac

• We still don't have a name for the baby. We call her baby bashful now while inside my tummy (Miya named her). As we don't know the gender, we need to prepare one name for a girl, and one name for a boy.
• Although we don't know the gender yet, Joema and I both think the baby is a girl haha.