From Dawn Till Dusk

Hi everyone! Hope all is well on your end. My apologies for not being visible online these past few days. Real life drags me really busy that I had a hard time sitting down for a few hours to record how life has been.

Anyway, as the title of this post suggests, this is just to put in record the first time ever in my entire life that I greeted my dearest Mom so so very mushy on Mother’s Day. I know, I know, it’s been a day that Mother’s Day had passed and this so so late. But for the sake of documenting the exact words I said to greet her on that one Special Day for Mothers, am posting it here.

I greeted Mom on the evening of the 10th of May, a day before Mother’s Day is celebrated on my side of the planet. I don’t usually greet my Mom in a quite sentimental and mushy way. I don’t know what’s wrong with us, but I and siblings find it really really corny, as my brother had put it: “Hindi na bagay yang ganyang drama, sa tatanda na nating lahat“. Haha! And if ever I do, I usually have greeting cards, or gifts, or put everything in a digiscrap (just like what I did for her last year) as a way to show how I feel. They’re great but count to think of it, all are quite impersonal ways. As a matter of fact, whenever I have something for her, I always made sure I’m not somewhere at her sight when she gets to receive my gift.

But for this year’s Mother’s Day, am not sure what’s with me that day that I suddenly grabbed the phone, dialed her number and whoa: uttered those words of affection word-per-word, straightforward, without hitch. Haha! Thinking and looking back how I did it, am not sure, I can greet her the same way next year. And well, am not sure if she would allow me to greet her that way again for next year, because the moment I uttered those words of affection right at her, all I heard were sniffs and oh my, how I sensed she was so speechless. Mukhang shock na shock at parang gustong umatungal ng iyak sa mga sinabi ko. Haha!

Here goes how our conversation went: Continue Reading »

Nice, who also blogs at MommaStuff, is reviving her Mommy Question of the Week that she started months back. The Blog Carnival aims to gather and share opinions and experiences among Moms on certain motherhood topics. And for this week the question is about the importance of routines for kids: Do you have routines for your kids? Care to share? Does it really help?

Thanks for inviting me Nice. Yes, we do observe a certain routine for Nico and it all started soon as he was discharged from the Neonatal ICU, 10 days after his birth. Whether it’s mealtime, playtime, weewee and poopoo time, homework time, or bedtime, following sets of patterns as early as infancy is as important as providing our kids with the basic necessities because it is with routines they come to remember and appreciate consistency and predictability. And what makes it more important is the fact that parents also benefits from these routines. In as much as we spend a great deal of bonding time with the kids through these routines, we also get to enjoy a special Me-time for ourselves because everything is planned and anticipated.

In our case, since we were caring for a preemie infant back then, we had instructions from the Neonatologist to strictly observe “habits” especially on two things. First was on feeding the baby on a 45 degree angle and on certain intervals and stops to avoid choking since his lungs was still on the process of maturing and that his heart had a hole back then. And second, as much as possible, we were told to comfort the baby quickly when he cries, thus avoiding him to turn blue. These two habits, on top of observing what time he’ll be given meds to calm palpitations of his heart and a medicine to induce urination (so the lungs will not be flooded with liquids), we definitely observed. Whew! And looking back, I can’t clearly remember how we did it!

As far as I can recall, aside from the instructions of Nico’s pedia cardio, we also frequent Heart Library, it’s a great resource about anything and everything about the heart. And what’s even better about HeartLibrary is that they have an interactive heart video library where one can view the anatomy of the heart, various heart diseases, and patient stories. Take for example, this video of a Rapid Heart Rate, it’s really very helpful in understanding how the heart works. And at times we are not familiar with medical terms, there’s a Heart Glossary Library to consult. Aside from that, the Heart Library’s Frequently Asked Questions were also very helpful to us.

Anyway, fast forward to present, our routines have changed as Nico grows. A Day in the Life of my four-year old Little Boy goes something like this: (PS. Some of the photos were not taken on the actual time of the routine, but it’s there for illustration purposes)

Continue Reading »

Who would ever thought that a Little Boy, whose no doubt afraid of the water, would eventually discover a love affair with it. Well, the swimming lessons started it all and in less than two weeks Nico’s been exposed to it, he’s now so engrossed to it that even on no-swimming lessons day, he just wanted to take a dip and hear those water splashes over and over.

May 01, on a non-working holiday, we’re all geared to go to Avilon Zoo for the second time. The first time that Nico went there was during a school field trip and we promised to bring him back there this summer. But just hours before we left, the Little Boy suggested that we go for swimming instead, as if he can’t enough of being in the pool for about one to two hours a day, six days a week. Well, it was sweltering in hot on our side of the planet that day anyway, so Nico didn’t do much of prodding and off we headed to Club Manila East, a resort just a few minutes away from our place, for a swim. Continue Reading »

I finally received the new healthcards from our Office’ personnel section the other day. All two of them, one for me being the principal holder and one for Hubby, which I decided to enroll as my dependent the last minute before the deadline of submission. If only I can enroll Nico as a dependent too, but because of the congenital heart disease that he had at birth , he’s not yet qualified for a healthcard even if the hole had closed by itself, until the Medical Investigation Bureau cleared him after five years. And since Nico’s four years old now, I have to wait another year more for him to finally qualify.

This is the first time ever in my entire working life I’ve had a dependent for a healthcard. And unexpectedly, it was Hubby. Hubby used to be enrolled separately through the company he worked for. But since he just availed of an early retirement December last year, perks and benefits he had, including the healthcard, only lasted that month.

It’s been four months since his early retirement, I know. But never it dawned to me so concretely that we are now a single income earning family, with me as the “officially” declared head of the family. Not until I received the healthcards just last Friday. It got me in leaps of paranoia and I can’t help but feel too worried how our finances would go now that Hubby had retired.

Though he’s still connected with the company, but it’s only on a consultancy basis, meaning there would be no more constant stream of income earnings for the family on his part. It was a courageous career move on his part because he wanted to be full time in the little growing business that we have especially now that we’ve taken a step higher by venturing into newspaper dealership in a certain area in north of Metro Manila, aside from the delivery services that we have.

I remember a post by Teacher Julie before, it’s a photo of tunnel which depicted how life was so unpredictable. Continue Reading »