This is a shout out to my sister in law who graduated cumlaude at University of Florida sometime last week, congratulations! We are so proud of you. Too bad we couldn’t personally witness your graduation as your little nephew is just way too young to fly over there. Seeing the photos at your multiply though kinda gave us the feeling that we were there with you. Nice photos, btw. Daddy Ramon and Mommy Naomi looked so proud! And Jojo too! Hehe.

Anyway, we hope to see you soon. Jon promised to visit you sometime March as December according to him is way too busy a month for his business which means business is good, right? We shouldn’t complain, he might not buy both of us our Christmas bags! Haha.

Sophia and I are so excited! The little girl would always tell me she’s going to America to visit Auntie Nancy. We take her to Disneyland and she’s one happy gal for sure. As for me, take me to New York, please! Let’s rent out one of those Car Service NY and go around the city. I heard GO Airlink NYC offers affordable, on time and safe SUV and Car service transportation throughout New York City, Westchester, Connecticut, JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Airports. I bet it’ll be super fun!

See you soon and congrats again! Love your “cumlaude” present by the way. Wala niyan dito, pasakay ha!

MATEO

My little boy has been loving his ate’s exersaucer and has been making poopoo in his potty seat too (will post a pic soon).

SOPHIA

Physically and emotionally, my eldest is such a big girl already. She takes her “ate” role seriously too, always looking after her baby brother.  Here she is biking at Tagaytay Highlands last May 1.

Now tell me, doesn’t time really flies fast?  I’m sure before I know it Mateo is running around already while Sophia will be in puberty stage. Yaiks! Thinking about it makes me cringe. I just hope that Sophia won’t have problems with acne and won’t need acne treatment like I did when I was younger.

Here’s what I have in store for the little girl this summer:

—Ballet – she’s currently attending ballet class at Effie Nanas dancing studio in Shangrila Mall.  So far, she loves it to bits! She’s very attentive during class and I’m one proud mommy of course.  Major booboo, forgot to bring my camera so let me share with you a very blurred photo of the kids while in class doing some stretching.

—Gymboree Art Class – since Sophia loves doing art stuff, I thought of enrolling her at Gymboree again. She used to attend art classes here when she was still younger and the projects they make are always fun to do so I decided to make her take the class again.  Gymboree even offers sibling class now. Great isn’t it? I can’t wait when Mateo is old enough to join her ate!

—ENOPI – she’s scheduled to have her diagnostic test by next week and then she’ll start classes right away.  This is to supplement what she learns in school particularly in Math and  English.  Its a one on one thing so I really like it.

I’m still thinking if I should enroll her to swimming class this summer. But I am very much interested with cooking class too so I’m in a lookout for a good cooking class. Any leads?

I hope the little girl will be pretty occupied with the activities in store for her. And most of all, I hope she gets to have loads of fun.

Off to looking for something my sister can wear to work, Dansko professional clogs maybe?

A good friend of mine who is based in California went home to celebrate her daughter’s birthday last month.  Too bad I wasn’t able to grace the party as it was the same day I took Mateo to the hospital for labs and test needed for his circumcision.  I have yet to see the party photos but I bet party was great.

Anyway, I’m glad though that  my US based friend and other friend from Pampanga were able to attend my kids’ party last Sunday. To top that, we were able to spend some time together as they stayed here in our house for two days.  I took them to Highlands and we all had fun of course, especially the kids!  The mommies (us) talked nonstop about everything and anything! From past experiences to parties to shopping for sale items to kids and hubby stories. It was great! I hope to get to spend time with them again soon. See you in LA, Anet!

Here are some of our pics.

Our little girl is four (in a few days) while our little boy is now a Christian – finally.

Party’s finally over. After everything – Mateo’s UTI ordeal and being circumcised four days before the party, event went well and preparation was well worthit.  Guests – both adults and kids had fun.  Mommy had aching feet after though. LOL!

Thanks to everyone who came.

In a few months,  I’ll be back to party planning again for Mateo’s 1st birthday. Hay, ang bilis. I bet November na before I even know it which spells expenses again. I hope my financier is up for the challenge.

I missed my online life. Haven’t been online for a looong time and now I’ve got so much to do! First off is to look for discount lighting, ugh!

This week is probably the busiest week I’ve had in years. Seriously. I can’t go in details though as I am just squeezing some time in the computer to you know – get some stuff done *wink*.

First off, let me ask you to say a little prayer for my little boy Mateo who will be circumcised this coming Tuesday.  I know its supposed to be a simple procedure but still, I can’t help but worry especially after a very simple blood extraction which he needed as clearance lasted for an hour and a half last Saturday. Three doctors tried to extract his blood including the ICU head pediatrician but they all failed. A medical technologist who was very confident and volunteered himself to give it a try finally succeeded and I will forever be grateful to him.  Hay, I swear I was this.close to breaking down.  I never heard my little boy cry that loud, that hard.  It really broke my heart.

On to my little girl – Sophia.  We watched Rapunzel at the Theater Down South with her fellow Rosemont kids last Thursday. The next day, Friday, she had her filed trip at Avilon Zoo. I was with her on both occasions of course and we had so much fun. A much needed bonding for both of us.  At Avilon Zoo, btw, was able to meet a fellow n@wie and blogger – Jade and her little girl Summer who were on a field trip too.  It was nice to see and meet you, Jade!  Let me share with you some of our Avilon Zoo pics.

Sophia feeding the chickens and rabbits.

Sophia beside the pony.

Our one and only pic together.

We didn’t join the bus on the way back to school after touring the zoo.  Instead, we trooped to Shangrila for some shopping. Was able to shop for the kids’ outfit already so I’m relieved.  We were also able to check some cat supplies in one of the pet store we saw as a niece of mine who is so much into cats is celebrating her birthday next month so was thinking of getting her any cutie cat stuff.

We got home a bit late so we were so tired.  The little girl was sleeping in no time.  Nevertheless, it was a day well spent.

I haven’t been good at updating all of you with what has been going on with our little family lately so I’m hoping this post could somewhat make up for it.  Here it goes …

Just when I thought we’re over with the sickies in the house, now its the little girl’s turn. She has been running a fever since last night and the paranoid mommy that I am can’t stop worrying. Who can blame me? After my five year old cousin’s bout with dengue last December, I now dread even a simple fever. I hope she gets better asap. As of typing this though, her temperature is down to 37.8.

I haven’t blogged about Mateo diagnosed to have UTI some two weeks ago, have I? Well, I was worried stiff I tell you as I have learned that UTI in children is something serious and doesn’t stop at just having urinalysis and urine cultures. Well, we and my pedia wanted to be on the safe side of course so we were referred to a urologist after the little boy was cleared from UTI after taking antibiotics for a week. That’s the time I found out that an ultrasound needs to be done and a procedure called VCUG where there’s a catheter involved and xrays. Thinking about the procedure made me sleepless for days as it sounded so complicated while it was being explained to me but apparently it was fast and simple. I’m just really glad Mateo’s UTI ordeal is now over and his VCUG result was a-okay. He has no reflux. If he happens to have one, he would need to maintain a low dose antibiotics everyday or worst undergo a surgery would you believe? Hay, thank God wala. However, he is advised to undergo circumcision. So by next week, on the 13th maybe, we’ll have our little boy circumcised na which now makes me one busy mommy. I plan to finish all party related stuff before the 13 as I don’t think I can take it to leave Mateo at home with just the yaya to look after him after his circumcision. So far, my things to do are:

~ finalize cake design
~ deposits payments to all my suppliers
~ buy prizes
~ shop for our outfits
~ food tasting at C3 and pay the full amount already
~ finalize table centerpiece designs
~ and something not party related, finish all my online assignments starting with a certain linear motion task

Hope I can do all these in less than a week! Oh, I just remembered, I also need to have my treadmill test completed by Sunday as part of my executive check up. Whew!

By the way, I just need to say that I can’t believe how a fairly nice (read decent) party would cost these days! Grabe!  Sophia’s 1st birthday party sometime in 2006 is panis! Cost wise ha … Susme. Jon is close to having a heart attack with the expenses.  Me too! And to think the money isn’t coming from my own pocket, haha!