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.

Our inaanak, Ashton, celebrated his 1st birthday last Sunday. The driver was out that day and Jon had to go somewhere first for something important (car matters again as I overheard him talk about car grilles with a friend over the phone) so I had to drive the kids all the way to QC for the party. Good thing it was a Sunday and traffic was bearable at SLEX. Jon just met us at the party venue and he gave me the surprise of a lifetime! Literally, my jaw dropped! Why? I think I have to keep it to myself this time.

Anyway, here are some party photos.

Mateo with the birthday boy

Me and the kids

The little boy snoozing

The kids

My long drive was worthit as Sophia was reunited with her best friend and both had the time of their lives participating in all the party games.  They took home most of the prizes too! My little boy, on the other hand, was such an angel again. Didn’t even cry even if we stayed past his bedtime already.

On the way home, we rode with the daddy as the driver came to pick up the car I used. Buti na lang.

This is the very reason why she is on a forced diet. Can you see how huge her tummy is? Way big and the daddy is pissed. I have been getting the blame all this time as I am the one who is with her 24/7. But what can a mother do? There is no way she’s taking some weight loss pills though as she is just too young for that. I’ve actually cut down on her rice intake but it seemed to have worked only in the beginning. Right now, she’s back to having a very big tummy again. At 4 yo, should I be concerned? Or is the daddy just over reacting? He is concerned as he said that having a weight problem is no joke and so is dieting. I think he’s speaking based from experience. LOL.

Seriously, I also don’t want Sophia to be on the heavy side. No offense meant to those who are and not that there’s anything wrong with being a little heavy,  it’s just merely my and Jon’s preference.  And I’m sure Sophia’s preference too when she’s a lot older.  So from now on, as the mom, I will be more vigilant on my daughter’s eating habits. Sorry but we gotta start them early, right? Wish me luck!

If there is ever a place we love visiting over and over again, I’d have to say its Hong Kong. Why? Well, aside from being a shopping haven, its also very convenient to go to because it only takes about an hour and a half or so via plane to reach. So we love going there all the time! I also love love the busy streets while my kids (well, my eldest actually) adore Disneyland, what else. So for the nth time for me and Jon, 5th time for Sophia and 1st time for Mateo, we trooped to the cosmopolitan centre where the East meets the West last August 28.

While it was freaking hot as its summer there, we still had a blast. My eldest won’t stop talking about her last Disneyland Adventure while my boy, at nine months, of course, doesn’t have a single clue where he was and what he was up to. I’m sure though that the mere fact he was with daddy, mommy and achie, it was more than enough for him to be happy.

Honestly, I was hesitant to go on with the trip as it’ll be my first time to travel with two kids if ever. I was thinking of postponing it until Mateo is atleast one. But we went ahead since my in laws were HK bound too. We boarded on different flights though. So what can I say about the trip? It wasn’t as hard as i thought! Not at all. In short, sisiw. My eldest is turning out to be a very good traveler at 4 yo while my little boy was such an angel. Now we are all geared up for a long haul flight!

I’ve posted all the pics at my flickr account while selected shots are also at facebook. All in all, the trip was stress free (to my surprise) and it was truly a great bonding experience again for our little family as with every trip we took over the last four years. Here are some of the photos but before that let me share how we evolved through the years with our every visit to Disneyland.

Past photos …

Our latest photos at the very same spots …

***I was just pregnant with Mateo in the 2008 picture and look how big a boy he is now with the latest photo. Ang bilis talaga ng panahon!!!

Anyway, on to more photos …

Breakfast with the Disney Characters

Sophia with her faves …

The kids at the hotel lobby …

It was indeed a happy trip. Never mind that Mateo’s two bottom teeth chose to come out while we were there so he didn’t like drinking milk (but would eat a lot of solids thank gawd), Sophia came home darker than ever because of too much time under the sun and we didn’t get to shop much (but we did check out some bluray laptops), it was still worth it.

The said to be best weight loss pills in town?

A friend noticed how I look thinner during our The Picture Company Photo Shoot the other day.  To my delight of course.

Anyway, speaking of the photo shoot, we had so much fun! Although Mateo didn’t want to smile and was so into his thumb sucking while his achi was very well in her element, pictures came out nice still IMO.  I love love them!  Already posted the pictures on my facebook and flickr account so I’ll just leave you with this family pic of ours where I looked really thin?!? Totoo??

My daughter had her Linggo ng Wika Costume Parade last Monday in school. Unlike last year where I had her dress personally made, the one she wore this year was a ready made one I bought at some department store. I was pressed for time so I had to make do with what was available on the shelves. She wore a Muslim costume which I think was a good buy, read cheap

With her bestfriend.

During the parade. Notice how uncomfortable she looks? Its because her boy classmate (who is very cute I must say, haha) is holding her hand. LOL! She kept looking at me the whole time!

Their class – JK-B with Teacher N and Teacher Y.

Her costume was a size 8 by the way which means its made for an 8 year old’s built. That’s how big my daughter is nowadays. Even if we have been cutting down her food intake lately, she has been putting on the pounds. Bad. The daddy is not happy at all and told me to do something. Well, I am clueless on what to do. I know for sure though that she can’t take diet pills yet. Haha. Should I cut down her milk intake then? What do you think?