Christmas Party

Last Saturday, our whole family trooped to college barkada apple’s place for our annual Christmas party. Bea was of course, very excited. She met with her usual playmates. She was also extra happy because this year she got to play ate Bea to little Gaby. =) Since she is still difficult to feed, we just gave her milk and her yaya got her share of jollibee chicken joy.

When it was gift-giving time, Bea could barely contain her joy. Gift! Gift! She kept on saying. She was so happy to receive many gifts for titas and titos. I allowed her to open only one gift, so that she won’t feel left out with the other kids, the rest I put under the tree at home to be opened on Christmas day. To my surprise, she’s ok with it. =)

 

insurance for the little girl

Recently, FIL died, and this got hubby and I talking about death. Us, Filipinos, often cringe when we talk about death. We rather not talk about it because we feel it is a morbid topic, too terrible to even discuss. Memorial plans and life insurance plans are not to be purchased, because it is like inviting death to our doors. It is better to invest in retirement plans, this way you can still enjoy the fruits of your investment.

Our family can testify first hand, how helpful it was for us that our parents had memorial plans. When faced with tragedy, you are often confused and disoriented. You are too consumed by grief to even bother with the financial nitty-gritty. Many people don’t know, dying is very expensive, and it can cause so much financial strain on the family left behind. I experienced this when my mom died, hubby just experienced this when his dad died.

Although we both have our life insurance plans, I got the cheapest ones. I got them when we were in our early 20’s when death was such a remote possibility. Now, hubby is thinking of getting another one. I warned him that our budget just can’t allow it, but he is persistent. He is thinking about the little one’s future. 

Oh well. I guess a personal tragedy can really cause a reality check.

I barely escaped disaster!

Yep, that I did! And I am very thankful for it. What disaster is this? Hmmm. My laptop conked out on me! As in! I was just upload some of little one’s pics on her friendster when the laptop turned itself off. Apparently, the plug was not properly attached to the socket, so the laptop had no more power. Ok, fine. This has happened to me a dozen of times! I just rebooted the laptop, but it won’t boot. It just kept of restarting. It was really frustrating. I tried everything. I tried booting on safe mode, using the windows installer CD, everything I can think of… to no avail!

Good thing thought that when my sister had someone fix her pc, she also asked the guy to look into my laptop. The tech guy that proceeded to put a partition in my hard drive, that way he said, should my OS crash, my files will still be intact (whew).

After attempting to reboot gazillions of times, I tried to format my drive c, as a last act of desperation. Bye bye files. Bye bye programs. Good thing though that I was able to back some of my files while I was on vacation. And as if fate is playing a joke on me, the formatting just won’t go through. It reaches up to 56% then hangs. Grrr!

I wanted to blog about Manny Pacquiao’s win, but couldn’t, I wanted to express my frustration that Channel 2 was showing Judy Ann Santos’ movie KKK part 2 the same time Channel 7 was showing the boxing match. I would’ve loved to watch Juday’s movie since I watched the 1^st installment and just loved it. But I just couldn’t. I was so sad. Good thing hubby is ever sensitive about my feelings. Seeing how frustrated I was, he volunteered to drive me to SM megamall to have my laptop fixed.

I was still apprehensive though since I didn’t have any money to pay for any parts that may need to be replaced. I was also hoping against hope that the labor charges won’t be so steep. The heavens heard my prayer since as it turned out, I didn’t have to pay for anything! Labor was free, and since the problem was not in the hardware, they didn’t need to replace anything! The problem was with my OS and the installation process. The laptop must’ve been tired from all that rebooting. It got the much needed rest while we were traveling to the mall. When we tried to install the software, it ran beautifully.  Haaay (sigh of relief)

So last night, I was faced with the tedious task of installing the programs and drivers all over again. I wasn’t completely done yet, but at least I was able to try the wifi connection and was able to log on the internet. That’s enough for now. But of course, photoshop will have to be next, for my scrap stuff. =)

Whew…whew…and whew… a thousand times over!

 

are you afraid of the...cold?

My little bea is a brave little soul. She has very little concept of danger or of other scary things. Although last Halloween, she learned that there are certain things that people are scared of…thanks to her yaya. One example is the movie Kulam, by Judy Ann Santos. Since her yaya gets scared whenever she looks at the dvd, bea learned to be scared too. Then when her ninang brought home a brochure from toy kingdom showcasing different Halloween goodies, she was particularly scared of the bloody hand. And so understandably, she was also scared when the commercial for the selecta family pack featuring Zoren and Carmina’s family, it featured a mutilated hand.

She did not get that from mommy because I love horror movies, and I love getting scared. Probably from daddy’s side of the family…shhh. Don’t tell him. Hehehe.

One fear she did get from me though, is her fear of cold water. Hehehe. We can’t take our baths without boiling some water to mix with the tap water. When she feels her water is too cold for comfort, she screams her heart out. She is just not happy when she is not warm enough. Hubby loves the hot water for its therapeutic and relaxing effect on the body. Which is why we opted to celebrate my birthday last weekend by going to Laguna and soaking ourselves silly in its famed hot springs. Needless to say, the little one simply loved it…and so did we!

missing ninang and lolo

The little one feels there is something different in our current set up. There are some missing players in her day to day life… lolo and ninang have been away for almost a week! It’s lolo’s first time to go back to the province he grew up in since he got married. I’m sure it must have been bitter-sweet the first time he alighted from the plane. Sweet because of the memories, bitter because of the reason why he had to go there… his brother died. The brother who took care of him and his siblings when they were still little kids… died because of complications from a spinal injury.

Anyway, the little girl keeps on looking for them. It has been days since she last saw ninang and lolo. When she asks for them, I tell her “they’re riding an airplane”, then she’d pout and say sadly, “Bea, iwan” (They left Bea). When they were able to talk to her on the phone she told ninang, “uwi na ha, ukas!” (come home tomorrow!) every morning, she is by her lonesome when she jogs…or at least as she zooms to and fro in front of our house. She is lolo’s designated jogging buddy. Good thing though that her lola from daddy’s side is here in the country for a visit so she occupies the little one’s mornings. After hearing the daily mass at the church near our house, she would pass by to play with kulit. =)

Good thing Saturday’s coming soon, ninang will be home by then! One less person to miss! =) little bea will be super happy for sure!

the early bird catches the worm

Whenever my alarm goes off in the morning, I hit the snooze button a couple of times until I have not other choice but to grudgingly get out of bed to take a bath. I am really not an early riser, probably because I stay up late at night scrapping or blogging. My little one however is a perky little ray of sunshine, who needs one one or two minutes to recharge before she is her usual bubbly self raring to conquer the world!. So unlike her grumpy mommy. One thing that’s amusing about her too is that once she starts squinting her closed lids, a tell tale sign that she is slowly coming to, she will then sit up, even with her eyes closed and then slowly she will open her eyes. Except for rare occasions when she is not in the mood, she would immediately smile, then either play with our cell phones or demand to watch barney on DVD.

It just amuses me that she is a morning person. =) I hope she stays the same until she is going to school already, that way it won’t be too hard to wake her up to get ready for school. And as they say, the early bird catches the worm!

the entertainer

I never would’ve thought she had it in her. My daughter is turning out to be such an entertainer! I guess when a kid is healthy, it affects even her disposition in life. she used to be serious and lethargic, but when her vomiting was minimized and she started getting chubby, she has since transformed into an adorable little tot who’s all sunnny, and bubbly, and boinky-boinky! She’s learning so many words, although her speech is not yet that straight, but you can tell she means what she is saying. She has so much charm, and mind you she knows how to use it! When we scold her for being naughty, she knows how to snuggle up to us, make endearing noises, and actually coax a smile out of us. You really can’t stay mad at her for too long!

 

Hmmm… I hope she stays this way always, she’ll make a career out of it… in sales! Hahaha!

 

 

at austin's party layout

At Austin's Party
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(c)by MaryKit Dive into summer (05/2007)

My little fibber

we have encountered yet another milestone of sorts when it comes to our daughter. hubby and i were quite surprised that our little one is now capable of telling white lies... uh oh!

on our wall next to our bed, there are some rubber alphabet and numbers matting we've glued to the wall to prevent her from bopping her head. when she wakes up after her morning or afternoon nap and no one has picked her up yet, it has been her habit to pick on the rubber numbers within her reach. soon enough, numbers 8 and 9 have gotten loose and have fallen in the space between the wall and the bed.

when i asked her played with the numbers causing them to fall (of course we knew it was her, we just wanted how she would react...) without batting an eyelash, she answered: "Rose!" --her nanny!

i calmly reminded her that it was wrong to blame her actions on somebody else... she soberly bowed her head down, like a grown little lady...after which i hugged her and kissed her. when she saw that i was smiling again... she promptly ran off to her grandfather and said: "lolo, titan mommy!" (lolo, pinagalitan ni mommy!) argh!

My Bea at Play

Bea is now at that age where she appreciates the play areas at fast food chains. being such a friendly little girl, she just loves interacting with other kids...

bea loves shopping

because of bea's long overdue growth spurt, we've had to go shopping for some new clothes for the little girl since most of her clothes don't fit her anymore. while looking around for some stuff, bea saw this toy bag with stroller and begun lugging it around where ever she went. she kept on saying "bea, kool" (bea school) as she goes through the different clothes. so kikay!

after a while, she decided that she wants the toy bag, so she loaded it, on her own, to her stroller! i found it so cute, and i wanted to buy the toy stroller for her, but it costs P300! i mean for a plastic bag with pretend food inside, that's just too much. i know what will eventually happen to it anyway, it will suffer the same fate as her other toys. it will either end up strewn all over the floor, or dumped in our tambakan, forgotten after giving her joy for a couple of minutes. no, i stood firm. we didn't buy it, we bought her some clothes instead.

after a while, she remembered her toy, and started looking for it. then she began whining, and crying... i told her that the bag got dirty and a salesman was just cleaning it up... after a while she calmed down and eventually forgot about it. whew!

cinderella finally owns her first pair of slippers

ever since bea learned how to walk, we made her wear sandals. at that time, since her feet were so tiny, slippers don't fit her well. even sandals were too big for her, but at least there were straps and so they stayed in place. lately though, we noticed that some of her toes didn't look so well, in fact they were dark and they had a weird shape... probably because of being enclosed in her sandals. (by sandals, i mean the sandals with crocs design)

that is why we decided to buy regular slippers for her. as expected she was really excited to try them on! it took a while for her to get used to the concept of this kind of slippers, it's different from the slip on sandals that she is used to. she often stumbled. she had a hard time putting them on, and an even harder time keeping them on.

then was then, now she wears her pink slippers with the confidence of an old timer. she walks, jumps, and runs in them. success!

she now has her eyes on my heeled shoes... and the adventure continues...

St. Pio Chapel in Libis Quezon City

i posted a story in my other blog, my life...my own piece of heaven, about our visit to the St. Pio Chapel in Libis. Guess what? a few weeks ago, i was contacted by their travel editor and asked if it's ok with me, they will run my article in the Pinoy Moms Network site. of course i agreed!

after some weeks of waiting eagerly for any word from the editor, i finally received an email saying that my article is up. here it is: A Visit at St. Pio Chapel . please check it out!

odd shots monday # 2

my post is a little bit late this week. sorry guys! here it is:

notice that nice intricate patterns on its ebony surface... true artistry etched on the block of dark material... what is it?

charcoal! hehehe... hubby's office is being renovated and at the time i visited him, the workers were painting the walls already. as expected, the smell of paint was overpowering, but they had no choice for it was business as usual at the office. what they did was just place plastic bags of coal on strategic spots of their office, they believed that the coal would absorb the smell, and therefore lessen it. seemed to work... =)

photo hunt :: dark

i took a picture of the San Agustin Church in Manila in the dark. i was really surpised because this is how it came out, with lots of orbs hovering about... some give these orbs paranormal implications while some just say that these are just dust particles caught by the camera... any which way, it looked spooky!

LO share :: Darling Bea

our morning ritual

poor bea has got the sniffles. blame it on the weird weather that we've been having. this is too bad because we had to break our regular morning routine for fear of aggravating her condition... you see, for a while now, we have this sort of morning ritual. bea is in that stage where whenever her daddy and i leave for the office, she insists on coming along, to the point of crying! so we decided that every morning we will let her ride in the car with us and we'd go around a couple of blocks in our subdivision, by the time we get to the guard house her nanny would be waiting for her. she'd willingly get off the car waving enthusiastically at us... that's enough to make her day.

we'd pass by some chicken and bea would wave at them and say "bye bye iken" (chicken), then we'd pass by a cat and she'd say "bye bye cat". then she'd proceed to quiz us, "anto?", "nyan?" (ano to? ano yan?) pointing at anything that catches her fancy. the funny thing is that she actually remembers where everyone is supposed to be because one time when we passed by the vacant lot where we usually some chicken,but at that time there weren't any since it was raining... bea said "no-no iken, mo mor" (no chicken, no more) hahaha... sharp memory!
the short trip we take every day is meant to make our bea happy, but guess what, it makes our day too!

photohunt :: clouds

this is the venue of bea's first birthday, somethin' fishy in eastwood city, libis qc. we had the sesame street theme. we had a lot of guests and we all had great fun. notice the white fluffly clouds that day, it was a good thing that the weather cooperated with us. it was a bright and sunny afternoon and almost everyone we invited came. =)

odd shots on monday

Odd shots on mondays is hosted by Katney, visit her blog to join the fun!

here's a pic of hubby and little bea taken in a theme park for little kids, the fun ranch. It was our first time there and we were just thrilled!. There are food stalls, a mini-ferris wheel, the requisite merry-go-round, karaoke rooms, an arcade, a childcare center, and a host of other activity centers for kids of all ages. We didn’t manage to go to all the stores and stalls but it was obvious from the number of people there that the Fun Ranch is definitely a must-visit place for all families, especially those with young ones.

what's odd about this pic? the blue horse standing beside them, LOL! pretty weird choice of color for a horse don't you think? =)

happy birthday bea...still

7 months after bea's second birthday, which we celebrated at home, her birthday banner still hangs by our dining area. we had a dora the explorer themed party. she still refers to her as "backpack" instead of dora, although i feel that it is easier to say dora. i don't know it is her innate stubbornness or she just finds her "R's" still hard to pronounce.

bea's world

i've decided to start a blog primarily about my adventures in parenting. my daughter is now 2 years and 7 months old and i must say, i am learning so much from her...although isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

anyhoo... i'm still amazed that this little human is growing up so fast, and learning so much... this is going to be a chronicle of our daily adventures... and mishaps together. =)

Answered Prayer for My Daughter

it has been a while since we attended the regular prayer meeting of our community, but i remember that when we were still actively attending, we used to pray for the same things, over and over (don't we all)

we prayed for our little bea to get over her feeding difficulties, complete healing from her acid reflux and for us to find a suitable nanny for her for hubby and i are both working.

God is good indeed, and although it took some time (and a lot of frayed nerves!) God sent a great nanny our way! i was i little apprehensive because she was young at 17 years old, but she's ok. in fact she is now bea's best friend. they even have private jokes that only the two of them understand! her youth and energy works to her advantage since bea is now a handful, running here and there, jumping, shouting, laughing... being a typical toddler!

another answered prayer is the fact that bea seems to be getting over her acid reflux! yey! except for yesterday's episode (oops, she was overfed i think), it has been more than a month since her last episode! she is still difficult to feed, won't eat anything else but lugaw with sinigang, still force fed through syringes, but at least her body is now absorbing her food! and the improvement shows:

i am very grateful! so many answered prayers! i hope she keeps this up!

i definitely acknowledge divine intervention, plus a patient and persistent yaya, and a new vitamin we tried: Scott's Emulsion. according to my father, this vitamin has been around for ages, in fact they tried it on my sis and me, but since it was essentially cod liver oil, (eewww!) we didn't like the taste. kudos to glaxosmithkline for reintroducing this supplement in a super tasty orange flavor. bea seems ok with the taste, thankfully!