So, how was your long weekend? We spent it at home, save for Saturday when we went to SM Sta. Rosa since we had no power from 3AM when the wind was just going crazy. Bagyong Santi was mostly strong wind, not much rainfall (at least in our area). On our way to SM, we saw a lot of trees that fell down, some Meralco posts also fell...it was something like Milenyo. But thank God, power was restored by 8PM (unlike Milenyo where it took days!).
Okay, back to happy thoughts :P
Early Sunday morning, I was baking pancake muffins for breakfast (but we still had rice and sisig hehe). Monday naman, I baked Madeleines. Hay, the pancake muffins were okay but the Madeleines, so so lang...I was expecting them to be cookie-like kaso parang muffin pa rin. I am still a beginner when it comes to baking so I follow the recipe to the dot. That's one thing that I notice with baking (versus regular cooking), I can't play around with it pa. We were just lucky to get this recipe for carrot cake from Allrecipes.com which turns out really fantastic...as in baking goddess fantastic! LOL. So, unting practice pa.
The weekend was also spent playing with Ethan, watching his DVDs with him, eating an apple, some chips, some cookies with him. It was also spent laughing at his antics. Oh, and one thing we're really proud of...he can count from 1 to 10!!! He knows the sequence but he doesn't know how the number looks like yet. So we take it a day at a time. Good thing he stays with Grandma or Lola at home, he gets good exposure to educational stuff.
Ethan also loves to dance! And he's quite a performer, loves it when we are amused with his performance - even requesting for claps hehehe.
He does get mischievous from time to time - getting a bit hard-headed and insists on what he wants. But we get firm with him in a way that he knows that he's not the boss around the house. But in general, he's even-tempered.
He can also hold conversations with us. He babbles while telling us what he and Papa saw during their walk to the park (birds "tweet tweet", rem = worm, with matching wiggly finger, and ants!). Sometimes it takes a few repetitions before we understand what he means but he has his way of making us understand. One time during his bath, Grandma was just waiting for him to finish playing inside the pail. He called out "Mah! Mints". Mama didn't understand at first so she asked him what he wanted, and he repeated "Mints". Seeing that his Grandma didn't understand him, he gestured with his index finger (making it like a dropper) and that's when Grandma understood that he meant Vitamins. Because that is their routine, he will take his vitamins while still inside the pail :)
I could go on and on but what I really want to say is that the little boy is really growing up. Looking at him, I feel fulfilled that I have been part of this miracle, this gift from God.
Baby#2, is that you calling? :)
03 November 2009
23 October 2009
Going 3-0!
In 2 days, I will be hitting the big 3-0! :P Hmm...milestone.
Turning 30, I wish I could be more of a hands-on mother. I mean, I'm doing my best to be there for Ethan but I feel like it's not enough. I would like to be able to read, play, dance, sing with him more. I'd like to be able to prepare his meals, lull him to sleep, wash his clothes...in short, I'd like to take care of him 24/7.
But that's not currently possible. So I continue to do my best to take care of him when we're at home together. And I really wish my temper doesn't get the best of me.
----
My birthday also signals the coming of Christmas for me. In exactly two months' time, it would be Christmas.
I used to think that my birthdate is cool because I have the same day as Jesus's (the 25th). Hehe.
Christmas is almost here and I'd like to start with Christmas shopping hehe. On my list, I've only bought 3 pa lang. I plan to give out baked goodies na lang (like mini carrot cakes or madeleines). This would be DIY gifts - I'm even planning to make the gift box myself.
Hopefully, my plan will push through :)
Turning 30, I wish I could be more of a hands-on mother. I mean, I'm doing my best to be there for Ethan but I feel like it's not enough. I would like to be able to read, play, dance, sing with him more. I'd like to be able to prepare his meals, lull him to sleep, wash his clothes...in short, I'd like to take care of him 24/7.
But that's not currently possible. So I continue to do my best to take care of him when we're at home together. And I really wish my temper doesn't get the best of me.
----
My birthday also signals the coming of Christmas for me. In exactly two months' time, it would be Christmas.
I used to think that my birthdate is cool because I have the same day as Jesus's (the 25th). Hehe.
Christmas is almost here and I'd like to start with Christmas shopping hehe. On my list, I've only bought 3 pa lang. I plan to give out baked goodies na lang (like mini carrot cakes or madeleines). This would be DIY gifts - I'm even planning to make the gift box myself.
Hopefully, my plan will push through :)
13 October 2009
Choles
One thing that's bugging my mind right now is A's high level of bad cholesterol. (ugh, I know!)
He found out about it on a recent free cholesterol check that they had at work. He couldn't believe it at first so he went for another test and consulted with an endocrinologist as well. Well, the test came out the same - he did have a staggering level of bad cholesterol!
Why the endocrinologist? Because A has a thyroid problem. And he read somewhere that hypothyroidism can cause high cholesterol (slow metabolism and all that!). A used to have hyperthyroidism sometime during college (I didn't know him yet then) and he went for radioactive iodine treatment. His hyperthyroidism stopped alright, but the RIT burned through most of his thyroid, hence, he now has hypothyroidism. (I know, grr, right?)
So, now he is hypo and the endocrinologist prescribed him with hormones to help his system get back to "normal". This hormone supplement will be, sadly, for life. Hay. Sad. But then life has to go on.
And so, this led me to look for healthy recipes online. I saw this recipe for tri-veggie pasta sauce and pesto chicken at the Yummy website and I tried it out last night.
The verdict?
Two thumbs up from the hubby and a ginormous appetite from the kid! I was really glad that they liked it.
They were bitin pa nga because I cooked a small portion of spaghetti lang because I was hesitant that we'd like it - sayang kasi ung noodles. Hehe, nabitin tuloy :P
We thought that the chicken would taste blah, but surprisingly, it turned out flavorful. Of course, compared to the usual fried chicken, it was more bland - si Mama yun ang sinabi, wala daw bang asin. Hehe.
It was also my first time to use spaghetti sauce made from fresh tomatoes (usually kasi store-bought spaghetti sauce). As I was cooking it, I had to add more spices to make it more flavorful. I also used more of the parmesan cheese, instead of salt, to bring saltiness into the sauce.
While I was cooking the sauce, it tasted bland for me. Siguro nga kasi you'd look for the taste of meat that's usually present in spaghetti sauce. But when we incorporated it with the pasta, surprisingly ulit, masarap sya :)
Hay basta, tuwang-tuwa kami ni A lalo na andaming nakain ni Ethan (who usually has poor appetite for solids)!
P.S. I read from Today's Parent website that there's such a thing as "too much juice" which can ruin a kid's appetite. It was a suspect for me kasi before Ethan drinks a lot of juice and ends up with very very poor appetite. Coincidentally, the same day I read the article, Mama also decided to stop Ethan's juice intake muna (and just have it after meals). So as soon as I told Mama about the article, we had data na agad because we observed Ethan's appetite to improve agad. *Me and Mama have really connected brainwaves I think hehe*
He found out about it on a recent free cholesterol check that they had at work. He couldn't believe it at first so he went for another test and consulted with an endocrinologist as well. Well, the test came out the same - he did have a staggering level of bad cholesterol!
Why the endocrinologist? Because A has a thyroid problem. And he read somewhere that hypothyroidism can cause high cholesterol (slow metabolism and all that!). A used to have hyperthyroidism sometime during college (I didn't know him yet then) and he went for radioactive iodine treatment. His hyperthyroidism stopped alright, but the RIT burned through most of his thyroid, hence, he now has hypothyroidism. (I know, grr, right?)
So, now he is hypo and the endocrinologist prescribed him with hormones to help his system get back to "normal". This hormone supplement will be, sadly, for life. Hay. Sad. But then life has to go on.
And so, this led me to look for healthy recipes online. I saw this recipe for tri-veggie pasta sauce and pesto chicken at the Yummy website and I tried it out last night.
The verdict?
Two thumbs up from the hubby and a ginormous appetite from the kid! I was really glad that they liked it.
They were bitin pa nga because I cooked a small portion of spaghetti lang because I was hesitant that we'd like it - sayang kasi ung noodles. Hehe, nabitin tuloy :P
We thought that the chicken would taste blah, but surprisingly, it turned out flavorful. Of course, compared to the usual fried chicken, it was more bland - si Mama yun ang sinabi, wala daw bang asin. Hehe.
It was also my first time to use spaghetti sauce made from fresh tomatoes (usually kasi store-bought spaghetti sauce). As I was cooking it, I had to add more spices to make it more flavorful. I also used more of the parmesan cheese, instead of salt, to bring saltiness into the sauce.
While I was cooking the sauce, it tasted bland for me. Siguro nga kasi you'd look for the taste of meat that's usually present in spaghetti sauce. But when we incorporated it with the pasta, surprisingly ulit, masarap sya :)
Hay basta, tuwang-tuwa kami ni A lalo na andaming nakain ni Ethan (who usually has poor appetite for solids)!
P.S. I read from Today's Parent website that there's such a thing as "too much juice" which can ruin a kid's appetite. It was a suspect for me kasi before Ethan drinks a lot of juice and ends up with very very poor appetite. Coincidentally, the same day I read the article, Mama also decided to stop Ethan's juice intake muna (and just have it after meals). So as soon as I told Mama about the article, we had data na agad because we observed Ethan's appetite to improve agad. *Me and Mama have really connected brainwaves I think hehe*
09 October 2009
Ethan's latest
I'm back with a list of Ethan's latest antics:
- He loves watching his DVDs - Mo-mo (Sesame Street which features Elmo), Baber (that's Bob the Builder!), Ney (Barney), Go-Go (can refer to Dora or Diego). He loves to dance and he's got rhythm! Sabi ni A, mana daw sa kanya hehehe.
- He can recognize Boots and Swiper. When we say "Swiper, no swiping!", he responds with "oh men!". Just discovered that this week. Grandma bought him a Dora CD which he watches a lot. According to Grandma, he also tries to answer Dora's questions.
- He converses more and we already recognize a lot of his words. When he comes up with a new one, it's quite easy to decipher because he can find ways to help us understand him. Some of his words are:
- Hap = hat/cap, he gets confused because he has a hat and a cap which he uses. He got used to calling it a hat but when he wears his cap, he calls it a hat as well. So we also tell him that it's a cap. Maybe he got confused so he calls either a "hap" now :P
- Bang = he says this when he falls down. We don't know where he heard it and how he was able to associate falling with the word
- Another thing that's amazing is that he converses in English. I'm wondering if it's easier for him to say the words that's why he chooses to speak in English. We don't talk with him in straight English all the time, it's mostly Taglish. He also understands Cebuano because when I and my parents' talk about what the little boy did during the day for example (in Cebuano), he listens then does what we are talking about. It's amazing, really.
- "Come" or "Walk" = come with me or walk with me. He usually pulls your hand when he says this and brings you in front of the refrigerator. Then he says,
- "Pen, pease" = Open, please. Then he proceeds to find what he wants inside the ref.
- "pen, cose" = Open, close. He does this while opening and closing his hands.
- "up, don" = "Up, down". Beware, because he wants to ride on your legs while you mimic a seesaw.
- He can also associate verbs with common nouns that go with it. For example,
- Ethan is driving (or riding) a...(he responds with) Car
- Ethan is reading a... (he responds with) Book
- Ethan is writing with his... (he responds with) Pens
- Ethan is brushing his... (he responds with) Teeth. and he can enunciate the "th" sound
- Ethan is wearing his... (he responds with) Hap
- Ethan is watching... (he responds with) TV
- Ethan is drinking... Fee (that's coffee, patay na) or Juice
- I made a bed cover for him (which also included several pillowcases) which had Spongebob as design. He used it for the first time last Tuesday. As soon as he saw it, he exclaimed, "Wow!" sabay higa at hug sa bed nya. Hehehe. Worth it ang pagod ni Mama :)
- He also loves to dance to the tune of Hokey, Pokey. And the theme song of Backyardigans, as well as Hi-5 songs.
- EDIT (10/13/09): He can identify colors na rin - he knows red, blue, green, yellow, orange, violet (vlet), black, and white. He also recognizes numbers - one, two..three..four..five..six..eight (hehe, he skips seven), ten! (he also skips nine).
He's drinking more milk now but eats very small amounts of solid food lang. Kaya pag napansin naming may gana, we take the opportunity to feed him solids talaga. I read that too much juice can lead to this, so we try to minimize his juice intake.
Malapit na ang Christmas, we're going home to Davao pohon :)
28 September 2009
Ondoy oy oy!
How are you? I do hope that you're okay.
I thank God that my loved ones are safe...save for an uncle and his family whom we've last had communication with last Friday night. They live in the Lamuan area (in Marikina) and they were staying in the 2nd floor of their house since the first floor was also flooded. They only had raw spaghetti noodles to eat and some milk for my cousins (who are around 7 and 8 yrs. old and one of them celebrated his birthday last Saturday pa talaga). Up to now, we don't have any news about them...I really pray that they're okay.
We were also in Marikina last weekend. Saturday morning we were on our way to Marikina from Sta. Rosa. We left around 7am and dropped by Concepcion Market pa because mama had to do buy stuff. We left around 8am and were on our way home (to SSS Village), we were in a hurry because SSS gets flooded when heavy rain pours. As expected, several streets were already flooded so we decided to wait it out by the church (which is in an elevated area). We saw the water reach up to waist level.
Around 11:30 we decided to look for some place to eat. We saw Cafe Feliz and had lunch there and decided to continue waiting for the rain to stop and the flood to subside. By this time, electricity was already cut off. We reached home around 4pm when the rain subsided and flood water dropped to about the level of the sidewalk. We saw some cars wade through the rain so we decided to follow. It was quite difficult because there were a lot of debris on the street.
Worst thing that happened to us was the blackout. Just the incovenience of having a blackout. Phone lines were also down. Thank God water supply wasn't stopped. We are very thankful given the situation of other parts of Marikina, Pasig, and Rizal province, we were very blessed.
Oh, and A fell into a manhole (well, his left leg). He had to get anti-tetanus shots last night. We went to Concepcion to have him checked but ended up going home ulit kasi hindi ma-contact ang HMOs. We didn't have any cash either (well we had about P400 but it wasn't enough to get the shots), ATMs were all offline. In the grocery, there were a lot of people buying basic supplies like water, food, clothes, slippers. Some of them had no homes to go to. Grabe talaga.
The next morning, my parents were on the 6:30am flight from Davao so we had to go the airport. We went out at 7am, went around Marikina for an hour then decided to go back because roads were still not passable. Thank God for my BIL and SIL who offered to meet my parents for us. We were only able to go out of Marikina at 2PM but we still had to look for a passable route. The roads were all muddy, there were vehicles left on the street some that were all muddy inside. SM Marikina's carpark was covered in mud and the Marikina river was still churning out muddy water.
We were back home in Sta. Rosa around past 5pm. Thank God that in our area, there was no flooding that happened.
Nakakatakot ung experience. I feel sad for those who lost their homes, who were stranded on their rooftops with no food nor water, especially those who had babies, kids and elderly persons with them. It was really a tough day for the Philippines. But it should also serve as a wake up call for everyone to always be prepared for the worst.
I really do hope that we all learned a lesson from this experience. A lesson that we do not forget with the passing of time sana.
I thank God that my loved ones are safe...save for an uncle and his family whom we've last had communication with last Friday night. They live in the Lamuan area (in Marikina) and they were staying in the 2nd floor of their house since the first floor was also flooded. They only had raw spaghetti noodles to eat and some milk for my cousins (who are around 7 and 8 yrs. old and one of them celebrated his birthday last Saturday pa talaga). Up to now, we don't have any news about them...I really pray that they're okay.
We were also in Marikina last weekend. Saturday morning we were on our way to Marikina from Sta. Rosa. We left around 7am and dropped by Concepcion Market pa because mama had to do buy stuff. We left around 8am and were on our way home (to SSS Village), we were in a hurry because SSS gets flooded when heavy rain pours. As expected, several streets were already flooded so we decided to wait it out by the church (which is in an elevated area). We saw the water reach up to waist level.
Around 11:30 we decided to look for some place to eat. We saw Cafe Feliz and had lunch there and decided to continue waiting for the rain to stop and the flood to subside. By this time, electricity was already cut off. We reached home around 4pm when the rain subsided and flood water dropped to about the level of the sidewalk. We saw some cars wade through the rain so we decided to follow. It was quite difficult because there were a lot of debris on the street.
Worst thing that happened to us was the blackout. Just the incovenience of having a blackout. Phone lines were also down. Thank God water supply wasn't stopped. We are very thankful given the situation of other parts of Marikina, Pasig, and Rizal province, we were very blessed.
Oh, and A fell into a manhole (well, his left leg). He had to get anti-tetanus shots last night. We went to Concepcion to have him checked but ended up going home ulit kasi hindi ma-contact ang HMOs. We didn't have any cash either (well we had about P400 but it wasn't enough to get the shots), ATMs were all offline. In the grocery, there were a lot of people buying basic supplies like water, food, clothes, slippers. Some of them had no homes to go to. Grabe talaga.
The next morning, my parents were on the 6:30am flight from Davao so we had to go the airport. We went out at 7am, went around Marikina for an hour then decided to go back because roads were still not passable. Thank God for my BIL and SIL who offered to meet my parents for us. We were only able to go out of Marikina at 2PM but we still had to look for a passable route. The roads were all muddy, there were vehicles left on the street some that were all muddy inside. SM Marikina's carpark was covered in mud and the Marikina river was still churning out muddy water.
We were back home in Sta. Rosa around past 5pm. Thank God that in our area, there was no flooding that happened.
Nakakatakot ung experience. I feel sad for those who lost their homes, who were stranded on their rooftops with no food nor water, especially those who had babies, kids and elderly persons with them. It was really a tough day for the Philippines. But it should also serve as a wake up call for everyone to always be prepared for the worst.
I really do hope that we all learned a lesson from this experience. A lesson that we do not forget with the passing of time sana.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
