Summer In Antique Updates

 

The thing with slacking with my blog entries is, I tend to lose momentum. And if I don't push it, I'd probably end up abandoning this blog again for well the nth time (since I can't count it with my 10 fingers anymore).

So while I wanted to talk in detail about how this vacation of ours is going so far, I can't organize my thoughts well enough to answer curious questions about my home province so I'll settle for pictures for now.

And being stuck mostly at home due to our unfortunate battle with the killer flu that struck the little miss (leading to our ER trip), I really don't have a lot of photos to share yet. We've been here for 4 days and yet, we haven't gone to the beach yet. The beach -- albeit not the white sandy beach that would most probably attract tourists -- is just a kilometer away from my childhood home. But yes, we have been feeling that bad we couldn't gather enough strength to bring the kids out to the beach and even more chase after them. We'll just wait for reinforcement to come before we even tickle them with the thought of beach frolic.


maia finally meets the new addition to our family

So far, we've just been alternating resting, feeding, bathing and playing (if there's still some energy left for that) with two kids. My nephew who is about a year and a half older than the little miss is quite a handful on his own already so our day tends to be a little exhausting already. But despite that, we amazingly still find some time to squeeze in an activity or two during the day. Which leads me to believe, life is really slow here (and I meant that is a really good way).

Even if this is the first time in a long time that I am wishing for the weekend to come slower, I am just really thankful that despite being sick for more than half of our allotted vacation days we still manage to spend quality time as a family. That's good enough for me. Good enough for us three.

The Emergency Trip That We Always Hate Taking

Who would have thought that 2 days ago the possibility of our summer trip (tickets of which we purchased almost 6 months ago) not pushing through was looming over our head?

But the little girl was just so determined to get better, I guess she did pray hard for it (albeit silently). 

Monday night we had to rush her to the nearest hospital's ER because she was running a high fever for almost the entire day. She rarely experienced 39-ish fevers anymore so my panic button was ticked. I feared Dengue and I just wanted to clear that off my worries immediately. She initially hesitated because this particular hospital already traumatized her several times over but at that point, that was our best option and she eventually understood and conceded.

Her dad couldn't leave work early then so it was just the two of us who had to make that trip. She was crying at first, because she was so worried (her mom's daughter indeed) my recently extracted gums will bleed from carrying her. But I told her Ate Inday will carry her to the gate and then she will have to help me when we get to the hospital. Did I ever mention how lucky a mom I am? When it's just me and her, she rarely complained. Even if she is feeling at her worst, she never complains. I guess she loves me that much, she doesn't want to inconvenience me as well.

So we made it bravely to the ER. Funny, when the nurse took her temp it registered 37.1. Was it a case of ER-Phobia? I don't know. She might have been scared to her wits but she didn't show. She put up a brave face. When the nurses took samples for her blood and urine for the required lab tests she willfully let them. Cried a little after the needle pricked her tiny finger but only for a few seconds. The rest of our stay at the ER, while waiting for her dad to arrive, she just rested. I could sense she was having a hard time falling asleep though. It was as if she was listening to every conversation, dreading the news that she might need to be confined for a few days.

we were initially told it might be pneumonia and I just wanted to cry.

but after one session with the nebulizer, her lungs seemed to have cleared up.

thanks be to God. he is indeed good all the time!

In the middle of her rest, she bolted upright and announced "I'm going to be better tomorrow, Mommy! I'm going to tell the doctor I'm going to be better tomorrow! Kasi kailangan kong umuwi sa 21 eh. Gusto ko talaga makita si baby Duduy! (referring to her 2 month old cousin)."

After 3 hours we got the results back, the ER doctor did not find it worse enough to require her for admission but we were prescribed antibiotics because the indicators for a bacterial infection were above normal. Since the pharmacies nearby were close, I decided to wait out the antibiotics till the following day. I wanted to let her pedia see the results herself and have her prescribe the meds herself.

After our pedia consult, we were cleared for our vacation. We all heaved a sigh of relief. ER trips like that makes me miss my family more. Because both me and the hubby lives far from our respective immediate families, we have no one else to run to but ourselves in times of emergencies like this.

Sick Little Miss

One thing I dread about being a parent is having a kid who is sick. It renders me sleepless and wanting to camp in a doctor's clinic.

Yes, after almost 5 years I still am a worry-wart when my kid gets sick. I try not to entertain bad thoughts but I can't help it. And the worse part, I have to take care of a sick kid through the phone. I am scheduled to take a long leave from work for our upcoming Antique vacation so I'm trying not to miss any more work days just to avoid feeling guilty about passing on some work to my co-workers while I'm gone.

But today, I'm having a difficult time staying focused on work. I keep thinking about my sick little miss. Nasty flu just won't leave her alone. Just last month, she also nursed a fever for a couple of days because she ended up with a sore throat. But it's been ages since she registered high fever. For a couple of years now, we only had to deal with fevers that were below 39 degrees Celcius. A few minutes ago though, Ate Inday took her temperature and it registered 39.4. Now I'm worried sick.

Please  help us pray she gets better soon. She's so excited about her Antique vacation I'm really praying hard it pushes through. I hope it's just something viral and that her system is just fighting it hard (thus the high fever).

Just last weekend before dry coughing and subsequent fevers took the best of her.

Good Housekeeping Family Fun Run 2013

What do you think, Maia? Are we ready to join an official race now? It should be fun. I hope we can convince daddy to join us.

Studio 2716

I love photographs. Especially portraits - of families, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, parents and kids, grandparents and grandkids. And of friends sharing and celebrating milestones together.

I especially love photographs that were candidly taken. Honest. Very real and full of emotions. I can stare at them forever and not get tired. (hehehe. seriously. when i'm blown away by something, i just stare  at it blankly)

I love photos but I am never comfortable posing for the camera so if ever I have photos, they're usually of the quirky kind.And what's kinda ironic is, those quirky photos are usually my favorites. Probably because those were the only decent photos I can find of myself.

When I became a mom, photos became my source of comfort as I would later find out that time just flies by so fast. So given my unreliable memory, I cling to photos as a sort of reminder of the time that past - may they be happy, sad or a mix of both. Despite my love-hate relationship with the camera, photoshoots became a thing that I started to look forward to because that's the only time we get to have good, frame worthy photos as  family. 

We aren't experts at it as we haven't had a lot of photoshoots yet but so far (in the 4 times that we've had) I can fairly say that we've had good experiences with the photographers that we've worked with. Among these photographers however, a favorite stands out - STUDIO 2716.

I won't offer praises as I'm not very good at that. But I'll just let the photos speak to you. As I said earlier, I'm a fan of candid photos. And in my opinion, Studio 2716 is very good at taking these kind of photos. We first had the chance to work with them when we went for an out of town-er family playdate with my mommy friends (and their respective families) Erl, Maqui and Rachel. I was so happy with our photos, I immediately had some printed and sent copies to my parents who were equally thrilled to see them. See for yourself:

Early this month, I had the chance to meet one of their photographers again - Dom (he took one of my fave photos on Maia gleefully shrieking at one of the swings in Fun Farm). He took photos of our recent mommy blogger and kids playdate at the Ayala Triangle Garden. Here's a link to the photo album he aptly titled HAPPY SUNDAYS! I unfortunately was not able to join in the family photoshoot as I came alone in this playdate (kid was sick and the daddy had to stay home with her) but the photos were all equally pretty.

till our next meet up amazing pretty talented mommas! 

I hope this becomes a regular thing in our playdates because for one, we can finally enjoy playdates without having to slave ourselves off with taking photos of the kids minute by minute or end up with no photos at all to document the day (which is really heartbreaking for a mommy blogger like me).

Studio 2716 has very affordable (and budget-friendly) rates. Our family highly recommends them. Hop on over to their Facebook page for more details or shoot them an email at studio2716@gmail.com.

Happy Days are at ST MICHAEL PLAYHOUSE for Summer 2013

Summer is always spelled F.U.N. in our household. It's when we get to hie away from the city and take a week off to just play lazy (in it's truest essence). We're not very fond of the beach but since summer is always equated to it, yes we still look forward to some beach time as well. And summer also means fruits are abundant. Yay again for this family who is striving to be healthier and healthier by the day. (still a loooong way to go, but we're getting there)

Apart from those however, another thing that makes us really look forward to summer are the myriad of activities that kids can enjoy during summer. For us, one summer activity that we really look forward to would be the summer classes at St. Michael Playhouse in Makati. We've spent 2 summers there. I've written about that here and here. And it seems, the kid has now programmed herself to spend some time there during summer. Just before St Michael announced the activities they're offering this summer, she already declared she's enrolling in baking and cooking. This kid of mine is starting to master the art of dropping hints. 

Happy days are indeed coming because I just received this via email this weekend. So if you still have no plans for your kids this summer, why not enroll them at St Michael. Slots are very limited though so best to get in touch with them the soonest time possible. 

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ST MICHAEL PLAYHOUSE, the first Waldorf-inspired Playhouse in the country, hopes to bring delight and wonder to your child this Summer!

We have our Playhouse Program to gently stimulate your child's creativity, from as young as 3 years old to until 8!

Plus, there's our Parent-Child program for toddlers till 2.5 years old, accompanied by one parent.

And we have classes on Doll-making and Basic Crochet for Adults!

Scroll down to see information. The upper part is for the children's program, and when you scroll all the way through, you'll see the classes for adults. (The images may take a little time to load.)

Please fill out the attached Summer Enrollment Form and email back to St.Michael.Playhouse@gmail.com, or text 0939 925 0848 for more details ... Slots very limited, only full payment guarantees a seat!

See you at ST MICHAEL PLAYHOUSE for Summer! Please do forward to your friends!

What's even great is they have activities for adults too!

ST MICHAEL PLAYHOUSE
G/f, ISIP Center, 6241 Palma cor Mañalac Sts.
Bgy. Poblacion, Makati City (near Rockwell)
Mobile: 0939 925 0848
st.michael.playhouse@gmail.com
Facebook: Look up 'St Michael Playhouse Makati'

"Where is the book in which the teachers can read about what teaching is? The children are this book." – Rudolf Steiner

Weekend #9: Terra 28th and Mango Tree

I confessed in a couple of posts in the past to being a homebody. I stay true to that claim to this day. But once in a while, I do welcome spending our weekends outside of our home. I feel we need do that to instill some sense of "social life balance" (okay, i invented that) on our kid. 

Being out and experiencing "life" outside of our home is important to a school kid like my daughter (in my opinion, that is). Trying out new restaurants gives her palate some sense of adventure (the foodie kind of way) and interacting with kids other than classmates and our neighbors affords her the experience to socialize with kids that are not categorized as friends or acquaintances. Strangers, if you want to really label it. 

Despite being very outspoken and talkative, I grew up a very shy kid. I attribute that to my lack of 'experience'. I wasn't very sociable as kid. I chose to confine myself in the comforts of our home and devour books and watch TV then. The only kids I knew were the kids on my block and right across the street. I remain friends with them till now though. Yes, I can probably say wherever life took us, our childhood memories somehow stuck with us. And thank God for the rise of social media, we still get to correspond and update one another with what's going on in our lives every so often. BUT I digress yet again.

My point is, yes you build solid friendships even if you don't go out often. But it also relegates you to thinking it's okay to choose mediocrity just because you're too scared to take risks. My mommy friend Maggie has this wonderful post on spontaneity and in my case, I was admittedly a late bloomer in that department. Honestly, I love this new version of me more (the spontaneous one). I would wish for my daughter to nurture the same spirit as I have now. Life is for the living as they say. And to me, part of living is being out there experiencing LIFE. 

i made this thinking it's a week's worth of words but by Sunday she'll learned to read all of it. atat. kanino pa kaya nagmana?

So anyways, before I blabber some more, let me just share with you how we spent last weekend. Again it was a good mix of lazy and busy. We spent the entire Saturday at home. We painted new words to learn in the morning and napped mostly in the afternoon. Sunday was the busy one. But it was the good kind because I finally got to connect with my college buddy M who is also my daughter's ninang (well, we both are godparents to our kids as we're not really superstitious like that). 

life sized playmobil figures at one of our fave stops in BHS - Hobbes and Landes

M and I decided to meet up at Bonifacio Global City since we both have not been there for quite a long time (like several months) now. I used to work in the Fort area and admittedly, I love spending time there. It's just the perfect place to spend family day outs. Plenty of space for the kids to run around and restos all over for the adults to do catch up chatter. 

This weekend, the hubs and I decided to bring the kid to Terra 28th. It's pretty rundown now. The seesaw in particular was already broken but it was still a nice place to hang out with your hyperactive kid. We taught Maia how to play piko and patintero and she had fun learning it. She also invented her own game and christened it: ZIGZAG STONES because yes the mechanics is to run in ZIGZAG without stepping on any of the stones that were scattered on the grass.

Let's play ZIGZAG STONES, Mommy! LEZGOW!

It was a very humid day last Sunday but we still managed to spend a good one hour in that playground. After that it started drizzling so we headed to nearby BHS for cover just in time as well to meet M. We unanimously agreed it was a good day to feast on Thai food so we headed to the recently opened BHS Central where a cluster of new restaurants (well at least for me) are located (this is where Slice is located too, we wanted to dine there but the place was packed and we all have a common allergic to crowds hahaha). We shared a sumptuous lunch of red chicken curry, sauteed crabs, veggies and tom yum at Mango Tree. Everything we ordered was a winner. Sorry no photos to show as we were all so hungry, we didn't bother to take photos anymore but Maia really enjoyed the Tom Yum soup (but she got full instantly because she would sip at her Mango shake every time she takes a bit of the fish from the soup. should remember to order the milder version next time). If you are a fan of Thai food, I would suggest you try this resto. The ambiance is just perfect for family gatherings. No loud music. And the dining area is very cozy. We were tempted to take power naps after our filling lunch. 

PHOTO SOURCE. I would come back for this every weekend, if I can.

After lunch, the daddy and the baby little miss headed to Fully Booked to bond while M and I window shopped. When we got tired we decided to grab coffee and dessert at The Cake Club (also in BHS Central). We shared a slice of Guia (which was just so heavenly, if you are a cheesecake person I highly recommend you try it). We called it a day at around 5pm because the kid looked pretty wiped out. True enough, she was snoring on our commute home. Tired to the nth level.

I can do this maybe at least once a month. Since I'm making lists of things to do already I'm sure there's bound to be several repeats of weekends like this. It was just the perfect kid kind. Not rushed. Just well-spent one.

How's your week been so far? If you're the kind who likes to join blog contests, please hop on over to my mommy friend Aimee's blog and join her blog anniversary giveaway. Amazing prizes, I'm tellin' ya.

And if you like handmade stuff, I encourage you to visit Pepper's The Wagon Shop as well. Or if you're a dessert monster like me, you would love Sha's cupcakes and Maggie's cakepops. 

I hope what's left of the work week is going to be kind to you because I wish the same for me. :)

52 Months

While we were at the playground earlier today, I was watching you and your daddy intently and I was swept by nostalgia once again. I couldn't stop myself from digging up your infant photos. I caught myself doing a sigh at  every click. 

You did this several times today. And your dad had that same look on his face all through out.
I realized. I'm tougher than him when it came to this. I probably watched you get hurt many times over I've been numbed already. And yes, I believe too that shielding you from hurt will never help you at all. You came down safely on your own by the way. 

Some days, your wits make me forget you are only 52 months old. But most days, it's really your physical features that tend to confuse me. You don't look anywhere near the sweet-smelling, plump baby girl that I used to lull to sleep in my arms.

3 summers ago. wow. 

Your interests has shifted differently now. You now like everything girly. Polished nails. Hairbrushes. Make up. Barbie (I cringe at the thought though). And to think, I use to worry you might grow up a tomboy like me. But you are starting to be my exact same opposite. Haha. No complains though (except on that part with Barbie in it).

Earlier today. "Why are we called prncesses again, Mommy?"

3 years ago. She could barely say the word PRINCESS yet.

These past few days before I leave for work, you always insist that I sit on your dresser so you can personally put my make up on. (I rarely go to work with make up but these days, you definitely force me to do better). You would demand to be given the freedom to choose what clothes to wear now and what shoes you'd like to pair it with and what hairdo would go best with that. And we rarely do meddle on those. Because we value your demand for independence and making your own choices.

pretty ukay dress from her lola. See, it's not just me who loves to dress her up.

today we were hitting the playground but she insisted on wearing these shoes. oh well.

from a recent birthday party that she attended. fear of mascots conquered!

BUT for now don't grow up too fast, please? I don't think I'm ready for that yet. Linger for awhile. I still would like to find a way to bottle up what's remaining of that baby breath of yours, most especially. I'd still want to be able to carry you on some days when I'd be all nostalgic about your infant days.