Routine

Amidst the pandemic, one thing remains .. my love for my little girl.  Yes, it sure remains and my love her keeps growing each day.

Everyday, I do catch up with my work and some household stuff.  One thing that is constant though is the routine I have with my little one.

She wakes up at 8:00 am (on the average) and whenever she sees me, she smiles.  She either says she has to go wee-wee or that her diaper is full.  Yes, she still wears diapers at night and I will try to make changes in the next few months.

She then takes her breakfast after she asks for my phone.  She either wants to look at pictures or watch some videos.  I know this is not the perfect scenario but I have allowed this recently as this makes her eat breakfast, although I still spoon feed her.

After breakfast, she takes a bath, brushes her teeth, dresses up, takes her gummy vitamins, puts on her mosquito repellant sticker and then either plays with her toys or watches TV.  I then finish up getting ready for work.  I usually take a bath when she is still sleeping.

As I leave, she makes sure that she gives me a big kiss and a big hug.  Sometimes she tells me that I can work at the brown table with my computer with an apple.  But I gently tell her that I have to go to the office.

I usually go home before 4:00 pm as she attends classes 3x a week.  For Tuesday and Thursdays, I have classes from 5 to 9, so I often leave her with our helper, my mom, my dad, my sister or my husband.

By the way, lately, she eats lunch and dinner by herself, although in front of the TV.

After dinner, she gets to play or watch some TV before she takes a bath or "punas".  She then brushes her teeth and wears her pajamas.  I then drink my tea while she will drink her Nesquik or Swiss Miss (with marshmallows).  She does this while watching Netflix on my laptop.

When done, its reading time with an average or 3 books.  If her papa is around, they read the book together while I do some work.  Otherwise, it would be me reading books to her.  After papa reads the books, she then calls me and tells me its time to sleep.

I then play 5 lullabye sons - Five in the Bed and Sleepybyes from Teletubbies, North Star Song and Peppa's Lullaby from Peppa Pig, and the Owl Song (music from the diffuser).  We then say our prayer.  I ask her who would lead the prayer and we take turns.  We pray "Angel of God" and say our thanks to GOD.  It is also like a rundown of what happened to her during the day.

She then asks for kisses and we ask her how many.  The highest number so far was 44.  Then she sometimes counts to herself up to 100 (and even beyond).  

And oh, she asks for a hug.  She wants a hug as we go to sleep or as we sleep.  She also gives me a hug.  Yes, we're locked like that.  It would be so nice if someone would take a picture when we do that at night, but its already dark.  If I turn on the light, then she would be fully awake.

I have so many stories to share about her.  But with so little time.

But one thing remains, I so love my sweet little girl.

Life (with my Toddler) as a Musical

I really love spending time with my little one!

Her day usually starts with a smile, greeting me good morning.  I then tell her to stretch.  And then she says "stretch, stretch like a giraffe" .. followed by a "swing, swing like an elephant" (elephant swings the trunk).  She then makes monkey sounds.  And I sing "eh eh eh eh eh .. try everything".  Yeah!  It's the song from movie Zootopia. She is not familiar with the movie though.  But she associates the song "Try Everything" with those animal movements because of her dance class.  She then says "Teacher! Teacher!".  I think she really misses her class.

After letting her play with her toys a bit, I tell her that we will "wee wee".  We are on the process of potty training.  We only had one success .. and a big one at that!  She "poo poo" on her potty yesterday morning, after she told me "Mama, poo poo".  We are so happy!  For her "wee wee", she usually pees while eating .. haha.  There's no indication though .. we just see it.  Even if her diaper or underwear is wet, it seems she's not that uncomfortable.  Ever since she was a baby, she does not cry with wet diaper.  Nowadays, it seems things are normal although her underwear is wet.  I guess potty training will take long .. oh, well!

For breakfast, she usually eats just enough .. just enough apples or oranges or grapes, cheese, eggs, sometimes cereal, fish or chicken.  I just hope she gets to eat more as she gets older.  Then there's juice or yogurt and water.

I then tell in a sing-song voice "Take a bath! Take a bath!" and then she sings back "Take a bath doo doo doo doo doo doo" to the tune of Baby Shark.  Same tune as she sings "Wash your face doo doo doo doo doo".  Then the little sings "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" or "My Toes, my Knees, My Shoulder my Head."

After the bath, I ask her what's next and she replied "Brush teeth!".  While brushing her teeth (or attempting to), she sings "And I'm brushing my teeth and it's so much fun.  I never let the water run. No! I never let the water run".  It's a song from Barney.

While I dress up and dry my hair, she watches Elmo, Dora or any Disney Cartoon. So that means she either sings the Elmo Song, the Dora Explorer opening song or the Hot Dog Song or any Disney song for that matter.  I sing with her and sometimes, dance with her.

As we drive towards my mom house, the little one is strapped in a car seat and she asks "What's that Mama?" pointing at cars, trucks, buildings and trees.  And if I say trees, she then sings the color song " .. Green is the color of trees and lots of things that grow ..."

I then drop her off at Nana's house and then I let her play.  I sometimes can leave her without crying if Auntie Hanna is around.  But today, Auntie Hanna was not around and she wants me to go with her to see the chickens.  Since I already booked a taxi, I had to leave her crying (Oh, how my heart ached!).  But if I had a car and she cries, I take time to stay with her until she is okay.

By the time I get back to her in the evening, she sings random songs every now and then.  She sometimes dances and performs in front of Nana and Grandpa.  And enumerates our names .. hehe

When we leave Nana's house, we look up and see the stars and of course, she sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

After giving her a bath, I carry her and she sings "The sun has gone to bed and so must I ..." But she is not yet going to sleep though.  She just sings it because I carry her like a baby.

We then read some books.  Most of the times, it is Papa who read her books or tells stories.  She points out the alphabet book.  As we reach R for ran, she sings "Rain, rain go away" while it's the "Mister Sun" song when we reach letter S.

As we go to sleep, we sing a bit and I ask her what to sing - of course, there's "Are you Sleeping, Are You Sleeping, Brother John", "Rock-a-Bye Baby", "Wise Men Say (Fools Rush In)" and "Dandansoy".  We then pray.

There are times she would not immediately go to sleep and would even ask for hide and seek or play shadows.  But there are also times where she just stays and lays in bed, do some acrobatic moves moving from here and there until she eventually falls asleep.

Yup!  That's my life with my dear toddler, whom I love so much!

My Precious

I know .. long time, no post.

The past few weeks, I have been contemplating of writing again.  It has been a long time since my last post and I have so many thoughts going on inside this brain of mine.

Most of the thoughts actually pertain to my daughter, who just turned two years old a few weeks ago.

During her first weeks, I set up an Instagram account and hoping I could post once a day about her.  But I was not able to sustain it.  There were days that I was not able to take a picture of her.  And I have not posted for a long time now.

I have not also been writing in my gratitude journal for a really long time.  Before I was married, I was more or less consistent with it.  It dwindled when I got married and was totally out of the picture when I gave birth and moved houses.  I could have documented memorable moments of my little one on a daily basis but I just did not find time for it.

As days go by, I have realized that there were great memorable moments created by my daughter that we were not able to document .. we were just there living the moment with her!  I would love to have it documented but most of the times I am just caught in the moment that I forget getting my phone or that I would not want to distract my daughter just because I was getting my phone.  There are even times that my daughter would swipe my hand holding the cellphone or she would just say no if I try to take a video or picture of her.  At times, she would want to get the cellphone for herself.  Of course, there are times that she is much too willing to have her selfie taken or to have her performance video .. but not all the time.

At 2 years old (25 months), she can easily identify  the whole alphabet.  She even knows that an inverted M is a W (and she did this all by herself).  She could identify words beginning with the letters of the alphabet.  She could identify her name when written.  She knows the names of her papa and mama and the nicknames of her nana and grandpa.  She can count up to 20 and easily identify numbers 1 to 10 and some of the numbers from 11 to 20.  She could now identify colors, although this really took some time and we jokingly said that she may be color blind.  But we were able to dispel it when she was not consistent in erroneous identification of colors.  She can now fill in the blanks to the lyrics of Beauty and the Beast and to the intro of Can You Feel the Love Tonight.  She can dance to these songs.  She sings Do Re Mi and So Long Farewell.  She knows the words to Can't Help Falling in Love and You are my Sunshine.  She can also mouth some words from the songs of Frozen - Let It Go, Love is an Open Door and For the First Time in Forever.  She can sing a lot of songs and nursery rhymes.  She can identify Mickey and Friends and the Disney Characters.  

Of course, she learned it because we exposed it to her.  We read to her, we converse with her, we sing with her, we play with her and we watch TV with her.  I first noticed her fascination with alphabets when she was watching TV intently.  I later on realized that she was memorizing it.  She rarely uses the cellphone for youtube and other apps though.  And we do not have an Ipad .. hehe.  She watches TV but we really try to balance it.  

We do painting and coloring.  She sometimes colors the walls and the floors .. haha.  She feeds the fishes and plays with the dogs.  She plays a lot with the dogs and she does not get terrified to get cuddly with them.  We play hide and seek and cooking, which she calls "Coking" .. bisaya jud .. haha.  

She tells JJ to go upstairs when JJ is staying on her bed.  She tells JJ to go outside if she does not want to play with JJ.  But she said thank you JJ when she was staring at the toy Uncle JJ gave her.  She plays with JJ when Auntie Hanna is not around ..haha.  She tells Auntie Hanna to eat pizza.  She cries when Auntie Hanna leaves.  And also when Mama leaves.  But she does not cry when mama leaves and Auntie Hanna is around.

She is the sweetest.  She gives me random kisses and hugs.  She says I love you and gives a warm hug everytime we sing the I Love You song.  She is generous with her sorry's and thank you's. 

These past few days, we have no helper so I try to stay at the house whenever no one is available to look after her.  We have our afternoon walks near Nana's house.  She loves running downwards at the garage.  I let her play with the rocks, with her shouting Darna every now and then.  We had lots of pang-commercial moments  .. if only there was camera out there taking a video of our time.

Yes, my world revolves around my daughter.  And I love her so much :)

The Wedding (Part 3)

Since we already exchanged our vows, Allan and I were more laid back.

Well, there was an issue as to whether to have the cocktails in the open area or not as it was a bit cloudy.  It was an unfortunate issue but all's well that ends well.

Before going back to The View for the reception, I made sure to pass by our house so that our helpers, Tata and Mai Mai, as well as the dogs, will get to see us.

 At my parents' house

With Mai-Mai and Tata and the doggies, Charlie and Philip

 Allan and Jazzie at The View!  I love this picture!

 Stage Decor for the reception courtesy of FPD

Entrance of the newlyweds!  And yes, we're happy!

Last dance with my dad.

 First dance with Allan to the tunes of One Thing, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and What Makes You Beautiful.  See the Just Dance video at the back.  Yes, it was my idea as I think it was cool and fun to see us dance with that background.  And it also serves as our guide for our dance steps.  I think I only practiced with Allan 3 times, while Allan practiced more by himself, hehe

 Look at our guests in attendance!  We are truly grateful for their presence.  

And it seems they had a lot of fun!

 With our wedding cake courtesy of Sweet Advocate.  Another blooper here as we tried slicing first a layer that was not a cake.  We got confused whether to slice the third layer or the bottom layer, haha.  Oh well, memories!

 Cheers!

 My mom's time to speak!

 Dad's happy with mom's reference .. hehe

 Nanay's turn.

 Jeni, my sister and matron of honor, with her impromptu speech.  Touching!

 Allan still mesmerized with me ..hehe

It was also reunion time on my mom's side.  It was so happy to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins from Davao, Manila, Qatar and US.  Good times!

To Forever!

I am so happy I get to finish this blog just before our 1st wedding anniversary.  Cheers to forever!

The Wedding (Part 2)

This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad!

For Allan and I, the most important was for us saying our vows before our Lord.  And so we did!

It was really a joyous event and we were so grateful to our guests who were there to witness our exchange of vows.  

To be frank, I really had no wedding jitters.  I can't say that I had butterfly in my stomach or that I was nervous with clammy hands.  I was just so looking forward to us getting married!

As I was waiting insider the bridal car outside of the church, I chanced upon our guests and was so happy to see so many of them.  And our principal sponsors were all complete.  It was really nice!

Fr. Gene, our officiating priest, is someone that Allan has known since his seminarian days.  We were so grateful that he was available for us.

Here are our pictures at the church.  Enjoy!

 I think I can safely say that Allan was happy and excited to get married to me!

 My baby brother, JJ, as our ring bearer!

 My sister Jeni and her daughter Ally .. so cute!

 Another nice picture of my parents!

And may I just say I love the flower arrangements.  I really wanted it to be like that so the guests can see people walking down the aisle.  I really wanted our wedding to be more about people - us, our family, and our friends - rather than the decorations.

 The bubbling bride .. haha!  I didn't notice it but I was told I walked a bit fast down the aisle.  

I guess I was also excited to get married.

 A bit emotional!

 Listening to our story .. as told by Fr. Gene.

 Such a blooper!  I was putting the wedding ring on the wrong finger.  

And I thought, it did not fit .. haha.  Good thing we realized it.

 Our guests!

 The kiss!

Yes! We're married!

The Wedding (Part I)

This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad!

The morning of my wedding quite "normal".  We were not necessarily in a frantic in our household. In fact, there was so much good vibes with my niece, cousins, uncles, aunties, sisters, brother, mom and dad.  We left our house and went to the The View for our make-up.

Well, we were quite early as our make-up artists were not yet around.  But I did not panic (yet!) .. haha.  To pass the time, my cousins roam around while my sister pulled out some of my white hair .. haha.  

We eventually got started with our make-up.  Then, we had the pictorials.  Oooh, I did not expect such number of pictures to be taken .. haha.  There were a few issues here and there, such as the motif (it was coral and turquoise, by the way .. not an easy color though .. hehe) and our lunch, which turned out to be okay.  In the end, it was really a wonderful and joyous occasion!

Here are a few snapshots of our wedding day before the ceremony.

Enjoy!

                                      

I just love our wedding invitation.  This was actually inspired by my friend Janice' wedding invitation.  And I really liked our caricature (inspired by other weddings)

No frills!  Easy-open .. hehe!  

 

My bouquet was perfect!

 I love my wedding gown! (Courtesy of Kasuotan by Erwin Tan)

 The rings! Great picture by the team of Richard Padillo Photography

With RJ, my make-up artist.  I got to know him since he was also the make-up artist of my friend, Bajo, for her December 2015 wedding.  I really loved my make-up that day!  And his team did the make-up for my entourage as well.  His rate was also affordable.

 I love this picture of me with my mom as it shows how my mom is so concerned with even the minute details, hehe. I was wearing a different pair of earrings (which she gave to me before) and she suggested that I change it to another pair of earrings she had with her.

 Pictorial session!

 With my bridesmaids!

Such a nice picture of my mom and dad!

 Family picture, with my niece Ally.  

It was the first visit to the Philippines for my brother-in-law, Edward. 

 My youthful and unique entourage! (With the crying Ally!)

 Another very nice picture with my entourage!

I feel pretty, oh so pretty .. haha!

 My groom with his entourage!

 The groom's entourage featuring my cousin AJ, all the way from US of A!

 With nanay.

 Allan's family

 Waiting ...

Japorms!