The husband is back from Macau. We picked him up from the airport last night. While he was away though, I had the scare of my life.

Read on.

Sophia was feverish when the husband left last Friday. I thought it was nothing serious as she was still active on our way to Pampanga after dropping the husband at the airport. Late afternoon though, the little girl’s temperature was 39.5 and she wasn’t her old self already whose very active and talkative. Although I give her tempra every 4 hours, her fever won’t go down so I called her pedia and told her that I am taking Sophia to the clinic the next day.

By 12 midnight, Sophia woke up and started crying. She was so hot!!! Her temperature was 40! She kept telling me her head is “ouchie” and she can’t breath. We gave her sponge bath and I was already in panic. This is the first time my daughter ever complained of something painful. You see, if you know my daugther, made of steel yun! She hardly complains of getting hurt etc so to hear her say that “ouchie” her head while crying, it is something. Knowing that the husband was not with us made me all the more emotional. I felt so alone even if we were in my mom’s house. I guess I’m really not used to not having Jon around. Its actually the first time he left the country without us with him which I doubt would happen again after this incident. We were ready to take Sophia to the hospital when suddenly her fever went down and she said that she feels a bit fine already and just take her in the hospital when its already morning. Wow, the beauty of a pre-schooler. She can really communicate well na unlike if baby pa, we have to guess what’s painful or not and bear with the non-stop crying without knowing whats wrong.

The next day, she was still not active while in the car and she even vomited as her fever went up to 39 again but I was a bit relaxed already as we were on the way to her pedia. When we arrived at the clinic, the pedia checked her and gave her medicines. She wasn’t advised to have a blood test yet though as it was just the second day of her fever. If her fever continues the next day, she will have to undergo blood test already. I was a bit relived though on the way home as she was suddenly active and was looking for sinigang! Hay, as soon as we got home, there she gobbled up on her pork sinigang and went to sleep. Hay, thank God.

Now, the husband while this was all happening was calling me on the cellphone non-stop. He was in panic like me. He can’t believe that his first ever attempt to have a short vacation with his friends abroad without us will turn to be a not so relaxed one. He wasn’t able to shop according to him and only got to buy an air conditioning compressor for a friend. So I doubt if it will ever happen again.

But guess what he got me.

Halloween is just around the corner and I have been spending a lot of my time surfing the net now for a costume for my little girl. I have a couple of halloween costumes in mind but I still am not convinced so I keep searching and searching hoping to find that one perfect costume she’ll wear to their Halloween School Party and the neighborhood trick or treating. Last year, she was a buzzing Bumble Bee in a tutu and everybody loved it as much as I did. Now, I have to top that off!

Looking for a kid costume, I believe, is harder than looking for adult costumes. There are so many choices for adults while with kids, not as much. Or even if there are, I always look for the flame resistant one which most costumes I see are not. And as a mom, I consider the material of the costume as a precautionary Halloween safety. I’m sure every mom would agree with me on this. We, of course, wouldn’t want a happy occasion turn into something tragic right? Accidents do happen you know and all we could do is to always be preventive. So to mommies out there, goodluck on your Halloween costume hunt and may we find the perfect cutie little costume for our kids.

Sophia went to school in jammies today as they are having a pajama party. She also brought with her her blanket and pillow. And since they are on learning the letter P, they also are having a picnic after and were asked to bring food that starts with letter P. I made her bring popcorn and pretzels, stuff that are so easy to find. LOL.

Here are some pics.

While in the car. 

During their morning assembly.

On the way to her room.

Last September 8, Rosemont School celebrated Mother’s Day at Alabang Country Club. It was a fun event solely attended by mommies and their kids. Yayas were not allowed inside and daddies supposedly but they had a surprise number for us mommies.

The event had an official photographer and videographer but I still don’t have the pics and video with me so I’ll just share some photos I took while the little girl’s class - Nursery B dances “Bouncing Off the Ceiling.”

So proud of the little girl and her classmates. They were all really dancing unlike the other classes where only a few were in the mood to dance.

Last Saturday, Sophia was with her ama reading some textbooks from school inside her room which is at the second floor of the house. I was downstairs, at the dining room specifically, fixing our lunch when suddenly I heard a loud bang/sound and saw Sophia’s “baby stairway gate” which was located at the top of our stairs fall. The next thing I knew, one of Sophia’s slipper was already in front of me. I was shocked. I thought Sophia fell too! I almost had a heart attack, I swear even if I wasn’t sure yet if she really fell. I ran upstairs and saw her sitting on the uppermost step of the stairs shocked also. Thank God she did not fall with the baby gate. Apparently, her ama said, Sophia ran outside her room and wanted to go down so she pushed the stair gate. I am guessing because of wear and tear, the stair gate probably has loosened screws so she was able to push it with ease that fast.

The dad who was in our room that time came out and carried her as she started crying after seeing me so worried. All the while we thought that was it not until when Sophia’s yaya saw blood on the floor. We started searching for a wound and there we saw her right foot bleeding. The cut was an inch big. Maybe a part of the stair gate hit her foot before falling. I immediately got cotton balls with Betadine and applied it on the wound. After a while, it stopped bleeding so even if we had doubts of the wound being deep and was thinking of taking her to the ER to make sure, we decided against it. Wrong.

The next day, Sunday, the wound was fine but by Monday, after the Mother’s Day Program of Rosemont at Alabang Country Club, it bled again. Maybe because of Sophia’s walking or something, I don’t know so we immediately took her to Asian Hospital’s ER. The doctor on duty told me that the wound should have been stitched as it was a bit deep. Hay, I never felt so guilty in my life. I knew I shouldn’t have taken it for granted. Moreso, the doctor said that it was prone to infection so he prescribed an antibiotic, a very high dose at that because it has been two days already according to him. He even cited Tetanus as another concern so he asked me if Sophia is complete with all her vaccine shots. To confirm, he wanted me to call her pedia but that time her pedia was in HK so I was again in panic. But I’m pretty sure she’s complete with her vaccines as you might all know by now, her pedia is Jon’s tita.

The doctor then gave me an alternative, we can have it stitched for it to heal better and faster but they have to cut the wound again. Oh no! No way. I said I’d rather have the wound heal longer than usual as he said it was safe naman not to have it stitched but better lang if it was.

Here’s Sophia while at the ER after the doctor attended to her.

Now looking back, I should have known better. I always say that better to be safe than sorry but what was I thinking? Why didn’t I take her to the ER right away? If you ask the husband though, he thinks otherwise, he said that he would rather not take Sophia to the ER as he doesn’t want her to get the stitches. Weird huh?

Our friends love taking their kids to our house all the time. Aside from having a large garden to run around, the kids also have fun playing at Sophia’s playhouse complete with a slide and a tunnel. The slide is too small for Sophia and the other kids now though so the husband has been looking for alternative slides to buy and set up in the garden beside the playhouse. And with the arrival of the new baby soon, we are also thinking of acquiring additional playground equipment which I’m sure the kids (our friends’ and our own) will love. I bet our friends’ kids will frequent our house more often than they used to when we finally get these extra stuff which is good as Sophia loves having them around as she usually needs to content herself playing with the yaya all the time. Soon though, she will have her own and permanent playmate in the presence of her coming baby brother.

She also has been requesting for a swing by the way and I have seen really nice ones at http://www.swingset.com/. I like the idea and I’m thinking of getting two swings actually - a baby swing for our baby boy and a swing belt or sling for her, the big sister soon.

How can I forget to include this event from the list I made here. This was one of our week’s highlight last week.

At Sophia’s school, each child is given a tutor - the one who will monitor her emotional, spiritual and social skills. Not much of academics really but more of all the other aspects except academics. The tutor will be the one to update us on everything though including her grades, her performance in school and how she interacts with others aside from discussing with us what she needs to improve on and talk about solutions. The tutor can be anyone in the faculty, can be the kid’s teacher or not. In Sophia’s case, its the School Director! HAHA.

Jon and I met with her tutor last Friday not knowing what to really expect as its our first time. The tutorial chat as they call it was very informative. We were told that they don’t have problems with Sophia except for the sharing part. She is said to have a hard time sharing the playground equipment during play time. But on every other aspect, she is very well fine. She is even the Virtue of the Month awardee, remember? They even handed me a picture of her being awarded by the school’s two super heroes - Super Monty and Super Rosie which reminds me now that I need to get new picture frames. One thing worth noting too is how they talk about how good at communicating our little girl was. She speaks her mind all the time and very clearly at that as they told us. The tutor read a very long list of how Sophia is but I won’t go into details anymore. Syempre, positive lahat.

Now, the best part is, we were also told that she had a perfect score on all her exams (Math and Reading) or what they call the long paper game. Whoa! Remember the time I was so worried as the exam was right after we got back from our HK trip? She was absent for a whole week! I was so guilty that I didn’t even bother to ask the teacher for their schedule before planning and booking a trip. But I guess, the cramming paid off, HAHA. We were given the test papers and am I one proud mommy!!! Perfect scores indeed! Her report card of course was such a sight.

Now, would you believe that we, Jon and I, as parents have our own report card too? Outrageous? Believe it, we do. It consists of our attendance to school programs, meetings, talks and what-nots. We even have our goals each quarter for the little girl to be updated in every tutorial chat we will be having. I find such funny but for some reason, I like the idea and so does the husband. So I now get it why other parents don’t like PAREF schools while other LOVE it. Different strokes for different folks, right? To some, PAREF schools borders on being “pakialamero” already as they try to go beyond the school premises and even wants to invade the home as they talk to parents what happens at home like our daily rituals, practices etc. On our part, with all honesty, we don’t mind.

Proud mommy here.

Sophia took this home yesterday.

Am I reading it right? I don’t need Lasik yet I’m sure though but its just hard to believe. My little girl is awarded for practicing “Respect”? Wow. I wonder how and why she was chosen among all her classmates. Will it be too much if I give the teacher a call and ask?

Halloween is just a month away and as early as now, I am already thinking of what Sophia will wear this year. I want to veer away from the usual Disney Princesses, animals or what you call the traditional costumes this time so I am thinking of something different. A wedding dress popped in mind, or a cheer leading outfit perhaps? Now I bet my little girl will look so good in a cheer leading uniform! With those chubby legs of hers? Ahhh!

So I searched for Cheerleading Apparel online to copy and I stumbled upon the modern, trendy and super stylish Cheerleading Uniforms at Campus Team Wear. And the good news is, they are very affordable which is why I am now thinking of just ordering online instead of having one made. It would mean less hassle on my part and I can even have everything coordinated as there are also available Cheerleading Shoes, Poms, Socks aside from the usual skirts and shirts uniform. Now, I am so excited. We are of course getting something in pink as my daughter, as you all know by now, adores this color.

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soap questions:
1. favorite soap: Dove and Safeguard.
2. facial soap: Now that I’m pregnant, I only use Dove.
3. body soap: Milk Bath.
4. intimate soap: Lactacyd.
5. laundy soap: Tide.
6. undies soap: Tide.
7. baby soap: Dove unscented too.
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9. favorite conditoner: Pantene.
10. baby shampoo: Johnsons Baby Shampoo.