She came as Snow White for their school’s Lantern Parade last week. I wanted a different costume for her but apparently, at 4 year old, she has her own mind and preference already. So Snow White costume it is. She did look good in it though, agree?

Doesn’t she look like an 8 year old here? Goodness! How has she grown that big and that fast?!?!?!

They were asked to bring a DIY lantern with a small flashlight inside to school by the way and here’s what we came up with. (the daddy made this the night before, talk about cramming!)

As another treat to the kids, aside from the usual trick or treating around the school premises, last stop was at this dark room to look for goodies hidden under the newspapers. They did this per section and it was a lot of fun!

Here’s how the room looked like with the lights on.

The daddy didn’t make it with us as he was meeting a cousin of his who is a San Jose motorcycle accident attorney. He recently came home for a short visit. I heard he hasn’t been in the Philippines since he was 15! Wow. I bet he missed Filipino food so much which is why Jon took him to Dampa! I’m sure he’ll enjoy it there. I would! LOL.

My kids with their angkong and ama – Jon’s parents, my in-laws and my kids’ spoilers. Meant that in a good way. They are my kids’ number one fans together with the doting Auntie based in Virginia now. Add their Ninang Ivy to the list too! LOL.

Photos were taken during one of our trips to Highlands. Weather was perfect and we were about to go fishing. We had the fishes to ourselves as we were there really early. We took home a lot to Sophia’s delight of course. Fishing has been her favorite pastime lately (aside from horseback riding) when we are in Highlands. We spent a good two hours I think just lazing around the fishing area. The breeze was a little cold and Jon even fell asleep on one of the benches.  I spent time surfing the net though and was even able to look up some Medicare supplement being offered by a friend through my cellphone as there was complimentary wifi.

September and October haven’t really been very good months for my kids – health wise. As you all know, Sophia was hospitalized for a week but even before that, the two have been having on and off coughs and colds. Hay, every mom’s frustration, agree? I was thinking it was because of the weather at first but later on found out that maybe we need new furnace filters too to avoid allergy attacks. I hope this does the trick or else I’ll really go nuts already.

Anyway, on to the brighter side of things, updates on the kids …

Sophia
She has officially lost her baby fats (to the daddy’s delight!). Her legs are slender and her body is slimmer. Gawd, she is this.close to becoming a tweener already judging from the way she looks. And I am in denial! Hahaha. Jon and I can’t believe how fast she has grown, really. Five months away from being 5, she looks like an 8 year old when dressed. She’s also very picky with clothes now and even talks like an adult. She’s growing up to be looking a lot more like her dad and is very interested with singing and dancing. She aces her school exams – Math and Reading and gets very good reviews from her teachers. She still enjoys school and is a Hannah Montana fanatic.  A doting “achie” to “little Mateo” and a very loving daughter. She sent me to tears during her hospital stint when I said I’d rather be the one sick and not her. She replied with a resounding NO and said that she doesn’t want me to get sick, siya na lang daw.

Mateo
Fondly called “little Mateo” by his achie, he now is 11 months and one day old as of this writing. He still isn’t walking but has been trying to. He loves talking, eating solids and has almost given up on the bottle. He drinks his milk via his bottle’s cap and poops in the toilet already too. His hair has grown so LONG and I can’t wait to cut it. He weighs 10.6 kilos during his last check up and unlike his achi, he is “thin” as per my standards.  Not that I am bothered though, as long as he’s healthy, I’m all good. I hate that he’s still into thumbsucking but I guess I have to live with that. A month to go before his 1st birthday, he has four teeth now and is looking a lot like his angkong. A good friend though said he looks like me. I don’t know. What do you think?

Christmas is around the corner again and for me this means shopping! The holiday season is the best excuse to spoil the kids you know.

As for this year, I already have two kids to spoil unlike in the last four years where I only have to buy childrens’ clothing and toys like activity sets for one. Well, more expensive definitely but doubly fun too I’m sure. I am starting early, as usual, with my holiday shopping as I hate cramming. I also would love to get hold of the all time best sellers childrens’ books before they ran out so I need to start shopping as early as now. My kids will love the books for sure and so will my godchildren.

I am still get a couple of toys for my kids even if they have tons already as I guess every child would really LOVE to get toys on all occasions.  Agree? I’ll just make sure I’d get the educational ones. Oh I can’t wait! This is so exciting!

Shopping in 5,4,3,2,1. Go!

While everyone was worrying about typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng, I was busy attending to my sick four year old daughter in the hospital. After our family lost a five year old niece to dengue last December, you could just imagine how scared I and the rest of my family was when the doctor said that our little girl is inflicted with the same virus. I wanted to believe that I was just dreaming and everything isn’t really happening but it was. The worst part, Jon was in Singapore for the F1 race the time I rushed Sophia to the hospital initially because of high grade fever. I never felt so afraid and so alone in my life! I was in panic so I called him while I was packing and cried my heart out. He took the next available flight back home after we put the phone down. He was then at the hospital in no time, thank God.

To recount, all I remember now was Sophia being down with fever Sunday morning. I took her temperature and was surprised because it was 40C! She suddenly looked so weak too and didn’t even want to move around. That night, with her temperature not getting below 39C even after doses of tempra, I knew that it was no ordinary fever and that there was something really wrong as with her previous bouts with fever, she’d still be active and all. I instantly took her to the ER in minutes and then as they say, the rest was history. I am now glad that I did what I did – taking her to the hospital for confinement ASAP. This was probably the reason why she recovered fast and well because she got immediate medical attention.

In our week stay in the hospital, Sophia proved how brave a girl she was. She cried a little on all her six blood extractions and one IV insertion but nothing hysterical or not even close to it. She was very cooperative too, taking all the doctors’ and nurses’ advices by heart. She did however became impatient in the last two days because according to her, she was “very bored”.

We were able to go home only last Saturday and what was waiting for a tired, stressed, harassed mommy like me? A ten month old son running a fever too! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought I would lose it, really. The thought of Mateo going through what his achi went through in the hospital, all the extractions and all, I couldn’t fathom. He’s too tiny! Good thing his proved to be just ordinary fever maybe caused by the change of weather. His temperature went down after a coupe of tempra doses so I was finally able to relax and write this post.

Three weeks worth of writing load is waiting for me and I don’t know where to start. This is what I get with procastinating big time. Now I have to work triple time, will start off with looking at motorhome insurance and then I’ll take it from there. Hopefully I won’t spend too much time on it so I could move on to the next. Wish me luck!

Lastly, with the whole thing that happened, to this day, I couldn’t believe how Sophia, my ever so “protected” and pampered daughter ever, has caught the dengue virus.  May this be a lesson to all that we and our kids can never really be safe.  What we need is vigilance and what we don’t need is complacency.

Saturday 9: The Waiting

Before I indulge myself into my mountain high pile of work brought about by my almost two weeks of online absence, I need to take a breather first and relax so I snagged this tag from Peachy. I promise to start blogging seriously after. Well, once I get bar faucets quotes online first.

1. Have you ever stayed online for a very long time waiting for someone? – yes, i usually wait for some friends based abroad to go online.

2. How do you eat oreos? – gobble them up! lol

3. Are you cocky? – hmm not really

4. Did you have an imaginary friend as a kid? – i can’t remember any.

5. What t.v. station do you watch the most? – i don’t usually get to watch tv lately but at the very rare times that i do, i watch shows of channel 2. kapamilya ako.

6. Have you ever seen the ocean? – yes.

7. Have you ever been hospitalized? – yes.

8. What’s your favorite brand of rootbeer? – any.

9. Could you live without a computer? – NO NO NO.