One Saturday Morning

You woke up early as usual. 5am. Mommy looked out the window and felt sad, they won't be able to jog again. Her and daddy had been missing their daily jogs lately. The rain hasn't stopped for the last 2 days.

You were supposed to be at Doc Armendi's clinic by 8am for your IPD shot. Mommy was determined to brave the rain. But Daddy insisted we all stay indoors. At around 11am, news started pouring in. Nightmare has started for some of our brothers and sisters. Mommy could not stop the tears from falling. Shots of people begging for help on top of their rooftops, rooftops awashed by floodwater with people begging for rescue on top of it (and hearing later on that only one survived among them), kids rendered homeless due to flooding, people stranded on the streets for almost a day, handicapped people braving flooded streets just to escape drowning, and a lot more other pictures that are just so heartbreaking to see.

The day after is even worse. People grieving for properties lost and even worse people grieving for loved ones dead or missing.

What caused this sudden flooding? Can we prevent this from happening again?

12 months past and now comes the first birthday planning

I am a big fan of Baby Center. I guess it was mainly because I was doing this parenting thing on my own and only had the internet to turn to (most of the time) in times when I needed help in dealing with Maia's development.

A few months before Maia's birthday, I already started scouring thru the internet for party ideas. I initially wanted a really big party. With food carts, bubble shows, face painting, the works. But then again, the hubby begged me to think things over and my practical side won over yet again.

It was a good thing it did. Otherwise I would have felt really guilty holding a grand party when the rest of the Philippines is still mourning for lives and properties lost due to the recent tragedies brought about by Ondoy and Pepeng.

Anyways, here are a couple of tips that I got from Baby Center to help other new mommies out there plan for their little ones BIG DAY.

Struggles at the Work-front?

I am not one to really put too much thoughts on work. I used to. But since I got married, I stopped making my career a priority. So with this in mind, you can easily conclude that office politics never really bothered me. Not till the last few months.

I would really have preferred to sleep on this. But then it's been an on and off thing, I thought the best thing to do was to vent it out (to nowhere basta just vent). Since I am also not good at verbally communicating my emotions I thought I'd better just write it since like cooking, writing to me is therapy.

Okay there. So I've established where the following rant is coming from. Haha.

As I've said earlier, my career took a back seat already about 2 years ago. Up till now, its still sitting out there in the back. A couple of college friends have been telling me to explore 'greener' options since they are sure I can do better than this. But then again, I think this is the best place for me for now. I'll think about it when Maia turns one (hahaha. which is going to be next month already...helllooooo, Faye?).

I had my PA discussion recently. Before that, I've had a couple of 'accidents' at work. By accident I mean to say I had to write an apology to my bosses copying the company VP's as well. But that is no big issue. It was an easy thing to do. Because really, I was partially to blame.

So anyways, going back to my PA discussion. It actually went well. I was told not to think too much about my previous mishaps and just move on. Just KEEP YOUR FOCUS on the job was the suggestion. My supervisor also suggested she'll just delegate some of my responsibilities to the other team members since indeed I was already overloaded.

I NEVER complained for the past 2 years. NEVER. But I guess, some people at work mistook this as me saying it's okay to dump everything on me while they stay on 'PE-TIKS' mode the whole day. Imagine, no invoices came for 2 weeks and what did she do on those days???? Facebook for the whole day???? C'mon, nakakasawa din yun ah! Hindi ba???

I used to think I was lucky to belong to a team of people who were friends first before embracing the idea of being co-workers. But then again, I guess a good team will only shine when it has a good team leader to guide them. This post is not intended to malign my team leader.

Maia's Pasta in Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Description:
I've been collecting some recipes lately and I thought it's easier for me to share them if I'd post them online so here's the first of them...

This pasta recipe is one of the most requested among my co-workers. I'd often cook this during bday celebrations at the office.

This isn't really original. What I'd do is I'd usually search up a recipe for something and just tweak it a bit to fit my taste. This particular recipe is for an alfredo sauce but my co-workers would usually refer to this as my carbonara recipe. Well to avoid arguments, I'll call it a cream sauce instead.

Ingredients:
1 500g pack Farfalle/Linguine/Fettucine/Penne pasta, cooked per package instructions
1 can Nestle heavy cream
1 pack Knorr cream of mushroom soup, dilute in 1 cup water
1 med white onion, chopped
1 can button mushroom, drain and chop
1 slab unsalted butter (mga 1/2 inch thick)
1 200g cooked ham, chopped
1 200g King Sue bacon cubes, chopped
1 cup water, to dilute white sauce
2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. cook bacon in pan without oil to render the fat.
2. once bacon turns crispy, take out from pan.
3. saute mushroom in bacon fat. when almost done put butter and saute for one 1 minute. add mushroom soup. boil until soup is cooked then add cream. mix and simmer for 2 minutes. set aside.
4. in separate pan, pour oil and saute white onion. add chopped ham. when ham is cooked pour the white sauce and mix. if sauce is very thick, slowly dilute with water and simmer for another minute.
5. mix with pasta.

11 months and little steps

To our dearest Maia-powkoo,

Here we are again - Mommy attempting to recall everything that took place during your journey to your 11th month. I am writing this with you singing in the background. It would really be great if you'd grow up with a good singing voice. Mom and Dad will surely enjoy listening to you!

The last few weeks was a very rough ride for us. We were back at the hospital again. A day (Tuesday) before our admission, you were just diagnosed of having swollen tonsils and was sent home with a mild antibiotic prescription. Mommy's nerves were calmed a bit by that diagnosis. But come Wednesday morning you vomitted. Not just once but 3 times. Mommy was hesitant to bring you to the ER at first but you were growing weaker and weaker by the minute you really left me with no choice. For the nth time my mother's instinct turned out correct, you were indeed already dehydrated and the nurses had to hook you again on IV to put back the lost fluids in your body. The insertion process was again another torturous moment (and they had to reinsert it 4 times and leave you with 10 puncture marks) I'd rather not go through the details anymore. Starting that day, I had been lobbying with Dear Jesus not to let you go thru that again.  I hope He heard us. :) Just to be sure though, you are now taking probiotic supplements to boost your immune system. I hope it really works. You need the hospital break baby. We all do.

But moving on to the fascinating stories. This month you started taking your little steps. You can now stand on your own as long as you not aware that you are that is. As soon as you realize what's happening you lose your balance. But no worries baby, you take your time with the practice steps. Mom and Dad are just as eager to hold your hand while you take those tiny steps towards your independence. Independence is sometimes a scary word. But to us baby, whatever is best we'll always be there to support.

Reading, Singing and Dancing are some of your favorite activities these days. Apart from of course your daily tour of our village, you always love to hear Mom or Ate Inday read you something. You'd clap your hands or wave frantically as a sign of excitement. We would always catch you humming a tune (of something that we really could not put a title yet) whether you're playing or leafing thru the pages of your board book. And just a few days ago, Mommy caught you jumping each time a catchy tune is played on TV. You are really one fascinating baby.

As of this writing here's a rundown of your top faves:

Food - Brown rice and Mashed Squash (the ultimate fave, I guess since you never get tired of it)

Snack - Ponzdrop cookies from Iloilo. Now Lola Joyce is going to hoard boxes when she comes back to visit. She doesn't want you to run out of these.

Fruit - Red grapes (painstakingly skinned by Mom one-by-one)

Toy - Eddy the bear

Book - (still) Puppy Dog

Activity - Reading (and eating off the book leaves)

Bedtime Song - Heal the World (by MJ)

You now consume about 4-5 diapers a day and take at least 9 ounces of milk in one sitting. However you seem to be sleeping less and less, currently you take just 2 naps during the day (averaging an hour each) and still 7pm-5am at night. But the good thing is -- you are now able to sleep through the night. Although there are days when you'd suddenly wake up at night and jump on the bed as if its morning playtime already. Of course Mom or Dad would happily oblige with your playtime request, with sleepy grins on their faces.

You also learned a part of the body this month - the NOSE! And you also now give in to Mom or Dad's request for a kiss. Most days though, your sweet gesture is defined by a forehead bump. When you want to make lambing with Mom or Dad, you would bump our foreheads repeatedly. Then laugh your heart out after. Hahaha. We'd all end up laughing.

Lastly, you now chase after Mommy when she bades goobye. One of these days baby, maybe Mom can stay home with you a lot longer. For now, just stay happy ha? And healthy, of course. And we'll all be fine. Doc said you were born a fighter...keep it that way baby. Sometimes, the only thing that keeps Mommy going is that smiling toothy face of yours. Seeing those 4 teeth of yours when you smile definitely takes all the blues away.

Love you Maia.

~Mommy (and Daddy too)