Today, Jon and I are bidding goodbye to our red Volkswagen New Beetle. After close to seven years, Jon finally had the courage to sell it. This was his dad’s graduation gift back in 2001. When we got married though, it was handed to me as I left my car with my mom after the wedding. I used to drive this red beetle all the time when we didn’t have a driver yet. I take Sophia to Little Gym and Gymboree with it before. The little girl has grown to love it too and would call it “mommy’s small red car”. As time went by though, I discovered the pleasure of having a driver so I never went back to driving the red beauty. Hence, Jon felt “mommy’s small red car” has to go and be replaced with a bigger car we can maximize especially with the coming baby. Ano kaya yun?

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata…

For a while now, Jon has been bugging me to have custom made shirts for his employees in the farm. Being the forgetful and ultra lazy woman that I am, I have been putting off searching for the perfect site to have such shirts customized. But lo and behold, family day in their farm is already next month and I have yet to look for a supplier! Good thing I stumbled upon bluecotton.com just this morning as I was feeling so harassed already. At bluecotton.com, they offer custom printing and even custom embroidery. All I need to do now is to upload the farm’s company logo and I’m all set. It’s that simple. Oh thank you, I feel so relieved! Bluecotton.com is simply heaven sent! I swear I would have had endless scolding if I didn’t manage to pull through a simple task of getting shirts printed!

The little girl was asked to bring a picture of mommy to school yesterday for a project they will be making. I was so excited that I immediately took out all our albums and started looking for that perfect solo picture of mine. After almost half an hour of looking, I only had 4 solo pictures on my hand which to me were not even close to acceptable. They were either blurred, or I wasn’t in the middle of the photo or other people were at my back. Gosh, I realized most of my really nice pictures are with the little girl or with the dad. This can’t be.

I simply refused to give up so I didn’t lose hope, I opened my laptop and searched the thousands of photos stored in my flash drive. I bet I will find something decent. For petes sake, this is my daughter’s first ever school project! And voila, there it is, my perfect solo picture. I had the perfect smile, photo was perfectly angled and no bystanders around me. I clicked print instantly and you wouldn’t guess what luck I had next. The printer was out of ink!

Can this be really happening? Just when I needed it most. I had the driver instantly run to the nearest computer store to get an ink but I was surprised to learn that it was pretty much more expensive than getting it online.

Lesson learned here, I will need to stock up on ink, toner and toner cartridges bought online to save money as with a school girl now, I will need such supply all the time and at unexpected times!

… yesterday, June 25.

It was the very first time I didn’t take Sophia to school. You see, since she started toddler classes at a play-based toddler school when she was almost 2 years old, I made it a point to take her to class. All other activities or classes too like The Little Gym and Gymboree, I was with her. Never missed a class. And so, yesterday was a first for me and I didn’t take it well.

I HAD SEPARATION ANXIETY.

I was literally holding my tears back while I was taking her inside the car with her yaya and the driver. She, on the other hand, didn’t have any hint of sadness at all which made me want to cry all the more. SUSME, ano ba ito? Could it be the pregnancy hormones or what?

When she shouted “Goodbye, Mommy!” with hands waving while the car was about to go, I couldn’t hold it any longer. I ran inside the house and wept. I called the husband and continued to cry over the phone. Crazy, isn’t it? OA, ano?

But things are better now. I have managed to accept the fact that I cannot be with her all the time and besides she needs to be on her own every once in a while.   It’s both for our own good.  After all, Ill be having another baby soon so we both need this so we can adjust.  I’ll still take her to school maybe twice or thrice a week though but everyday is not feasible anymore  because three hours in Starbucks every morning each day will do me no good.  Malls are still closed by the time she’s in school so I have nowhere to go.

Hay, another mommy moment for the books.

I woke up early today preparing Sophia’s stuff for school. They were asked to bring a couple of things though this morning aside from the usual - 1X1 pic for school ID, 2 passport pictures, 2 empty yakult bottles, 2 empty medicine boxes and 1 empty half a gallon ice cream container. I got so harassed looking for the pictures she needed to bring as I forgot where I placed them. Silly me. I now promise to not cram when it comes to Sophia’s school assignments - never again. I almost turned our house upside down looking for the pics you know - at 6AM!

Anyway, let me leave you a pic of the little girl in her PE uniform last Friday - their PE day.

Ang lusog niya noh?

Drama Kwento:

When we were on the way to school, I was teary eyed. OA diba? But seriously, seeing this picture (nevermind yung closed eyes niya) makes me realize how eager, ready and how big a girl my Sophia already is.  Grabe, cliche as it may sound, time really flies talaga.  She’s a baby no more.

She never let go of her lunch bag the whole duration of the trip to school by the way.

On her first day to school, our day started early.  Since she needs to be in school by 8am, we had to be leaving the house at exactly 7:20am. So you could just imagine, everything was timed - by the dot. Wake up at 6:10am, have breakfast until 6:45am and then take a bath. Good thing Sophia really wakes up early so no big adjustment on that.

Both Jon and I took the little girl to school. Here she is before leaving the house.

Although it’s still orientation week and they were not asked to bring snacks yet, I made her bring her lunch bag. She also was bringing her backpack with spare clothes and grooming kit.

Five minutes before 8am, we reached Rosemont.  Here’s the little girl greeting and getting her nametag from her teacher.

As I previously said in my other post, she didn’t cry nor hesitated to go inside her classroom.  She needed no convincing too, none at all.  She went straight inside and ayun na, the rest is history. As if we never existed. She didn’t even look for me.  She was having fun inside, checking what her classmates are doing.  Parang supervisor, paikot ikot LOL. She’s sometimes playing blocks with a classmate and then the next minute, playing dough with others. Look.

She gladly participated in all the activities too and she has the loudest voice by the way. When the kids answer to the teacher’s questions, nangingibabaw her voice. Walang kawala, HAHAHA.

More photos during their class activities next.

Last Saturday was yaya’s day-off so as usual we took the little girl malling to tire her haha. Bad parents! Seriously though, I always look forward to days when it’ll just be the three of us. Twice a month is good but more than that, naku Jon and I can’t make it. WE have a very hyper active little girl thats why.

Here are some photos I took of the little girl last Sunday at Timezone Glorietta.

And here we are in one of those singing booths, Sophia loves to sing just so you know. Ayaw tigilan!

It was a fun day. The little girl was ecstatic when we took her to Powerbooks and was able to choose books on her own again. I am so happy she loves to read which is why we always buy books for her. Her favorite are Dr Seuss Books. I hope to complete the Early Beginner Books soon.

Before heading home, the husband looked around for golf clubs and was so near into buying the Titleist golf drivers he saw in one of the golf shops but stopped himself. I am pretty sure he won’t be able to sleep in a few days. LOL.

I just came from my 3rd pre-natal check up and what can I say? The baby is in good shape! I had an ultrasound again and ang likot ni baby! Hay, this totally gives me some peace of mind as I have been very sick lately. No drastic change on my weight though, was only able to gain 1 kg. This is understandable as I was sick for almost two weeks. I promise to make bawi this month, we’ll see.

I’m on my 15th week now and I hope I’ll get better and better with the coming days so I can be all set for our HK trip.

I am no computer geek and so is my husband. We both rely on some friends who are knowledgeable about computers for any of our computer related stuff. In fact, with the three desktop computers that me and my husband uses at home and in the office, it was his good friend Weston who assembled them. Just the other day though, my husband got curious after hearing about DIY PC Kits at EasyAsMyPc.com as such are said to be easy to assemble in only a few hours even by non-computer geeks like us. Not only will they help us save money as they will turn out cheaper than pre-assembled PC’s but also we’ll be guaranteed that parts and computer components are from the world’s best brands. Kits even come with full manufacturer warranties. Now, he badly wants to try to build a computer using a PC kit. I do too! It’s going to be both our first time so we are pretty excited. I sure hope we’ll be successful.

Last Friday, Jon and I attended the Parent’s Orientation at Rosemont, a PAREF School. If you still don’t know by now (which I doubt!), our little girl will be attending the SY 2008-2009 as a Nursery student in this school.

The orientation lasted for roughly two hours with a buffet dinner to boot. Rules and regulations were discussed as well as the school’s mission and vision. They reiterated how the parent’s involvement is a must just like how they expect us to attend parenting programs they usually hold and be present with the recollections they are holding specifically for parents.

The highlight of the night for me was meeting Sophia’s lead teacher and warning her of my daughter’s hyper behavior. She will definitely have her hands full on my daughter alone. They are 15 in class by the way with one lead teacher, one assistant teacher and one teacher aide. Here are photos I took of her classroom.

Also, I learned after the orientation that Sophia needs to bring 1 backpack to school everyday with spare clothes (including underwear), a face towel, powder and a hairbrush or comb. I also need to get her a plastic placemat that needs to be left in school. Now, this is really getting more and more exciting!