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A FILIPINA MOTHER & A TRAVELER DISCOVERING PHILIPPINES ONE ISLAND AT A TIME.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Another Iya's First...

Iya's first roll over....

Iya: Mommy, look!!!!
Mommy: You're a big girl na! :)

Trust



‎"Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it's broken,

but you can still see the crack in that

mother fucker's reflection." - Lady Gaga

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Iya's 3rd Monthsary

Last Easter Sunday, we celebrated Iya's monthsary which was suppose to take place last Wednesday, April 20th. Since it was nearing Holy Week, I decided to just celebrate it after the lenten season. Eden and I met up at SM Bicutan to buy food and drinks. I ordered Special Palabok at Red Ribbon and of course my fave, Goldilocks' mocha chiffon cake. We got home and found our 'lil angel is awake.
peek-a-boo! Mommy!


Iya's in good mood

...blowing of candle..

Thanks to Ninang Eden for the pictures!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Sabado De Karne

I just couldn't help it!
Breaded porkchop saved my tummy!



Our First Peek-A-Boo

Is it too early for a 3month old baby like Iya to appreciate the fun of playing peek-a-boo?

I doubt it.

After many attempts of showing her how to play...finally she responded...my peek-a-boo though left her this funny, cute facial expression


Saturday, April 23, 2011

Lemme Sleep!


I just wanna sleep, Mommy

Take note: Di po namin sinadya yan.
Si Iya po mismo ang
nagtalukbong sa sarili niya.wahahahaha

Taranta lang...

It was not so long ago when I discovered a loose wire in my laptop charger. Now, bumigay na siya ng todo. This morning, after I put Iya to sleep I noticed a spark on the charger so I turned it off right away...and of course since my laptop is not so high tech...the battery only lasts for half an hour. Yes, I'm a loser..sinagad ko ang battery ko till it automatically shuts down then I shut down. I was just sitting in the sofa thinking of what to do. The thought of being not online in the worldwide web is something I can't live without. I can't live without my lappy and I certainly can't live without fb, twitter and all that shizzz. I was like "geez...wala na nga akong tv pati ba naman itong laptop ko!!!".

I quickly dropped by SM Bicutan to look for a universal charger. I checked OCTAGON Shop and my gawd..(ala marife zamora...) they're charging me 3,300 for universal charger. And I was like "NEO Basic lang laptop ko...universal nyo is 3.3?!?!?!". Lumakad ng lumakad until I reached Asianic..their charger is P1,900...much better than P3,300 but still not in my budget. So I decided to go home and think of an alternative. I asked my Nanny if she knows someone who can fix the wiring. Lo and behold wala pang 30min ayos na ulit ang charger ko! HOOOOPLA! Kaya eto sa halagang 50 pesosesoses...am back online!

at ako'y nakangiti ng bonggang-bongga. :)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Mana-mana



This is my youngest sister, Abby
when she was 8-10 mos. old.


And now, the 3rd gen!

My daughter, Sophia in (almost) 3mos old

Now, what do they have in common?
:D

Friday, April 15, 2011

How Are You?

Sabi nila, babies can see things that adults can't. That babies have their own guardian angels. And their angels are there to protect them, teach them and play with them. It's very evident of course whenever I see Iya nakatingin sa kawalan then biglang tatawa...or may kausap pero wala naman. It was Wednesday night when Iya had a fever which is the effect of her vaccination. After washing Iya with warm cloth, I put Iya in our bed. I noticed she smiled at the curtain. Then spoke "oow..ow..ooow...". It's as if Iya was talking to her angel. Sabi nga ni Nanny, may kausap..sabi ko naman baka nagkamustahan sila ng angel niya. Ginawan pa namin ng script...

I took a shot of her while having a conversation with her "angel"
Iya: hello
Angel: how are you sophia?
Iya: i'm ok now. :)

hahaha cute lang! cute cute cute lang! I wish the angel she's talking to is my late grandmother. After all, kay Mama ko naman pinangalanan si Sophia. :)

Twice The Pain...

For a first time Mom like me, every details on do's and don'ts in taking care of a baby is a must know. When I gave birth to Iya, the first thing I was taught of was how to breastfeed and along with other things such as cleaning her navel, what diapers should she use, how to make her burp after feeding and what have you. Also one important part of raising a child is completing her vaccinations. Of course when I was a child, I didn't know how important that is. Only it is too painful once the syringe prick my skin. I remember my Mom bringing me to the health center almost every month. I was 6 or 7 years as far as I can remember and these kids like me cried like hell.

Going back. Iya's first taste of vaccination was last 12th of March with her Pediatrician, Doctor Medrano. I didn't know there's such thing as 6in1 vaccine. Well they didn't have it back then. Mind you this 6in1 vaccine is one of the expensive vaccines for infants nowadays along with new PCV vaccine and God knows what else. The vaccine costs me P6,500 (discounted pa yan!) hahaha. After that, I started thinking whether I should continue with this or just go to the Health Center. As a first time Mom, again, I didn't know that vaccines in health centers are free. Donation lang kung meron kung wala edi wala. I asked my Nanny to check the health center here in our town and ask what would they require. The difference between health centers and clinics is that health centers doesn't have 6in1. One factor is how they handle infants once they inject the vaccine. But the fact that I won't be spending that much money would be a breather. So I decided to YES, let's just go to the health center.

Iya was scheduled last Wednesday for her set of vaccines. We were inside with all these babies crying in pain, hugged by their moms. Then I looked at Iya and her eyes were somewhat curious about the noise. It's like she feels somethings is coming...nyahahaha! It was our turn, I asked the lady in the clinic to hold Iya instead because, I GOT SCARED. I don't know if I can handle Iya crying while they're injecting her and I'm carrying her the same time. It's different talaga with her doctor. I was actually surprised that the lady who injected the vaccine didn't even pressed Iya's thigh. It's different with her doctor. Dahan-dahan..but this lady -- tinurok nalang basta-basta ang syringe. Nyay! What's worst pa with Iya's day was that she had to endure that twice in her both thighs -- plus the patak. Of course Iya cried and cried and parang nagsusumbong. We went home, put her in her crib, gave her a drop of calpol to prevent fever then she fell asleep.

After 2 hours Iya woke up, crying. I accidentally touched one of her thighs and she cried like hell in pain. Good thing my Nanny came back and instructed me to put 2 towels with warm water. Hindi ko makarga si Iya. She couldn't move her legs because of pain. We were doing warm compress until 7pm to ease the pain. Then, around 8pm...I changed Iya's shirt. I noticed her head, her hands, and her armpits are not warm but HOT. So I asked my Nanny to come over and sleep for the night to help me with Iya. Good thing though was that Iya is asleep the whole night and she never cried. It's like wala lang ang lagnat sa kanya. The next day, Iya woke me up with a very beautiful smile but wasn't able to capture though..

This is Iya, early morning in her crib
(morning of Thursday)
Iya playing with her pillow :)
It's like she's telling me, Mommy I feel much better now! :)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Then Iya it is...

When I gave birth almost 3 months ago, I didn't think of what Sophia's nick would be. All I was raving about is how beautiful that name would be for her. I named her Sophia Angeline.

Why give her that name? First of, Sophia in greek means "Wisdom" or the ability or a result of an ability to think and act utilizing knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. (sobrang lalim!!!). Second, Angeline (a variant of Angela) which in greek means "Messenger of God". I also derived Angeline from my Grandma's name Evangeline omitting the first two letters "ev". That's where the name Sophia Angeline came from. True enough, my baby girl is an angel and for some reason the name perfectly fits her angelic face. :)

Two and a half months passed and some of my friends started telling me that Sophia is a bit too long for a nickname. But of course, as a mother, I will never get tired of calling her - Sophia. When I was pregnant, some of them tried calling her or insistently called her Pipay and to be honest, I never liked that nickname. I even got pissed and asked to stop calling her that. I guess to me, it just sounded so kalye. Or since I am the mother, I always wanted what's beautiful for my baby girl. And now that Sophia's turning 3 months, the need for a nickname was even greater. I even posted a poll in facebook asking my friends to vote or suggest whichever nickname is cool for Sophia. I scribbled her name on a piece of paper and wrote all the nicknames derived from Sophia Angeline possible. I ended up listing names such as:
  1. Pia
  2. Lian
  3. Lani
  4. Sophie
  5. Pippa
  6. Gene
  7. Geli
  8. Ien
  9. Iya
  10. Sage
  11. Page
  12. Angie
  13. Lili
  14. Gigi
  15. and Gelai (which i really hate because it sounds like "Melai" and I don't want Sophia to be associated with her!)

Poll results: "Pia" is leading. But I don't like Pia...now why the hell did I ever asked for suggestions pa diba?!

Ninang Sealdi is always and has been consistently asking me to call Sophia, Sophie instead. But I already have a family member who has the same name. There's even a "not so long" text threads with Ninang Nonie. It goes like this:

Me: Teka ok ba kayu sa Pia na nickname? Gusto ko sana ia or Iya ang spell, pwede ding lian noh?!
Nonie: Pia kasi common. la? hahaha
Me: Lili? hahaha
Nonie: hahahaha natawa ako
Me: Wala na eh, wala na talaga...yun na yun!
Nonie: Hmmm...Ping nalang :P
Me: Ayaw ko! Si paul gusto Gelai sabi ko unlike! Sounds like melai la
ng!
Nonie: Hahahahaha PING!!!! Hahahaha Sophia Angeline -- lengleng hahaha ping talaga!
Me: I want something cool na hindi ako isusumpa ng anak ko.
Me: Ay eto na! Gene?!
Nonie: Ahahahaha ang cool kaya ng Ping haha ano pa nga ba..Sasa? haha Gene! Ano na?!
Me: Pippa? hahaha
Me: Eli? I-lay ang pronounciation nya hahaha may ganun pa!!
Nonie: Oo!!! PIPA!!!
Nonie: Eli - book of eli? hahaha! Pipa!!! That's it! It's over!!! Pipa!!! hello!!!
Me: Sorry parang mas feel ko ang Iya...mamaya isumpa tayu ni Sophia niyan kung pipa hahaha!
Nonie: Hindeeeeeeee!!! Cute kaya. Kapatid ko nga Pipoy 'gang ngayon e. Haha Cute ang Pipa promise!!! Ikaw nga Poms e.
Me: Hahaha pagisipan ko
Nonie: Pipa!Pipa!Pipa

After that hilarious exchange of sms, I chatted with Abby my youngest sis asking her the same question - ANO BA ANG MAS OK NA NICKNAME FOR SOPHIA?! And I told her I'm really for Iya talaga. I asked her what she thinks of Pia..she said the same thing as Nonie did, Pia is so common na. Lo and Behold! Abby like Iya din pala!

In short --- katapus-tapusan Iya din ang naging nickname ni Sophia.

IYA NA! IYA NA HA! wala ng kokontra!

Iya's Cute Hairtail

Took this photo the other day. So cute!
By the way, Iya is Sophia's new nick. Yeah!
Will blog about it right after.


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Farewell Brenda, My ULTIMATE TRAVEL BUDDY

I haven't used Brenda a long while now. The last time I used her it was Sophia's 2nd month and just like old times, Brenda never failed to deliver excellent photos. Since I got pregnant my travel has gone from minimal to none. So Brenda, was just inside her 4 million dollar home for the last 11 months. After days and days and days of thinking, finally I decided to sell her to someone who can use her again. (binigyan ko talaga ng gender ang camera ko!). That's how close I am to all my gadgets. I give them names and take good care of them. My gadgets are my buddies since I started this hobby and they never failed me.

I decided to sell her because I won't be using her anytime soon. Aamagin lang siya sa loob ng bag. I just had Sophia and all my travel plans have been put on hold. I decided to of course focus on Sophia more than my hobby and it's going to take a while before I get back to my old hobby again.

So there I was, holding Brenda one last time before giving her to the buyer. Forgive me for being such a drama queen but Brenda is my one ULTIMATE TRAVEL BUDDY. We've been to a lot of places. From the outskirts of old manila, to the gardens of UP Diliman, further North -- Sagada, Baler, Pinatubo, Baguio, Alaminos, Ilocos, Palaui, Subic then down south San Pablo, Tagaytay, Batanggas, Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte, Apo Reef and Pandan Island in Mindoro, Marinduque, Cebu and Bacolod. And whenever there's an event Brenda is there always ready to capture the moments.

I will miss her but I'm confident that the person who has her now will take good care of her more than I did.

Here's to my ULTIMATE TRAVEL BUDDY!
Thank you for the memories, Brenda.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

BIG 4's BIG FOOD TRIP!


Once again I have managed to keep up with my friends' appetites. Just last Saturday, the BIG FOUR (of course...by the name itself we are big...except for Eden), satisfied our cravings by visiting one of our favorites - SOMS; a thai restaurant. We ordered our favorites - sweet tasting Garlic-Pepper Beef, yummy Chicken Pandan, Tofu, Uber red hot Red Chicken Curry, their infamous Thai Tea and of course 2 rounds of Pad Thai. Hihirit pa sana ako ng Crab pero wag na...baka ikahiya na ko ng anak ko sa lapad ko! LOL!

Eating is not just something that we do three times a day, seven days a week. For me, eating is also a form of celebration. Especially when one of us just had a baby - that's me, one got promoted and that is Pat, the other just reconciled "again" with her partner...that's Eden and one who's officially a balikbayan, Nonie. I'm just proud that I'm best friends with these gals and happy that they're my daughter's godmothers. How lucky Sophia can be? :)

And what's eating without a 'lil chat?

Here's a photo of us after eating
("like there's no tomorrow")

And what comes after lunch? Merienda isn't it?
nomnomnom

photos taken with lomolomo