Bela's First Real Haircut

A few weeks ago, Bela had her first real hair cut. Her lola was the one who cut Bela’s hair when she was two years old and she hasn’t been to a real kiddie salon. So it as been two years already since her last hair cut so you can just imagine, how long her hair is.

Her lola doesn’t like Bela to have a hair cut since she thinks that it will be more difficult to manage if it were shorter. But since Bela is getting rashes all over her face and body, her lola finally agreed for Bela to have a haircut.

Howell was actually working that weekend, and so my sister, yaya, Bela and I just took a cab going to Robinson’s place. We first went to Guess to exchange the leggings that I bought for her which was kind of short and the other leggings which don’t go well with the blouse that I bought. After shopping for Bela’s clothes, we went to SM Manila since there is no kiddie salon in Robinson’s Place.



Bela actually was excited for her first hair cut because I told her that she will get to sit in a car chair and watch while she is having her haircut. She was actually behave and the only time the hair dresser had difficulty was when she was already blow drying Bela’s hair because Bela won’t stop laughing because she said that it was ticklish.

I love Bela’s hair cut now. She looks a lot younger…

Ate Bela

And so I thought I will need the best appetite suppressant because I am now 116 lbs but I guess I have to hold off my diet for at least nine months because Bela will become an Ate soon. Yes, I am so happy to announce that I am now pregnant with our second child.

Of course Howell and Bela are the most excited to receive the good news. I guess they are both hoping for a baby boy as they always refer to the baby in my tummy as “baby brother.”

When I arrived home from my checkup, Bela said “Did the doctor check the baby in your tummy?” and she kissed my tummy after that. I am sure Bela will be the sweetest ate to her sibling. I can’t wait for the time where I can see the two of them playing together. That would really be a site to behold.

Her Own Laptop

Bela has a computer class at MSS. She told me that they are playing games in the computer like coloring, alphabets, sorting, etc. That is why every time she sees us in front of the computer, she will always try to convince us to go to the Disney channel site so she can play her favorite games and watch her favorite Disney characters also.

This is good as she is showing signs of interest in the field that I and my husband is into and at least she is playing with educational games so she is learning the same time she is having fun. But sometimes, I have to work with my laptop also as I need to finish a lot of tasks so I sometimes get delayed if I need to share my laptop with her.

Now that her birthday is coming up, hubby and I are thinking if I should upgrade my laptop and give my old laptop to her. We used to ask our friends in the US to buy our gadgets at circuit city but now that it is close already, our friends suggested that we check out buy.com. And we were surprised to find out that their rates are really cheaper and they sometimes even offer free shipping.

I have to check our budget, and who knows we might afford a new laptop so Bela can have my old laptop all to herself.

Halloween @ MSS

Last October 22 was Bela’s Halloween Party at MSS. They did a costume parade while dancing to the tune of “Nobody, nobody but you.” I was so sad because I was not able to watch her perform since I can’t take another leave that week since I just took an emergency leave a week before that when I took Bela to the doctor when she got sick.

Good thing hubby was able to take a leave and so she was able to capture it in photos while my mom was able to take a video also. It was so entertaining watching Bela perform as she has no stage fright. She was dancing energetically and her teacher have to ask her to go down since it looks like she has no plans of going down the stage. LOL.

Here are some pictures:


Her gown by the way was made by Prim. This will be her ballerina dress that she will wear on her birthday. I just added wings so she will look like a fairy ballerina. LOL. You can view more pictures here.

Bela @ SG Zoo - a snapshot

Don’t I look fat in this picture and looks like I will need the best weight loss pills? But anyway, I still opted to post it in my Flickr account as this is one of the pictures where you can see that Bela did had fun while we were in Singapore.

Last year when we watched the Elephants at Work and at play show, Bela was already so tired that she was already throwing tantrums and did not really enjoyed the show. But this time, even though she did not take a nap, she watched the show with so much excitement and enthusiasm. It was a thirty minutes show and she did not even get bored for even one bit.

After the show, there was an elephant feeding program where for SGD $ 5, you will be given a basket of fruits to be fed to the elephants. I thought Bela will be so tired for this but she was still all game when I asked her if she wants to feed the elephants.

I still have to make one official post of our SG and KL trip but for the meantime, you can check out pictures for our two days in Singapore here.

Bela @ SG

We are now here in Kuala Lumpur and my conference will start tomorrow. I know I still have to look for life insurance quotes as we have to renew ours, but I can’t wait to post some pictures of our two days in Singapore.

We decided to go to Singapore as we know that Bela will have a great time there as she just loves animals. We only have few leaves left so we only have two days to spend in Singapore. Since this trip is really for Bela, our IT was just to visit the places where she will really have fun.

Since this is our second time in Singapore, Bela was familiar with the places that she can visit so she was the one making decision on where to go first. We first visited the Jurong Bird Park since we were not able to check it out last time and I am sure Bela’s favorites were:

Her close encounter with the parrots at the Children’s Parrot Show

Her photo op experience with the owl.

Her play time with the free flying birds at the Lory Loft.

Then the next day, we went to Singapore zoo. The highlights of our trip there are:

Her elephant ride.

The very wet kiss that she got from Carlos, the sea lion.

And she was able to feed the elephants.

Bela did not the sleep the whole day during those trips but she was so energetic. She was really in heaven and she kept on kissing us because she really had fun.

Bela @ 4

Two days before we leave for Singapore, Howell was finally able to finish Bela’s invitation for her birthday party. And the day before we left, hubby was able to send it to the photo center to have it printed. I wanted to have it printed before we leave since we will be back a week before her party already so we might not have time to distribute the invites. Also, since it is a long weekend and All Soul’s day, most of our relatives might be coming to my lola’s house so my mom can give out the invites.

So this is the invites that Howell was able to finish in just two days:


I was surprised that he was even able to make four different layouts. He used our pictures during our Europe trip for the background since Little Einsteins also went to Europe for an adventure. The pictures of Bela were taken during her Halloween Party at her school taken by her dad.

Hopefully, we will still have time when we arrive to give out the invites before her party.

School Hunt: STC and St. Scho

I can’t believe that time really fly so fast. Next year, Bela will already be an incoming Kinder student so this means that it is time for another school hunting once again for me. I can’t believe that big schools start their admissions early. I started calling them last month and I really panicked since most of the schools have already set their deadline for accepting enrollees at the end of that month. And even though our insurance will be expiring soon and I have to look for term life insurance rates, I put my search on hold to start preparing the requirements needed for Bela’s application to the different schools that we are considering.

I initially wanted to consider schools in the Makati area but after listening to my friend’s advice, I realized that it will be difficult for Bela to wake up early to travel to Makati everyday. So I narrowed my search to big schools in Quezon City and Manila area.

Out of all the schools that I considered, I got good reviews for St. Theresa’s College in Quezon City and St. Scholastica’s College. Bela already had her interview at STC last October 12. I was really praying the whole time she was inside the Guidance Counselor’s room as I know Bela can be really stubborn at times. LOL. She will not answer you if you ask her a question if she doesn’t want to and since she has a fever that day, I am really scared that she might throw tantrums.

But I was really surprised since the interview only lasted for 15 minutes or so. The Guidance Counselor said that Bela already knows a lot of things and she is really fluent in English. When I asked Bela what she did inside, she said that her new teacher asked her to work on alphabets, numbers, shapes and color. We already paid our reservation fee so Bela is secured of her slot at STC.

We also got an application form at St. Scholastica’s. We have completed all of their requirements but we haven’t submitted it yet. Actually, I really like STC already. It is near our place (just 15 minutes drive), I love the environment as it is inside the villages in QC so it is really quite and safe unlike St. Scho and I received consistent positive feedbacks about STC. So I am still thinking if we will still pursue our application with St. Scho or not. But we’ll see. At least her slot at STC is already secured so I am sure that Bela has a big school to attend to next year. LOL.

Bela's Travel Plans

Ever since we got our 10-year multiple entry US visas, I have always dream of taking Bela to one of those orlando vacations. But I would rather do that when I have my training in Canada so my airfare is covered and then we will just do a side trip to the US. Hubby’s friend lives in Florida and they have been inviting us already to come and visit them in Florida. Hubby’s friend said that Bela will really go crazy when she sees how big Disneyworld is. Imagine, you need a week to explore all the areas in the theme park. I am sure Bela will really be happy to be in the happiest place on earth – Disneyland, as she spends more than a day with her favorite Disney characters.

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy is one of her favorites right now. Howell bought different Mickey Mouse figure collection when we went to Hong Kong Disneyland and she also have the whole Mickey Mouse figures that we got from Disney Store in Paris and Bela just loves playing with them. She would even take it with her everywhere she goes. I guess, this was influenced by the Mickey mouse movie series that Howell bought also for her. Is it obvious how daddy’s girl she is? LOL.

Etc, Etc

Bela is already on her semestral break. She will be off from school from October 23 up to November 3. So while she is on a break from school, it will be the perfect opportunity to bring our car for maintenance.

You see, it is already due for change oil but since my dad’s van is still in the car shop, they have been using our car to take Bela to school everyday. And during weekends, we can’t send it to the shop too as we also need our car because Bela also has to go to school on Saturdays and Sundays is for our errands.

This reminds me that we also need to look for car and rv insurance as ours is already due for renewal. Hopefully, all the things that we need to do for our car will be taken cared of before Bela goes back to school on November 4. And since hubby and I will be going on a trip next week up to the first week of November, we will have to rely on our dad (as always) to finish all of this for us. LOL.

Loots for Bela's 4th Bday Party

I have been doing some shopping lately to prepare for Bela’s party. You see, I have to do it in batches as I can’t afford to buy one big bulk in one shopping.

Here are the loots that I bought for the games prizes both for Bela’s party at school and our party for our close friends and relatives at Jollibee in Blue Wave Macapagal.

1. The wooden pencils I bougth when we went to Dapitan Arcade but I saw these items also in Divisoria and they are even cheaper there (like P7 cheaper than the price that I got in Dapitan arcade).
2. The Disney giant pens, erasers, stickers and small body bag are all from Divisoria mall. My friend asked me to accompany her to buy toys too for the party of her daughter and so I was able to do some shopping of my own. The items are really cheap and the price range is only from P7- P15.
3. Cars and strawberry shortcake LCD watch from my online shopping.
4. Little Einsteins items like party hats, yoyos, blowers, coloring books with crayons, kaleidoscopes, and stickers all from online shopping also.
5. Little Einsteins CDs bought on sale at SM.
6. Play Doh from Toys R’ Us.

And since I can’t find any Little Einsteins balloons, I just bougth this Mickey Mouse rocket balloon from the site that my kumareng Peachy referred to me. I was able to talk to a balloon seller in Divisoria and they will arrange the balloons at the venue with Balloon Burst for only P1200.

Investment in the Time of Crisis

I was trying to withdraw money from my Paypal account and I was really saddened by how the value of dollar has dropped. I know I should be happy because this means that the value of peso is getting strong but for a dollar earner like me, this is bad news.

My dad said that the value of dollar will continue drop because of the financial crisis. This got me into thinking of better ways to invest our money so I did some research and discovered that in this time of economic crisis, the best investment would be to invest in gold.

Since gold is universally accepted, it can easily be bought and sold. It doesn’t depreciate in time also which makes it resale value even higher. My friend is into gold investment and she referred me to the site of Monex. Monex have professional staff which can help me get the best value in the market.

In this time of crisis, I guess it is the best time to check our investment options to save up for the future of our daughter.

Relief Giving Program of MSS @ Malabon

Last Saturday, we joined MSS (Bela’s school) in their relief giving program for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy in Malabon.

The directress of the school together with her staff decided to just have a simple Costume Party this year. They initially asked the kids to come in costumes depending on the theme assigned to their class but instead they will just asked the kids to wear whatever available costume they like and they will not have any party at all. So the cost of buying the costumes can just be given as donations so the school staff can buy goodies for the victims.

Last Friday, they even had a video presentation of the effects of the typhoon so the kids were really made aware of the unfortunate things that happened to the victims of the typhoon. After the video presentation, the kids even helped in packing the goods.

We were asked to be at school at 8:45 AM as they will leave at exactly 9 AM for Malabon. (Since I slept late the night before, my dark under eye circles are really obvious. LOL). We left with Mommy Emmie (MSS’s directress) and with the other teachers. Most of the staff is already at the venue preparing ahead of us.

When we reached the church, there is already a long line of the people waiting for their goodies. It was raining hard the night before and even early Saturday morning so it was just us who were able to join the activity. Bela helped Teacher Sarah and the other Teachers in giving out cookies and sardines while I helped Mommy Emmie and Teacher Haidee in giving out the pail loots. Of course, hubby took pictures.

All of the people who lined up were really thankful for the help that they received from MSS and I am really thankful too that Howell, Bela, my mom and I were able to join them for this great cause.

You can view more pictures here.