From Dawn Till Dusk

24 May 2008 — It’s was busy weekend on my side of the family. It was Mom’s 57th Birthday last Friday, the 23rd and my niece’s 6th Birthday on the 28th. We’re all set for an intimate celebration in my Mom’s for the two birthdays because the double celebration was something that we do yearly. 

But what made yesterday’s family affair a wee bit sentimental and special was that, it became sort of a farewell party for my brother who’ll be leaving for Singapore a few days from now.

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The weather’s been so unpredictable lately. In the morning, the sun is brightly shining. Then mid-day to mid afternoon, we’re scorching and sweltering in heat as if summer is still here to stay. But whoa, later in the afternoon, we’ll be surprised because it’ll be raining so hard. And with heavy downpours like what’s been happening for over a few weeks now makes me want to think it’s the start of the rainy season. Oh well, at least we get to take a few dips in the water this summer, so no regrets if the rainy season is already here.

What began to make me go nuts though was doing the laundry this rainy season. Wrong timing if one may call it, but our trusty seven-year old washing machine seemed to have conked out already. Yes, that washing machine has been with us since the time we got married and not a single laundry day that it failed me. Tsk, too bad it happened at this time that the rainy season is just starting. And domestic divas out there know that washing machines and dryers are just heaven’s sent especially during the rainy season because at least clothes just can just dry up instantly. And since last week it was malfunctioning, our house angel has been doing the laundry manually. You know, the kuskos, piga, sampay thingie. She isn’t complaining yet, but I can already sense she will soon.

So before I get to receive the complaints, I’ve already called Samsung’s Service Center to check on our unit and see what’s causing the spin function to malfunction. After doing the check just last Wednesday, the repair man said the unit needs to overhauled already. Apparently, the gear box is defective and the pressure sensor should be replaced already so that the unit can function fully.  Of course, I’m all for a go, go, go with the replacement. Why not? That is, if I didn’t see the receipt of check-up which details the estimate of the labor and materials. Here, take a look: Continue Reading »

Prodding Nico to drink from a glass has been an ordeal for quite sometime. You wouldn’t believe this, but since we drastically [read: drastically] weaned him from the bottle last year, he always have this ritual of crying out loudly before he finishes a glass of milk. We’re glad that the crying and all the whining ended yesterday. He’s loving the habit of drinking his milk from a glass now.

[This is an answer to a tag by Cookie on Five Things I Want My Kids to Know Before They Grow Up.]

So many childcare and parenting books whose authors are “experts” offer so many childrearing and parenting advice. There’s these books which claims that if you don’t follow these systems you’re told to do, you will not raise a good child. And of course, being the doting parents that we are, we sure wish only the rightful way of parenting and childrearing for our children. That is why, our tendency is to patronize as many parenting resources we can get our hands on, just as so we are confident we are teaching our children the rightful way. But can anyone of us truly know which to trust or believe?

Last Sunday, we attended the 3PM Mass at the Megatrade Hall of SM Megamall. It was one of those usual Masses that we attend. Same Priest, same set of Church choir, same set of people who help out all throughout the the ceremony. But what made that Mass really special for me and Hubby was the Priest’ homily which centered on parenting. Very apt for newbie parents like we are, he told the story about a couple who were just expecting their first child.

This couple have the vision to be the dedicated parents that they are to their future child. And like most new parents who weren’t sure how to raise a child in a proper way, they decided to take parenting classes offered at their church. After the first class, they realized that there were different opinions, especially in their own church, about raising godly children.

Feeling a little confused, they decided to talk over the various childrearing issues with their family physician. And to their shock, even as they knew their family physician and his wife as model parents, his advice was surprisingly simple and clear: Continue Reading »

Co-sleeping has many rewarding benefits. We for example, have proven the many advantages of implementing this attachment parenting technique. For over four years now since we’re co-sleeping with Nico, I can say that we have been ensured of the physical and emotional and the “spiritual” health of our family.

During Nico’s “attachment phase” which was from 6 months to 2 years, we’re so glad for choosing to be sleeping with the Little Boy as we saw in him the feeling that he’s in the most comforting place to be whenever he sleeps on our family bed. Added to that, never we feared the threats of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, (which according to childcare books happens during the attachment phase where it is believed that possibly an underdeveloped nervous system may cause the baby to forget to breathe) simply because we’re together during sleep time as it is believed too that Mom and Dad’s rhythmic breathing is an excellent reminder for the baby to breath as well. I’d like to believe too that it was because of co-sleeping that Nico got to learn to sleep through the night as early as four months old, which meant more zzzz’s for me and Hubby.

Of course, we’ve had our share of sleepless nights too, most especially when Nico is sick. But the very same togetherness at night worked for us in anyway because we get to check on the Little Boy’s temperature on a regular basis.

If there’s a disadvantage with co-sleeping that we experienced, that’s plainly just the lesser and unpredictable Hubby and Wifey time, and nothing more. That is, if one can consider that as a disadvantage because for us, co-sleeping has been a very good form of contraception. Haha!

We currently have a queen-sized bed to sleep on and even though me, Hubby and our growing Little Boy are nearing being all cramped in our sleeping haven, we love the feeling of sleeping together as we feel we are more at peace and we feel we are more secured. And we’ve yet thought on having Nico transfer in the next room to us pretty soon. Well, not until the Little Boy told me just last Sunday that he wants to have his own room. Continue Reading »

I confess, I am but a certified 100 percent stage mother to Nico. No doubt about that and I have to believe all doting mothers in this world around are naturally in the same boat as I am. Don’t we just love and adore our kids to pieces that we are often engrossed with documenting every milestone and every development they achieved?

To us, they are the most beautiful creatures that God has ever created on planet earth and often times we can’t help but praise them, and be proud and brag about them from the littlest to the amazing things that they do. I for one, had proven this myself but never did I thought this stage mommying admittance would be put to test when something came up.

Two weeks ago, while we’re dining in a restaurant in Eastwood City, a stranger approached us surprisingly. A young professional looking person that he is, he introduced himself as a talent scout for an advertising agency. He said he was very pleased with the looks and smiles and charms of our Little Boy and asked if we’re interested in letting Nico try to audition for some commercial shoots that he is currently handling.

Of course, never would I deny that the offer of the talent scout got me really excited. I was so thrilled about it actually that I remembered I was wearing a big big smile on my face while listening to what the talent scout was saying. You wouldn’t believe it, but I was sort of like a crazy stage Mommy going nuts with bubble thoughts on my head while the talent scout was doing his sales talk, imagining how exciting and thrilling it will be seeing my Little Boy model for a kid’s clothe line with all the lights and lenses aimed at him. Continue Reading »

Friends are some of the most important people in this world. And I bet almost everyone on planet earth has this someone they consider as best friends for life. Either this person has been in our lives for a certain period of time and had been there with us through thick and thin, best friends are the people we love, cherish and keep.

As for me, I’m thankful enough to have been blessed with a best friend whom I treasure all my life. I met her way back in my College days. She was my classmate and from the very first day we met, we knew we’d clicked. We love sharing squid balls and mango shake after classes. I sometimes borrow money from her whenever my weekly allowance were already drained just middle of the week. We okray some mahaderas back in school together. She is the number one critique of my unpredictable personality. She gives me the most frank and direct to the point advices whenever Hubby and I have petty or serious Qs. She is a shoulder to cry on, a sister to confide with, and someone that I depend to, and from the littlest up to the more important things in my life, she knows almost everything.

But just like any another relationship, keeping and treasuring a friendship is something that is constantly worked on. I have to say so myself because for over four years now since my best friend settled in the province for good with her family, we experienced that it doesn’t come easy especially that we are physically far from each other which made us miss each other really bad. I’ve often convince her (a million times, I think) to already get “high-tech”, so we can get in touch conveniently. But ayayay, you wouldn’t believe this, but she’s someone who is not used to embracing technology really seriously even as I often say she should be, with the changing times. She has no Friendster, no Blog (and she’s quite surprise the day I told her I have an online diary that’s been read publicly), not even a Yahoo mail account. Great, diba?

Anyway, technology-deprived and what-have-yous, it didn’t hinder us from keeping in touch regularly. Communication was the primary key and at the very least, we have mobile phones and texting and calling cards to thank for, because we get to call each other almost three times a day, seven days a week. I remember one time I was on an inter-country assignment, and my best friend really need to confide with me a major and urgent “something” that she and her Hubby was having, we were able to sit down and talk over the phone in long minutes, or hours, if I may say so. My thanks to several calling cards I purchased from GetMeCallingCards.com, one of the largest retailers of phone cards from all major vendors that allows customers to call from 153 countries around the world. In my case, since I was calling then from the United States to the Philippines, Philippine calling cards cost me just around 5.4 cents per minute. That sure saved me big bucks.

Sometimes, whenever time and circumstances permit it, we visit each other’s place once in a while. And such was what happened last Thursday. Finally, my best friend, after being captured by attending to family matters at home and us playing the waiting game for over a month, my best friend for life was in town together with her adorable three-year old little girl Sam. And I bet you already know what happened next? We’ve had the greatest times of our lives going here and there just like the way we used to.

Well, we’ve initially planned to go to Subic last month and spend some two or three days there, but since her schedule of arrival in Manila changed, so thus the change in our plans (errr, we didn’t really plan for whatsoever because her sked was really crazy). Anyway, we opted not go anywhere out-of-town, just spontaneous pasyals here and there (which goes to explain why I am almost invisible online these past few days).

Anyhow, here’s a quick run down on the things we’ve been up to and the places we’ve been to since she and daughter Sam came. I’ll update the post to include the other photos from the camphone of our friends. Continue Reading »