Trisha's Cogie (the 1st)

Trisha is very fond of Dogs. She got her very first stuffed dog on her 1st birthday as a gift from MTB (that's Ashley). Then she got Cogie(the 1st) as a Christmas present from her Tito, MAA. And when we came back from our Christmas vacation in Baguio, she got her third dog from Ninong Wa which she also named Cogie (the 2nd). So now, she has a total of three dogs in her playpen. And she really looks for all of them every single day. We also have to go out every weekend to dog watch in Bonifacio High Street. I plan to get her a real dog when she grows up, well, in time when we get a bigger house to keep her dog :).

For now, here's a picture of Cogie (the 1st) given by her Tito, MAA.

My Crazy Little Girl :)

My daughter is really funny. She has a very good sense of humor at her young age of 1 year and 3 mos. She knows how and when to be funny and really has the ability of making people laugh :). She makes funny faces when I take her pictures. She can put on a serious face one minute and be so funny the next. I so love my crazy little girl :).

31 and Overweight ;)

I celebrated my 31st birthday yesterday :). On the same day, I got my pre-employment medical exam results and it said - FIT with Advice! When I checked the details, it said that I am overweight by 3.5 KG from the maximum range of my ideal weight of 40.9 to 50 KG. And there was a doctor's recommendation for Weight Reduction through proper diet and regular exercise!

I was alarmed! I am getting old and unfit all in one day ;). So, immediately upon that realization, I got in touch with one of my new friends at work and asked her to be my health consultant for my weight reduction program. I also asked my hubby, MS, to run with me regularly for my cardio and help me watch what I eat when I am out of the office.

So, tomorrow, February 21, I have a schedule with our dietician to draft my proper diet and to get my measurements (current weight and body fat) as basis for my weight reduction program. I am excited. Not just to lose weight but to be fit once again :).

Good luck to me!

Potty Training Trisha

I have always worried about how to Potty Train Trisha. I would want to get rid of her diapers as early as possible. Partly to save on the cost of diapers (that's my practical side) but big part of it is because she's a girl and no diapers is a prettier sight (that's the kikay side of Mommy).

So last Christmas, when we were thinking about what present to get her. I thought about a Potty Trainer! I know I know, that's so corny of me and Daddy MS. But we got too many toys and too many clothes from her Birthday Party in October 2007 and we were expecting more toys and more clothes for Christmas presents. So we wanted to give her something that nobody will think of getting her as a Christmas present.

But wait till you see her Potty! It's no ordinary Potty, it sings to encourage her for potty training and it gives out stickers when it senses her *poop* dropping to the bowl. There is even a flushing water sound when you hit the flush :).




It's a nice product from Safety 1st. It resembles a real toilet bowl so closely that Trisha can associate her Potty with the real toilet bowl. It would be easier to shift her to the real one when the time comes.

As of today, she only used it once to make pupu. But she would usually sit on it and say "wiwi" but with her diaper on. Or when I know she's about to make pupu, I would make her sit on it while doing her thing even with her diaper on. I just want her to be able to identify doing the "wiwi" from doing the "pupu". And train her to tell us when she would do either of that. When she is able to tell us already, then we would be ready to remove her diaper whenever she needs to do either.

Hearts' Day in 08

I was surprised to receive flowers from MS yesterday. It was indeed a nice surprise. My husband doesn't really like giving flowers as presents, he has too many reasons to justify that. And somehow, I have already learned to appreciate his reasons :). So, you can just imagine my surprise to see a bouquet of purple tulips in my seat when he fetched me from work :).




More so, along with the tulips, there was a card of my favorite Me To You Bears.




The bear in the card is actually a magnet :). Which I placed on my Table Talker in the office.



Hon, thanks for the sweet Valentine's Day presents. Next time, ok lang walang flowers :). Diamonds na lang ;).

Trisha's Videos

I haven't been in the mood to blog lately. I can't get myself to write for some strange reason. When I get home from work, I just usually spend my time playing with Trisha until we go to bed.

I want to share Trisha's videos posted by MS in his multiply site. Check them out when you have time :).

Here's Trisha's famous kembot...

And lately, she has been wearing all my shoes non-stop, especially my high heeled shoes. See this.

Hope you enjoy the videos :). Good night.

3G ;)

That's 3 generations of us :). Lola, Me and Trisha.

I only dream of bringing up my daughter the way mom brought me up. My mom has the biggest influence in my life. She has made me the person that I am now.

I would want Trisha to say that about me someday ;).

I love you Mom, I love you Trisha :).

Say Cheese :)

Cute cute!

Trisha really loves the camera. She loves making faces. She loves to make us laugh.

And see how much she looks like her dad. Their smiles are so identical, to the littlest details of their smile marks... :)

I love :)

1. I love it when Trisha calls me "mOm-my". Although she said "daddy" first, one of her favorite words now is "mOm-my" (stressing out the letter O :D). She calls me even in her sleep and just as soon as she wakes up.

2. I love Zara Kids. I always make it a point to drop by Zara whenever we go to the mall. Not to shop for myself, but to check out their kids area for Trisha. To date, I already bought her 4 pairs of shoes, countless shirts and jeans. Even her 1st birthday dress was from Zara.

3. I love Avent. Yes, their feeding bottles are a bit too pricey, but they are really cholic-free :). Even their drinking cup is nice, absolutely spill-proof. Their microwavable bottle sterilizer is also my favorite, I can bring it anywhere and it's so convenient to use. I will also recommend their milk powder dispenser, it's not too trendy, but it's very functional.

4. I love Chicco shampoo, soap, powder and cologne. They smell heavenly on Trisha!

Ok now, enough of Trisha :D.

5. I love lemon-buttered shrimp! Try this dish out at Trinity (Macapagal Dampa).

6. I love White-Chocolate Mocha of Starbucks. This is my ever favorite drink. I also order that from Seattle's Best, but I love Starbucks' WCM more.

7. I love Fit N Right Four Seasons. This is now my staple drink, it's my new water!

8. I love Endearmints! This is the mint candy you get everytime you dine at Fish & Co. :) MS had to find somebody in their office to get me packs of this from South Africa since this is not sold locally. And I keep MY candies hidden, even MS has to ask from me if he wants one! *laughs* that's how much I love Endearmints ;).

9. I love keeping my nails short. I don't wear my nails long, simply because I am too clumsy to do so ;). I have wanted to grow my nails for that "sosyal" look, but it irritates me when they're not cut short. So I finally decided to stop trying to be "sosyal" and just keep them short.

10. I love putting nail polish on my toe nails :). Contrary to what I heard from some people, my toe nails look cleaner with nail polish. BUT, I choose the colors I use. I am picky with the colors I paint my nails with. I only use shades of brown :).

Daddy's Little Girl

These are great shots of my "mag-ama" :). I know Trisha looks so much like MS. I have accepted that already. I don't even contest it anymore ;). She's all MS, except for her eyes.

I think she has my mom's eyes. When I see them together, I also see a striking resemblance. And yes, now that I think about it, it's because of their eyes :).

so what do i write about now..

I have not been consistenly blogging lately. I have such disorganized thoughts since the year started. I want to write, but once I login, I do not know where to start. Like now, I was thinking about writing over lunch break, but I can't seem to get started on a specific subject.

I so want to get a pair of those Kyoto shoes of Ichigo. I only learned about them from Ginger a few weeks back and now, there are no more stocks at all. I am hoping Ginger still has some pairs left on her shop in Cebu, will definitely have them shipped here in Manila in case she has my size. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I finally have word from Toyota on the available colors of their new Altis. I will most probably get the medium silver (which is Honda's bluish silver in their Civic line). I really wanted to get the dark silver from the current model of Altis, but this has been phased out and won't be available in the Altis 2008 line. So, I would have to settle for what is available. I am not complaining :). I am happy to have my own car and I am not going to be picky :).

There goes my lunch break :).

Organizing our home

As I was reading through my previous blog entries, I realized that most of the things I wrote were mostly only on personal matters. Nothing really significant nor relevant that would help my readers (if any) on anything.

I want to be able to blog about something that can help my readers learn something new, or something that can help them improve any aspect of their lives.

Like, say for example, I can write something about my husband's obsession to lock&lock containers :) and our ongoing activity of organizing our home.

Eversince we started thinking about organizing our ref, MS has been obsessed with lock&lock containers - different types, different shapes, different sizes. You can now find them inside our ref :). He even got several pasta containers (for spaghetti noodles and for macaroni), a cereal container, and several containers to keep our sugar (one for brown and another for white =D). These containers are really very functional and a big help to our home organizing activity.

On my part, I've started organizing our cabinets. I discarded stuff that we don't use anymore but for some reason are still kept in our cabinets. Trisha's small clothes that I want to keep because they're from Zara or were given as gifts were sent to Baguio since Mom's house has a lot more space to store them in (but all these things are organized in small boxes, all properly labeled).

My next planned activity is to sort our papers at home and to organize them in filo folders for easy access. MS has been forever ranting that our papers are kept all over the place and that is honestly my fault. I have been so busy since we had Trisha that whenever a new document comes in, I just keep them wherever is convenient. So now, I have to start working on that to be able to discard old documents that we don't need.

It really pays to organize everything at home. You know where to find "them" when you need "them". And you don't lose anything at all. :)

My Shutterfly Account in My Multiply Site

After linking my eblogger site to my multiply site, I was also able to link my shutterfly account to share my photos :). But now my multiply site is so slow *laughs*, I guess that's what I get for putting too much features on my site.

I still have some pictures from Christmas that I need to upload. I owe MAL these pictures, I have not found the time to do this yet. I have just been so busy since we got back here last Jan 2.

I must find time to do everything that I need to do. It's so difficult to be a mother and a wife, so many tons of things to take care of. Have not found time after work to do anything, I am just too tired to do anything else but to play with Trisha when I arrive home. To think, that I have not really started real work yet, I have been busy with only orientations since I reported here in my new office. Anyway, I really have to observe better time management.

MS now also fetches me in the afternoon. It is so difficult to get a cab here going home. The area is so remote and now I understand why my company provides cars to its employees. I can actually get my car anytime, but I still have to pass the written and actual driving exams which I will take after my refresher lessons. Also, I want to wait for the latest model of Altis to be released this February instead of availing the current model. I am hoping to be driving my own car by March, considering that the launch of the new Altis will not be delayed further.

That's all for now friends :).

our first weekend in 2008

Our first weekend for 2008 has been very productive ;). Yesterday, we went to see Dra Vina for Trisha's monthly checkup. Trisha got her monthly shot :) and I'm glad she only cried for a short while (since she was distracted by Dra Vina's Winnie Jar of goodies). Last December, she started crying upon recognizing her pedia's office, which according to Dra Vina is very normal. All her little patients hate her until they turn two *laughs*.

Then we had lunch at Trinity Restaurant in Macapagal Dampa. We had our usual order of lemon buttered shrimp, calamares and halaan soup, really the best! Trinity has the best lemon buttered shrimp :). You guys should try it.

Then we were off to gas up at Shell, but we ended up at Petron instead. Petron gas stations in MOA area have cheaper gas. MS wanted to try V-Power to prove that it's really more efficient, but we were disappointed that Shell near SNR in that area has the same rate as the Shell stations elsewhere. So he ended up using Blaze of Petron instead. We also found out that Petron has a product to help save gas, which costs 50php per full tank, so he also tried that. I will make sure to post feedback if it really works.

After that we went to Patients First in Glorietta to see my doctor, Dra Madz. I have been bleeding abnormally for the past month (almost every other week for only 2 days) and we wanted to make sure that everything is alright with me. I had an ultrasound that showed that everything is normal. The bleeding is caused by a hormonal imbalance as a side effect of the pills I am taking (I am taking Meliane now). So after I finish my pack, I will shift to another brand. No more Meliane for me, as Dra Madz said, we are not compatible :).

I also consulted an ENT, Dra Guevarra. I had 2 vertigo attacks for the past 4 months. The last one last Jan 30 and I wanted to find out what was wrong with me. I was diagnosed with Minear's disease (it's not as bad as it sounds!), an inner ear problem which is triggered by too much of any of the following: (1) caffeine, (2) alcohol, (3) nicotine, (4) msg or (5) stress. In my case, it is also genetic. My mom and MAL has it. Dra said that the inner ear is composed of two parts, one for hearing and the other one for balance. If an episode is triggered by any of the above, the inner ear part for balance gets affected resulting to the vertigo attack. Mine is quite short, only lasts less than a minute, but then I would feel lightheaded for about 1 or 2 weeks. She said there is no cure for it, but exercise and proper diet would help a lot. I could also take anti-oxidants to prevent it from getting worst. She also said, Minear's is getting to be a common disease which maybe caused by all the coffee shops around the globe.

I also dropped by Zara to check out their sale. I got Trisha a nice pair of shoes and a hat :). Really really cute! I will post some pictures here next post.

After Glorietta, we went to buy our meat supply at Monterey Meatshop at Paseo de Magallanes then we had a light dinner at Dayrit's to try out their burger :). It was really good, except for the bun that was a bit dry :). I still prefer the bun of Brother's Burger.

Then today, we went to MOA to buy tickets for Disney on Ice for MS's family (we're not joining them since Trisha does not appreciate such activities yet and both MS and I are not really into it). We also bought Lock&Lock stuff to organize our Ref :).

Then we headed to Boni High Street to get Trisha's haircut at Fix Salon. I didn't like her haircut though, her bangs are a bit too short, making her look like a boy *frowns*. But I'm sure it will get better after a few days :). My daughter, after all, is pretty with whatever hairstyle she wears *laughs*.

I am looking forward to the week ahead :). Really excited to get on board with my new job and really start working. I am also planning to start my refresher driving lessons next weekend :).

Goodnight everyone!

it's finally working

I was finally able to link my eblogger account to my multiply site! Thanks to MS who was 'very' patient to work it out with me. I am so excited about it :). But honestly, only after I saw MS's multiply site (I am so inggitera!)

It has been a very busy first week of the year for me. It was my first week to report to my new job and so far, I am loving it! For purposes of story telling and because I do not want to disclose where I can be found *smiles*, I am assigning the codename Wood to my current company :).

You will be hearing more about Wood in my next posts :). For now, I am going to sleep since we have an early day tomorrow, we will be in Makati Med for Trisha's monthly checkup with our pedia, a great one by the way. I recommend getting the services of Dra Vina Jalandoni to my mommy friends. She has been great since Trisha came out to this world :). I love our pedia!

A Happy Christmas

It's our second Christmas with Trisha and yes, we've somehow established our routine for the holidays :). We spend Christmas Eve's dinner with MS's family and come home around 10pm to spend Noche Buena with my family. Then Christmas Day would be lunch with my family and dinner with MS's family. We will be spending our New Year with the same routine. I am sincerely very thankful that MS understands my need to be with my family for Noche Buena and Media Noche. Without Trisha, MS and me, it would just be Mom, MAC and MAA (My Ading Adrian). It breaks my heart to leave them on their own.

Anyway, this Christmas is one of my happiest Christmas :). I have always loved the holiday season, but with Trisha around, my Christmas became more special, more meaningful. I know my daughter feels the love around her, her Lola (Mama Lou as she wants to be called) loves her dearly, so as her Tita MAL, Tita MAC and Tito MAA. And she holds a special place in the heart of her dad's family too. And of course, I feel that nothing compares to the love her dad and I feel for her. We just love her so very much :).

She has grown so fast in the past year. I don't regret missing out on gimiks since I had her. I am happier spending each night with her, playing until she's ready for her sleep and dancing her to sleep when she gets tired from playing. Though, I sometimes complain about not getting enough sleep because of her feeding time :), I don't really mind waking up during the night to feed her. I know it won't be long when she'll stop feeding from her bottle and I know I will miss her dependency on me on that area.

I am looking forward to next Christmas when Trisha would be more excited to open her gifts. I just feel a little bit of sadness thinking about Cai graduating and eventually pursuing her career out of the country, then it would just be Mom and Adrian here in Baguio. Good thing that Trisha's around, I know that her little presence helps my Mom overcome any sadness in her heart :). Christmases would be more special once MAC also leaves the country, we plan to make it a big reunion with MAC & MAL coming home to join us or all of us flying out to one location to spend our Christmas together.

Again, a belated Merry Christmas to all and a Blessed New Year.

What I did today :)

It has been a busy day for me. I had to go out this morning to meet my cousin at the bank. Then MAC (My Ading Cai) and I had to run errands for mom. Our last stop was at SM to do our groceries. This has been a happy vacation for me (with a few more days left to enjoy it).

Oh by the way, I bought K Magazine this morning (Kris Aquino's magazine). I love her new house :). I love her kitchen, her rooftop, the facade of her house... Ok, I think I should stop here now or else MS will tease me again - of being a big fan of Kris. Which is actually true *laughs*. I do like Kris Aquino :).

Anyway, I just wanted to write something down. I would love to write more, but my thoughts are kind of disorganized today. I need to work tomorrow, on the documentations I brought home. I have to finish them all tomorrow, which I think is not possible. But I have to submit them before going back to Manila. I will, I will, I will work tomorrow :).

Goodnight everyone!

2007 Holidays :)

As I write this, we are in Baguio with my family for the holidays. So far, things have been great since we left Manila at 5am last Saturday, Dec 23. I have not updated my blog for so long, honestly, I have been really lazy to write. I have a million things in mind to do before the holidays, but I have some unfinished tasks back home in Manila (It was also my last month in U so I have been busy completing my projects in the office, which took my time off from my household tasks I wanted to complete before the year ended).

Anyway, back to my main line of thought. I just wanted to write something down before the year ends. I plan to post new pictures of Trisha as soon as I have time to upload them.

My young family is looking forward to the new year ahead, I have a new job which I am really excited about. MS has great plans for next year as well. I am also looking forward to getting my own car by February when the new Altis ('08) is released.

(Belated) Merry Christmas everyone. Let's all look forward to 2008!

Trisha's First Walk

I just want to share some pictures of Trisha walking around MOA's Science and Discovery Center. She enjoyed walking around, despite of falling several times (good thing the place is carpeted).

She is such a happy baby, oh yes I stand corrected, she is now a little girl :). She dresses up like a big girl actually. In the picture that follows she wears one of our favorite shirts from Zara, her RL pants and our favorite Brazil Havaianas.

And she walked all over the place....

So proud of herself walking alone...

Smiling at everyone she catches looking at her walk by herself...

See that proud look that seems to be saying "Yes! Mom! I am so good at walking!

:)

8 years as a couple :)

Dec 1 marks our anniversary as a couple. Although our May 8 wedding anniversary is now THE official anniversary, Dec 1 still holds a soft spot in my heart. We were not able to celebrate it with an intimate dinner this year, we instead held Trisha's Time Capsule party that day.

We are now on our 9th year as a couple. Only almost 2 years married to each other, but prior to our romantic relationship, we have been friends for a long time. I think I can still recall how we were introduced by our common friend, Rhona, who is now based in Cayman Island. We were classmates in some of our subjects (only a few, since he's a batch ahead of me) and we have a lot of common friends, so we would often see each other in our school corridors and their barkada's tambayan. But we only got close during my 3rd year in college. I can't really explain how we hit it off, I couldn't even recall how we developed our friendship. Oh now I remember! Hahaha. I am not sure I would want to share the details now and I don't think MS would want me to tell the detailed story. But suffice it to say that he became my confidante and my bestfriend ;).

I still feel kilig thinking about that part of our lives. MS still makes me kilig until now. I enjoy his company. I love talking to him. I love spending time with him. I enjoy laughing with him. He is a wonderful person, he is a good husband and a good father. And yes, I love him and will love him with all my life. :)