Last Saturday was my bestfriend Marla’s 4th birthday. She had a Hannah Montana party at Fridays in Trinoma. It was a very long drive from home but it didn’t matter. I was uber excited on the way. Good thing traffic wasn’t really bad so we were there right on time and even ahead of the birthday celebrant herself.

Since we had nothing to do just yet, we took photos first. Here’s my mom and my little brother. They look alike I think while people say I look like my dad. My mom lost weight haven’t you noticed?

Here’s a photo of us three. My dad isn’t really fond of having his picture taken especially in public places so we let him be.

How do you guys like my outfit by the way?

And finally the birthday girl arrived, meet my bestfriend – Marla. Don’t you just love her boots? I do! My mom said she already ordered me two pairs and both arriving real soon. Can’t wait!

Of course I played and joined the games like there was no tomorrow. Can you spot me?

And then party was over. I had a blast! Before heading home, since it was our first time at Trinoma (yes it is!), we went around first because mommy was looking for some outdoor fireplace display. We didn’t find one though. We went home after and traffic was bad.  I was do tired that I fell asleep in the car all the way home.  Tiring but fun day it was!

— SOPHIA

Since Mateo has been having allergy attacks for a month now, I finally decided to get an air purifier for his room. Its about time! I have been delaying it and since nobody in the house ever got serious allergy attacks, I never felt the need to purchase one. Anyway, here’s the excat model I got from Handyman, only ours was silver and white in color …

Bionare PERMAtech® Mini Tower Air Cleaner

Naturally freshen the air in your home with the optional ionizer in this Bionaire® PERMAtech® Mini Tower Air Cleaner. Recommended for rooms up to 80 sq ft (8ft x 10ft).

I hope this helps ease Mateo’s attacks. Oh, please! I am desperate here. We’ve almost tried everything – major cleaning of the house, purchased a new mattress and got rid of all the plush toys in his room. Tell me what else should we do?????

Last October 31, together with friends and their kids, we went trick or treating at Sofitel Hotel. We first had a sumptuous buffet lunch at Spiral and were we full, of course!

Here’s Jon and I while enjoying our lunch.

With some friends.

And the kids!

Snow White meets Dracula.

Snow White, Dracula and a Flamenco Dancer

The hotel had plenty of advertisers and we took home lots of loots from chocolates to biscuits to gift certificates to packs of juices and even disposable shoe covers would you believe? Kids had fun and enjoyed trick or treating and the magic show too. Will definitely be back next year.

… we decided to go to Tagaytay Highlands as it has been a while since we last went. Sayang ang membership, hehe. It was Mateo’s first time to go can you believe it? He’s turning one this month already. I used to think he was too small but now, he’s big enough! Just look at the photos below. Weather was perfect and a bit chilly because its “ber” month I guess. Traffic wasn’t bad at all too, only minor glitches, there was an rv being towed, thanks to rv towing and it didn’t last long before they could get the rv out of the way.

All in all, we had a good time. My in laws were with us this time by the way.

Here’s us when we were about to go fishing.

Sophia playing in the sand.

Mateo enjoying the slide.

Spent a good one hour at the indoor playground.

Mateo also liked the sand.

Now that the little boy is one, I think we’d frequent Highlands again since we can bring him along already.  I bet it won’t be long when he can run around too like his achie.

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?

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.