Anvaya with Miya

18-19 April 2012

For the first week of our first replacement yaya, N, I figured we can fast-track her bonding with Miya by going out of town. See, we never really go out with our yaya in tow. Our previous yaya usually just goes with us to Gymboree if Joema is not with me or to the pediatrician's clinic because she and Miya are coming from the house and Joema will just pick them up. So even if it would be easier to bring along a yaya, we never really do it. We wanted the alone time with our daughter.

So anyway, for this out-of-town trip we went to Anvaya. After reading so much about this place from Anna, I knew I had to take Miya here. So I asked my friend who's a member of this resort to please book a room for us. It's an exclusive resort, you have to be a member or know a member to get inside.

We left Manila around 11am and arrived in Subic by 2am. We were starving so we had lunch at Shakey's first inside the base.

Looking at the menu

Eating her mojos - nakataas pa paa!

After eating we continued on with our journey. After one and a half hours, we finally arrived in Anvaya! 

Father and daughter outside our room -  I love that the place has lots of trees!

After settling down and confirming that Miya doesn't want to take a nap, she was super hyper when we arrived, we went for a swim. I initially wanted to go here because of the beach. Anna raved about how fine the sand is on the beach of Anvaya. Unfortunately, Miya didn't like the sand!

Look at that agonized look! While her Daddy laughed at her.

Good thing, she thoroughly enjoyed the pool.

Teacher Kat

Miya with Teacher Kat

This is Teacher Kat, Miya's Music teacher in Gymboree. We love her to bits! When she sings she captures Miya's attention. Aside from my daughter's smart genes (ehem-ehem haha!), I think she's one of the reasons why Miya still remembers the songs from Gymboree. Even now when Miya watches her video from her Music class she remembers the activites. Like this one, when Miya watches the second video she uses her two hands to tap the bed or floor (wherever she's seating) and does exactly what Teacher Kat did that time we sang that song in class. 

I can't wait to enroll Miya again for Music classes. I'm hoping Teacher Kat will be her teacher again (we had a new teacher for her last day in Gymboree).

Day 8 of 30 (x2)

Mischmash Blog Giveaway

I love joining online giveaways...although I have never won any! But I still join. I won't have any chances of winning if I don't join, right?

A Mischmashed Life is throwing a major giveway to Moms out there.

And I hope I win these awesome awesome items!!

Oh please, universe, make me win this!

Day 7 of 30 (x2)

Every Child is A Miracle

I want to share with you this very touching video I've watched thru Chvuaness' blog. Like Ms. Cecil, I'm grateful God did not give me a heavy cross to carry with regards to my child. And like her, I have great admiration for mothers who have kids with special needs.

Watch this video about a mother who dealt with people staring and whispering behind her back about her baby.




 I watched this during lunch time, and I'm so glad no one was here when I watched it. I was crying the whole time!

Day 6 of 30 (x2)

My Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was almost perfect until...Okay let's not start this post with bad vibes.

My Mother's Day started at 12midnight on Saturday/Sunday. We arrived home from a night spent with friends for Joema's brithday. Then Joema gave me flowers, 3 red roses, and asked our daughter to kiss me because it's Mother's Day then he kissed me too. When we wake up the next morning, I got more kisses from them. 

My parents and brother arrived at our place earlier than usual for Sunday lunch. They even brought breakfast for us. After lunch, Joema and I were off to Qiwellness Spa for our massage. Got two vouchers for a 90-minute massage at this spa from DealGrocer. I didn't take photos but the place was decorated with mostly white with clean lines, not the usual Zen-inspired decorations. It's clean and white but not hospital clean and white, if you get my drift. Joema and I were both happy with our massages. We felt so relaxed and mushy after. Then we went to Rockwell to look at Accessory Lab if they have the mother-and-child pendant of Daphne that I've been wanting to have. Unfortunately they don't have it on stock. So we just bought food from there. We bought leche flan and a big fat cheesesteeak from Elbert's and then went home. We went home to our bubbly, happy baby. Thanks to my parents for looking after her. Unfortunately, just after they left bad news came. 

See, our new yaya* (oh yes another yaya woe! did you see that coming?) left on Saturday morning for her day off. Well, days off technically because I allowed her to return the next day. That's fine with me. I'm okay with her taking the Saturday and Sunday off. My condition is she returns on Sunday afternoon. When my parents left, I texted her and asked where she was and if she's already on her way back. I left my phone in our upstairs bedroom so I asked Joema to take a look if she already replied while Miya and I are downstairs. I only heard Joema calling his mother and then he says something like "Ano pang kaso nyan?" Immediately, I knew something was wrong with our yaya. My mother-in-law referred her to me. She was a member of their church - my father-in-law is a pastor. So since she was referred to me by my MIL and she was a church-goer at their church, I did not ask for a barangay clearance. Turned out to be a huge mistake on my side. It turned out that her neighbors went to their barangay and filed a complaint against her because of her debts and a hearing was scheduled on Tuesday (today). I don't know the specifics of the hearing or case. [As of writing this, I have not talked to her face-to-face.] But I called her because I was angry. I was angry because she didn't have the audacity to tell me. She should have told me and not my MIL. I am her employer. She said she was "nahihiya" and embarassed. I told her when she learned of this case because why were we only hearing of it now. She told me she only knew that morning, then why was she telling us just then the day is almost over. She said her daughter borrowed her phone. Her phone that I gave her because I need to communicate with her. I told her never to lent her phone to her daughter again. I was almost crying when I was talking to her out of frustration. I told her "Bakit mo kami ginaganito? Kawawa naman yung anak ko. Alam mo ang nararamdaman ko, nanay ka din. Mother's day pa naman ngayon tapos ginaganito mo kami." I wish there's a yaya complaint center where I can complain like dealfun.com complaints.

To say that I was upset was an understatement. It was Mother's Day but it's kind of ironic that I felt so incompetent as mother on that day. I felt incompetent because I had to rely on others to take care of my child while I work. It was the one of the most hurtful things I've felt. I cried. 

It didn't help that my daughter was feeling extra clingy and a bit fussy that day because she's teething. I got impatient with her,  I turned on her - she got the brunt of my anger. She didn't understand it but I felt so drained, I felt so exhausted that I got impatient with her.  I felt so guilty. Who does that to her child? Apparently, I did. And the more incompetent I felt. It's ironic how it was on Mother's Day that I felt I did not deserve to be honored and celebrated as a mother. 

Day 5 of 30 (x2)

*This is actually our second replacement yaya (not counting the almost yaya)

Pizza Monster

My little pizza monster

This was at Amici and she finished one whole slice!


Day 4 of 30 (x2)

*Sorry for this measly excuse of a post just to continue with the challenge. A whole lot of things are happening now and I don't have the strength to make a full post. Hoping I'll get my groove back tomorrow.

Mother's Day

Seoul, South Korea - September 2009

Happy Mother's Day, Ma! I owe you my life and what I have become today. I'm not a good writer so I won't be able to put into words how much I appreciate you. I hope somehow you know it! I love you!

Day 3 of 30 (x2)

What the Little Girl's Been Up To

At 15 months, Miya is now in the stage where she can mimic everything we tell her to do. And she’s getting louder too with shouting bouts to boot.

Here are the things she’s been doing. The list may sound like I'm gushing about my daughter. She just really amazes me everyday. She's this tiny human being who was just a baby and now can really do so many things already.

1. Last week she suddenly decided she loves her books. Before, even if I read to her she wouldn’t be bothered with her books. But one night last week she pointed on the pile of books beside our bed and we went through them one by one. We have small books titled Little Elephant and The Littlest Turtle (both four pages each) which are more age appropriate for her because her attention span is so short. She also loves going through her book The Silly Emperor’s New Clothes. This is sort of a pop-up book where you open parts of the book where the emperor is revealed or the letters of the tricksters, that sort of thing. Before, she would destroy this kind of books, tug the pop-up parts. But now, she knows how to open those parts and well, she still tugs at them but she’s more “careful” now. The book is still whole albeit with a few creases on the pages. Her book “Love you Forever” is one of the shortest reads we have. We never get through the end of this book. The other night I think we went through the fourth page where the boy is already in his teens. She always do the “Lagot Ka” with her hand when we go through this book because of the cover. She knows the baby is in trouble because of all those kalat.  I don’t know why but we went further in reading The Velveteen Rabbit. Although of course for this book and same with the Emperor’s New Clothes and Love you Forever, we don’t really read the whole text to her. We just make up our own narration. For the Velveteen rabbit, last night, I’ve read to her until that time when the toy rabbit was left in the woods and was found by real rabbits until the boy went back for it. For Guess How Much I Love You, we only reach until the page where Big Nut Brown Hare answers Little Nut Brown Hare with I love you this much with his hands raised up above his head. So because of Miya’s sudden interest in books, Joema and I bought her new ones but only similar to her small books. Joema said because these are more appropriate for her with her short attention span. (I wonder if she has ADHD…hmm..I don’t want to be paranoid!) We bought a few books in national bookstore the other day for less than P300. The books were more or less around P50 each. But we did not show everything to Miya all at once. We only took out one of the books for her the one with “The First Words”. She points to the balloon and she says “Boo.”
2. She’s so interested in lizards or butiki or “Tiki” how she calls it. She points up to our ceiling and my husband brings her near our ceiling. See, we have low celing so when my husband stands on the bed she can bring Miya up over his head and she’s arelady near the ceiling. Right after we go upstairs to get ready to sleep she points upward and says “Tiki”. This morning when she woke up the first word she said “Tiki” with matching encouraging smile to her father. That’s my husband’s cue to bring her up to the ceiling haha!
3. Her newest trick is when we say “talino ‘to!” she points to her forehead. Feel na feel nya as if she really understands. Aside from this she has her "good girl" and "busog tiyan" gestures.
4. She likes to scream and yell when she wants something. Good thing I read about it in Babycenter that this is common for her age. I was so worried she’s becoming a brat!
5. She likes to sing, too! You can sing a phrase of a song to her and she can mimic the tune even if she can't speak the words properly. We discovered this on her last Gymboree class where the themes was Divas. One of the songs is Shanaia Twain's Feels Like a Woman where the baby will sing along with the teacher everytime Shanaia sings the part "Uh-Oh, Oh-oh". And she can sing along! Her teacher was so amazed with her. My mother taught her a song where the they sing the phrase "Kukurukuku Paloma." I wish I have it on video but she's so hard to record now, she doesn't want to be recorded. She's like a celebrity and I'm the paparazzi!
6. Speaking of Gymboree she well remembers the hello song from there. It goes like this "Sing, sing, sing hello. Sing hello to . Sing sing sing hello. Sing hello to ." I sing this to entertain her during long car rides. After each phrase, she says "Hi!"
7. She can also say "Bye!"
8. She has forgotten to say "Mama" and calls me by gesturing like she's calling a dog and then says "tsk, tsk" like when you call a lizard. That or "Dididi" for dede hahaha!
9. She calls her Daddy "A-di" which very well might be the same as "a-te" for her yaya.
10. She can identify each one of us including herself. When we ask her "nasan si Miya?" she will point to herself and everybody we ask about even her lolos and lolas. What amazes me is she knows she has two sets of grandparents. We tried this because when my MIL was staying with us, she taught her this, Miya knows to point to her when asked where is Lola. But then when my parents are with us and Miya's asked where Lola is, she will point to my mother. 
11. My parents taught her the McDo sign, where you put your hands on top of your head to form an M. But with her she just puts both hands on her head without forming the M. That's her McDo. What's amazing is when we were watching TV and she saw the McFloat commercial of Xian Lim, she did the McDo sign. I'm amazed because she was able to associate the McDo sign with the commercial. My parents taught her how to do McDo without referring to a TV commercial. What's more amazing is, after several times of seeing the commercial on TV (we were watching American Idol where the TVC was shown several times during commercial breaks), she does the McDo sign just upon seeing Xian Lim's face. And when you have the time seach the TVC on youtube, the commerical starts with showing only the upper portion of Xian's face and then goes down to a McDo float. Miya does the McDo sign right when she sees Xian's face and not after the McDo float. Isn't that amazing?
12. She loves pizza and pasta. When her Daddy brings home a big box a pizza she lets out her big smiel and says "It-za!" She can finish off one slice of pizza in one seating. And can finish a small plateful of spaghetti. But on separate occasions. 
13. She knows how to say opo but pronounces it "po-poh" which is so cute! Even if she doesn't understand why she's saying opo sometimes hehe. 
14. She has learned to tickle us in our armpits - I taught her this haha! Everytime she sess our armpits she tickles us with matching "Yiiii!" from her.
15. When asked "Sinong maganda/mabait/mabaho poopoo, taas kamay!" she raises her hands and gives out a "Yiiii!" too as if getting kilig haha!
16. Her father taught her how to laugh like a bad girl with garalgal voice and all hahaha! I'm sure you can't imagine it, but just for record keeping I'm listing that down here. And then sometimes she laughs and then puts her hand on her mouth, like a mahiyain laugh. Different ends of the spectrum this little girl.
17. She's so cute when she does her beautiful eyes because she just crinkles her nose and her eyes looks like little slits on her face. I'm not sure if I blogged about that here or in my other blog. She does the same face when I tell her to close her eyes when she needs to go to sleep already. I think she's kabisote and her cue word is "eyes."
18. Another proof that she's kabisote is this. When we ask her "Pano magpatay ng lamo?" she claps both her hands as one does when you kill a mosquito. She sometimes does this and says "Uhm!" to emphasize the "killing". And then when asked where's the mosquito she points to her open palm even if no mosquito there. So anyway, one time we were riding the car and then we passed by this street where for days there was a wake, I blurted out to my husband "Honey, wala nung patay noh?", Miya suddenly clapped her hand and said "Uhm!" hahaha! Obviously her cue word is "patay."
19. One time my parents were at home with us and my father suddenly farted. Then we taught her "Pano utot ni Lolo?" then she does a cute fart sound like "pooot" hahaha. Then if we ask her if it's mabaho she does her baho face hahahaha!
20.  She very recently discovered how to use the headset. She's so cute when she tried using it the first time because she's really swaying to the music. Actually I think she really likes music as evidenced by #5 above. Her latest favorite song is Somebody by Gotye. One time I was nursing her, when she heard the song being played on TV, she finished nursing and sat right up and watched the video and started swaying to the song. 

Day 2 of 30 (x2)

Visita Iglesia with Miya

For our annual Visita Iglesia tradition, Miya came with us this year. It wasn’t really a planned thing. My brother just asked us on the day itself, Holy Thursday, if we were coming with them. I guess my brother wanted us to come with them haha. And since it was planned, I did not research on new churches we can visit. So we re-visited previous churches on our list – St. Andrew the Apostle Church, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Don Bosco Church, Santuario de San Antonio, Holy Family Chapel, Christ the King and Villa San Miguel.

We finished praying the Stations of the Cross in St. Andrew’s then went our way. We were not able to go inside Don Bosco because there was a recollection inside the church.

Outside Don Bosco

We initially wanted to visit the Padre Pio Church in Libis but traffic was so bad and it was nearing lunch time then so we opted to go inside Eastwood and visit the Holy Family Chapel instead. Inside while their choir was practicing “Glory to God”, Miya went on singing! I was amazed on how she knew chorales are supposed to look like that when they sing. Maybe she got it from her Gymboree Music class teacher. I don’t know. This girl amazes me all the time.

Singing like she's part of the choir

Then she started playing peek-a-boo...so sorry to the other church goers

After praying in Christ the King, we went to the stalls in the parking lot to see what we can eat. Miya liked the melon juice!

Eating the melon strips from the juice

For our last stop, we went to the church which is very special to us. This is where we got married and where Miya was baptized (although we used different chapels inside the compound).

At the grounds 

With Mommy

With Ninong

Hopefully, next year Joema will be able to come with us. Well, that's the life of a callboy hehe.

Day 1 of 30 (x2)

30-Day Blog Challenge (Take 2)

Well, obviously I failed miserable in that 30-day BlogChallenge. One of the things I realized in doing that is that I didn’t like blogging without photos. But since it takes me some time to download the photos from our camera and  I also  edit the photos that I upload here in my blog, there were some delay in my posting. And when there are times that the delay has been too long, I end up not blogging about it anymore and just be satisfied that I actually uploaded the photos on my FB account.

I want to do the challenge again but I’m not sure I have enough material to start it soon, although I have a few things that I need to blog about. Plus, I recently discovered that I can schedule my posts here in Blogger hahaha! So yes, okay, let’s do this again. I’m hoping it is indeed sweeter the second time around. 

Miya's First Haircut

31 March 2012

Miya's hair was not getting any shorter haha. Her bangs kept on poking her eyes so I decided to cut her hair one afternoon during her naptime. We tried cutting her hair while she's awake but she won't have any of it. so I grabbed the opportunity that afternoon.  I was alone with her so I had to make do with the camera timer heehee

Tulog na tulog si taba - pwedeng gupitan!

See how long her bangs is?

Snip...snip...snip..

Ooopppsss nagising na! - Wacha doing, Mommy?

See, anak, you have nice hair na..I can see your bochog face again :)

Nice haircut

The Heat is On

Looking at our calendar, I know I have a lot of other things to blog about (aside from my yaya woes). There’s Miya’s last two classes in Gymboree, our Holy Week, our quick get away trip to Anvaya. I have yet to download the photos from our camera so let me just do a quick post on how Miya beats the summer heat.

Thank you Ninong Jay for the pool and Ninang Rhoda for her swimsuit. This is one Sunday morning at my parents home:

My water baby testing the water

Pose muna for the camera

Splash, splash, splash!

Miya really loves the water. I made a GIF of her photos while she's splashing the water. Here it is.

How do you make a gif

We only took her out of the pool after she peed heehee *she's peeing here*

Ayayayayay Yaya! (Part 2) Subtitle: Goodbayayayayay Yaya!

I think I can now write about what happened to our almost yaya. Our new yaya has arrived earlier today. The very first time Miya saw her, she asked to be carried by her new yaya. Yippi! That’s a good sign in my books. Just shows my daughter is already at ease with her. So anyway, let’s get back to the one that got away haha.


M, our almost yaya, was referred by my friend’s yaya. She’s from Samar and has two kids whose husband is working here in QC. My friend told me that the transpo money she sent for her yaya was 2thou and the salary is 3,500. So that’s what I also told M para di na magkumaparahan yung dalawa. When I called her and told her about it, she requested if I could send her 3thou instead. I said okay but the extra 1thou will be deducted on her first pay. She agreed. I was advised by my friend that the 2thou transport money is actually well over the actual fare going to Manila, she already has extra from that. It turned out M will be bringing her daughter to Manila to her husband so that she could study here. That’s what she told me in one of our conversations. Fine by me. I told her our yaya is leaving on the 16th of April and I only need her to be here by the 13th because I wanted their stay with us to overlap. She said she can be here in Manila as early as April 1, I said that’s okay with me but since our place is a little too small for 2 househelps, she’ll stay with my mother first. She agreed. We talked before the end of March and she asked me if I could send the money immediately because he 1st of April is a Sunday. And I did, I deposited the money on a Thursday which will give her enough time to get the money and buy her tickets. There were some problems in her getting the money so in the end, she was only able to travel to Manila on Monday, 2nd of April. So I told her my mother will meet with her on Tuesday. Before this, she started asking me why she needs to go to my mother, she was worried that my mom is very strict and matapang. I told her my mom is nothing like that and she has nothing to worry. When she arrived on Tuesday, she requested if she can be picked up the next day instead. I agreed to it because it was actually more favorable for my mother to pick her up on that day because she didn’t have work then. Then she asked if she can be picked up in Litex because she didn’t have any pamasahe, she said she brought her two kids to Manila and all the money I’ve sent her were used up. I told her my mother is not familiar with the area, can she be picked up in Philcoa instead. She said okay. Then before lunch time on Tuesday, she sent me a text message asking if she could borrow money because her family didn’t have money to buy rice, they will not eat anything because her husband has not received his pay yet. You can imagine me fuming mad at this time. But my husband calmly said to just agree with it because we’ve already paid money for her to get here. So fine, I agreed, but told her that instead of starting at my mother’s she will immediately work for us. I can’t send her there knowing that we already paid her, in essence, and she won’t really be doing anything aside from cooking and cleaning the house. She’ll be left on her own there just to look after the house. She was actually relieved because she was really worried to work for another house aside from ours. Anyway, the next day I received another text from her asking if she could start on the 15th instead. Kapal muks! I was really angry at this time I wanted to tell her I don’t want her to work for us anymore even if we don’t have any yaya replacement. Good thing our first yaya prospect gave us a positive response so I had the chance to let M go. In my mind, I don’t care about the 3thou I spent on her already, I just don’t want her to work for us. We already have a rocky start and I didn’t want to take the chance. I’m sure every minor error she did will irk me from then on. So I told her off. I enumerated every little request she made that I agreed to. And then this! I told her she was just using me to be with her husband and that I won’t be getting her anymore and she should speak to B (my friend’s yaya) because I will get my money from her. I want her to worry about getting back my money. She should feel guilty about what she did. In the end, I think she realized her mistake and she said sorry to me. But her apologies didn’t change my mind. And you know what, I actually felt good about my decision. I didn’t want a headache of a yaya and M proved to be one even before she set foot in our house.

Hunger Games

Well, this 30-Day Blog Challenge is a total fail since I was not able to blog for two days since Monday. But to make up for it and for me to be able to continue with it, I’ll post 3 blogs for today. Good? Oh yes hahaha. I’m making up my own rules here!

Source

My officemate was full of praises for the book and kept on encouraging us to watch the movie so I borrowed the book from her. I wanted to read the book first before watching the movie. As it turned out, we watched the movie when I was a few pages shy of reading the ending of the book. So imagine my dismay when I went back on reading the end of the book after watching the movie.

Spoilers ahead:

Holy Week Pause

I'm so sorry I have nothing worthwhile to post today. I could rant about my "almost-yaya" but recounting what happened this morning, just thinking about it is exhausting me. So better skip that.

I'm just so excited to finally be on holiday tomorrow. Aside from my yaya woes, something at work has been stressing me for the week. I'm relieved to have finally heard good news about it before the day ended. So I'm happy I'm going to have peace of mind this long weekend. We're not going anywhere this Holy Week just at home for tomorrow and Friday. Well, actually we're going to the province on Saturday but it's not really an outing outing like what other people have planned for the Easter weekend.

Let's put aside some time to reflect on what actually we are celebrating for this Holy season of Lent.  I hope you all have a blessed Easter!

Post 14 of 30

PS. My 30-Day Blog Challenge will return on Monday. I won't count this as a "day" for the challenge since it's not really a substantial post. But I want to post something as well for today.

Ayayayayay Yaya!

As I've mentioned, we finally have a yaya. But it seems we're starting off on the wrong foot. Firstly, when I sent her the transpo money, there was an extra P1,000 there which she requested. I obliged and told her this will be deducted from her first salary. She arrived this morning and told me if we can pick her up tomorrow morning instead. I said yes. Then when I called her she said if we can pick her up in Litex because "wala na syang pamasahe." That was a red flag! I told her my mom will pick her up and they don't know Litex, why not in Philcoa instead that's just one jeepney ride from Litex. She said okay. And then within an hour she texts me to say if she could borrow P1,000 because apparently she brought her two kids to Manila (she previously was going to bring just one) that's why the money I sent her was not enough. And that they don't have money to buy rice, her husband didn't receive his salary yet! OMG! When I called my husband, he calmingly told me to let her have the additional P1,000 because we already paid for her in advance. Anyway, we can deduct it from her salary.

I fervently pray that she's okay with my kid. She's under probation for 3 months. If she's not okay with Miya, I will let her go in a heartbeat. Never mind the money we already spent on her. Note so self: need to write down the things I want to tell her.

Day 13 of 30

Banking Made Easy

Yey, we finally have a yaya! She will be arriving tomorrow. I’ve sent her transportation money by depositing it to a BPI account. It’s been so long since I’ve been to a BPI bank, I didn’t know they were so high-tech already. Instead of filling in a deposit slip, they now have a machine they call BPI Express Assistant, where you enter your type of transaction, account number and amount.


3 BEAs for the clients to use

Touchscreen!

And then BEA gives you a transaction number. Then you wait for your number to be called.

Wait for your number to flash in that flat screen TV

Presto! It was so easy and fun haha!

Okay, I told my officemate about this and she said this was implemented last year. Hahaha! Huli na ko sa balita! I’ve always had bank transactions online so this is fairly new to me. But in fairness, when I was transacting there, another client didn’t know how to operate the machine. So it’s not just me hehehe.

Day 12 of 30

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

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

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

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

My One Year Old

Got the idea from Anna's pin.