Daily Message

On this day of your life, we believe God wants you to know...
... that what you are most afraid of is where your greatest rewards are.

If all you had to do was wish for something and you would have it, life would be pretty boring, wouldn't it? God placed barriers between us and what we want, so we can enjoy interesting and satisfying lives. God hid our biggest rewards behind the highest barriers - our deepest fears. God wants us to face our fears, and hold ground in their presence, and let them go, and that's how we get out biggest rewards. What are you most afraid of? Say it, just start by saying it.

On cars

My daughter will be going to school five times a week this coming June and my parents will be taking her to school everyday. Her school does not provide school service for their students so we have no choice but to leave our car with my parents so they have something to use to take Bela to school everyday. This means that Howell and I will have no car starting June and we have to commute to and from work everyday. So we have been thinking to buy a second car that we can use while we leave our first car for Bela’s use.

Car for us is more of a need than a luxury. We find it very convenient to have a car especially we have a toddler since it makes it very easy and very convenient for us to go to different places. That is the reason why we bought a Used Kia four years ago. I got pregnant and a brand new car is something that we can’t afford that time and so we just decided to buy a second hand car since we really find the need for a car for our convenience.

We initially wanted a brand new car but then I found the site of Autotropolis.com. From their site, I was able to look at different car models and car brands that we are considering like Kia, Ford, Toyota and Mitsubishi. Their site almost has a million of cars listed so we were really given lot choices to choose from and we can even search by price range so it is very easy for us to search for a car that we want base on our budget. What I like about their site is they even provide Car reviews so we get to learn more about the car that we are considering, its strengths and its cons, which can really help us make our decisions. And the best thing about their site is that they provide incentives like Kia Rebates which can give us big discounts.

I got so excited after checking out their site as it even provide pictures of the cars ,that I immediately requested for an online quote. We still have a lot of time before June but my husband and I really wanted to prepare for it and hopefully we get to buy our second car soon.

Conversations with Bela

We were on our way home from Macapagal last Sunday. We are approaching a bridge and my 8 year old cousin tried to play with Bela:

Aliah: Bela, look a slide, a slide (referring to the bridge). Raise your hands…Weeehhh

Bela: It’s not a slide. It’s called a bridge.

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We were calling her because she needs to have her sponge bath and change her nappy.

Mom: Bela, you need to wash.
Bela: No mom. It’s ok.

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She was playing with her animal toys inside the car and she dropped one.

Bela: Where’s the other one Wowa?

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On our way home from her school, her lolo was listening to the AM station

Bela: Wowo, music please. Move it, move it (Referring to the music from Madagascar’s OST “I like to move tit, move it”)

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Bela noticed that her school ID is missing

Bela: Wowa, wowa my ID is missing.

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If you asked her where your mom and dad is, she would answer:

Bela: In the office.

Sometimes we don’t know where she learned all this. I guess letting her watch educational shows and DVDs helped also and since I am one talkative person, I always try to make a conversation with her like a grown up so maybe she must have picked up some of our lines and use it herself. That is why we are so careful when taking in front of her because she easily picks up whatever she hears from us.

Internet For My Sister

My sister is having a hard time dealing with her major subjects now. As far as I can see, she really needs help in order to pass her subjects. Other than that, I think she also needs different references to broaden her knowledge about programming.

Because of this, I thought that I should buy her some books which can help her in her studies. I also suggested that she must also apply for an internet connection at their house so she can able to research easily about her assignments regarding programming languages. She got interested with my opinion that’s why she immediately asked my brother’s help to take charge in applying the internet and luckily, my brother agreed and he started inquiring in the different networks.

My sister got really excited and she started arranging their desktop computer as well as her laptop. She even planned to buy CAT5e cable so that they will be able to have multiple connections.

I just hope that this will be a big help for my sister. Good luck for her!

Not Sleeping here today

Bela is not sleeping with us tonight. We went to her lola’s house before going home as we can’t find the key to our house. So we stayed there while waiting for lola to look for their duplicate of our key.
While waiting, Bela saw her tita’s PSP and have asked her tita to play with her. And then she got really engross with playing that she asked me for her milk and blanket which is a sign that she wants to sleep there.

So our little girl is not with us tonight. This would be a great time for me and Howell to watch our favorite movie or maybe I can just blog.

Oh NO!! –A late sleeper again

Since I was sick last Friday to Sunday, we decided to let Bela sleep at her lola’s house so she won’t catch my virus. During her first night there, she slept at around 12 AM. Maybe it’s because she’s adjusting to the new environment so she finds it difficult to fall asleep. The next day, she slept around 1 AM, as she was so busy playing PSP with her Tita Veejay and Tito Jp.

On the third day, I decided not to let her sleep at her lola’s house as her sleeping habit has changed since she slept there. And I don’t want her to get used to sleeping late since she will start to go to school this summer. She didn’t sleep the whole day come Sunday and so she fell asleep around 8 PM. But then she woke up at 8:30 PM and started to cry and she was saying “wowa, wowa” (lola, lola). Of course the dad gave in to his daughter’s whims and let her sleep at her lola’s house again. And guess what, she went to bed at 1:30 AM na daw according to my mom.

This is bad. I hope she’ll get back to her old sleeping schedule now that she’s back in our house.

Another Sunday

My mom decided not to go to Bulacan last Sunday so we we’re able to attend Bela's class at Little Gym. And I was glad with their decision since we just prefer to attend Bela’s class and just go home early after so we can still have the time to rest before another week starts.

I really love it every time we attend Bela’s class since Bela is really more comfortable now in the gym. And I can really say that she loves Teacher Clara better than Teacher PJ since she always approach Teacher Clara and always obeys what teacher Clara ask her to do. Like when Teacher Clara is doing a demo of the monkey jump, Bela approached Teacher Clara while raising her hands (signaling to Teacher Clara that she wants to do the trick with her). And Teacher Clara would give in to Bela’s request and will guide Bela on how to do the monkey jump. And that’s what I like with Teacher Clara. She really spend time to talk to her students and spend time with each one of them to get to know them better and at the same time making the students more comfortable with her also.

.: Giving Teacher Clara “five” :.

.: Bela, asking Teacher Clara to do the skill with her :.

.: Doing the monkey jump with Teacher Clara :.

.: Doing the monkey jump with Mom :.

After having lunch at Conti’s in Connecticut, we went home to fetch my two cousins since we will be accompanying them to Eternal Gardens to visit their Nanay Vicky. It’s my Tita Vicky’s birthday last January 16 and her death anniversary also.

Bela had a great time playing in the grass with her helicopters. She even had fun calling the cat that was roaming around the area. We had a few bites of pizza and we went home around 5:30 since it’s beginning to get dark already.

.: Busy playing with her toys :.

.: Bela calling the cat :.

.: Pointing the cat to her dad :.

.: “Cat, Cat, come here!!” :.

Bela’s Saturday

We’re supposed to go to the Enopi Center in Caloocan to check out their Reading Lab program that they offer for toddlers 2 years old and up. But I just found out when I called Teacher Badeth yesterday that they don’t have a Reading Lab schedule on weekends. We also got lazy to do a make up class at Little Gym for Bela’s absence last Sunday.

And so we just decided to bring Bela to her pediatrician for her last scheduled immunization. Bela fell asleep on our way to Chinese General and so when it was her turn to be check by Dr. Sebastian, she got a little cranky and started to cry when Dr. Sebastian asked her to open her mouth so she can check her throat. And she continued crying when Dra gave Bela her typhoid shot. She only stopped crying when Dr. Sebastian gave her a lollipop.

This is Bela’s last immunization. We just have to go back either first week or middle of March for her annual flu shot and then we just need to go back when Bela turns 4 for her MMR2 and booster.

We’re still not decided yet if we will go with my family to Bulacan tomorrow or just attend Bela’s class at Little Gym. Howell and I are still too lazy for any activity. We’ll see tomorrow.

She really loves to sing

Singing is really one of Bela’s favorite past time. Just this afternoon, we played with her V-Smile TV Learning system. There is a game there called Alphabet Park where you can select a song from their song lists (I think there are 5-6 songs included) using the microphone attached to the V-smile TV learning system.

One of Bela’s favorite is the Alphabet song and I was able to record on video, using my phone’s camera, while she was singing the alphabet song. I was really proud to say that she already knows most of the letters of the alphabet.

What Bela and I did the whole afternoon

I woke up early as I was excited to check if there were opps waiting for me. Bela slept until 8:30 AM so I was able to blog for 1.5 hours. When she woke up, she greeted me with her beautiful smile, asked me to carry her and gave me a nice big hug.

We went down to have breakfast. Yaya Cris prepared carbonara for breakfast. It is Bela’s favorite and boy she ate a lot. After breakfast, she said “Wum, watch.” When I asked her what she wants to watch, she said “Cars.” So we watched the movie Cars together.

I then had lunch, while Bela fell asleep. I was able to blog again while she was sleeping. When she woke up, we played with her V smile TV learning system and her favorite game is the Alphabet Park where she can sing different songs and play a game where she needs to identify the different letters, shapes and colors.

We just played some more with her toys inside the house and she requested to watch Toy Story this time. After Toy Story, she still wants to watch Ice Age so I watch it also with her. After the whole afternoon together, I was able to make a list of the different DVDs that I will be bringing for our Bohol trip to keep her busy specially during our flight.

We’re now here in our room. Bela is playing with her little touch leappad with her dad. She just finished her 3rd bottle of milk. She’s a little sleepy now and I’m sure in just a couple of minutes, she will be sleeping like a log.

I’ll be back to work tomorrow. For sure I will miss my baby terribly after being at home for 2 days now.

Her appetite is back

Her appetite is really back after having coughs and colds for several days now. She just had a plate full of carbonara. This is her favorite, next to pansit. She also ate a plate carbonara this morning and was able to finish 2 bottles of milk already.

Hopefully, she continues to eat this way so she will gain weight again. We might go to her pediatrician this Saturday for her immunization so hopefully she already gained back the 1 lb that she lost last week.

Choo Choo

She really knows how to play on her own now.

This was in one of the toy stores in Rockwell. After seeing the trains, she immediately played with it. She didn’t even want to leave the toy store.

She has a Thomas & Friends train set but we kept it in storage already as it occupies a lot of space in our living room. Maybe, it’s time to bring it out of storage again.

Bela and the Bears

Happy 2008 everyone!! I was not able to go online for the past two days as we’re busy with a lot of stuffs. So I’ll be flooding my blog with some updates.

Decemeber 30

My cousin Tessa texted me and invited us to Rockwell since she got 8 free tickets at Power Bowl. Bowling is one of my hubby’s and my cousin’s favorites past time and so we hurriedly said yes with my cousin’s invitation.

We had to wait for Howell as he had another pre-nup shoot that morning. We left as soon as he arrived. When we entered the mall, we immediately saw the big Christmas tree and the fireplace, which is really perfect for a photo opp. Below are some of our pictures:

.: us by the big xmas tree :.

.: by the fire place :.

.: bela with tita tessa, tita vj, tito joseph and mom :.

.: bela on santa's chair :.

We then checked out the stores. I went to Baby & Co to buy some new nipples for Bela (butas na halos lahat ng bottle nipples nya at pinanggigigilan nya). I also bought a new drinking bottle for her kse tumatapon lagi sa bag yung Avent Sippy Cup nya. I was also checking some nice potty trainer for Bela (the one with sound effects) from Safety 1st, I think. She already has a simple potty trainer, which we received as a gift during her christening but she doesn’t want to sit on it. So I would like to look for something nicer to encourage her to try it and sit on it so we can start potty training her. It was a little pricey (but it was 10% off) but I decided to buy it next week na lang para new cut off na ng credit card ko.

We also went to a Different Bookstore and Howell found the perfect birthday gift that he asked from Bela and me: The Sports Illustrated Gift Set.

.: Our bday gift for Dad :.

My cousin then brought us to where the Polar Bears are so we can take a picture of Bela there. My cousin was a bit worried for Bela because according to her, the Polar Bears are really life size so Bela might get scared. But as soon as Bela sees the bear, she immediately played with them. She didn’t get scared even one tiny bit as she was hugging and kissing the bears. We even have a hard time asking Bela to leave as she doesn’t want to leave the bears.Here are some of Bela’s pictures with the Bears:

.: giving the big bear a hug :.

.: bela kissing the bear :.

After Bela’s pictorial with the bears we decided to go to Power Bowl. But guess what, they are close pala for their Christmas party…hehehe. So we decided to just have dinner and then went home after that.

Our weekend after Christmas

Last Saturday, we’re supposed to attend the free Christmas camp at the Little Gym at 10 Am but since Howell accepted a pre-nup shoot in the afternoon, we both got lazy to wake up early to attend the camp. Howell’s shoot will be at the Global Fun Carnival and so he’s asking us to go with him. But being yaya less, I can already imagine Bela tirelessly running around and I would be following her. So I thought it would just be one tiring day if we join Howell, so we just decided to stay at home and played with her new V smile-TV system.

Sunday, Howell has another pre-nup shoot again for their wedding on January 18. He left around 9 AM for the shoot and so we have to get up early. When he arrived, we immediately left to go to Rockwell. We had a nice photo shoot there as there are a lot of spots perfect for photo opps. I’ll have a separate kwento about this when I’m finished downloading all our pictures so I can post my kwento together with the pictures.

I checked some paid blogging sites and I only have one opps today. But that’s ok as I'm already sleepy and I still have to go to work tomorrow (tindi ng office ko noh?..LOL). So, good night everyone. Have to hit the sack now.

Bela, our sweet little princess

I was talking to Bela before we went to sleep last night:

Mom: Bela, you didn’t listen to mom while we are at the church. I told you to stop running because you already fell down twice and I’m scared that you might get hurt but you wouldn’t listen. I hope next time you will listen to mom. Ok?

Bela looked at me in the eye then hugged me.

Mom: Mom loves you so much. I just don’t want you to get hurt that’s why I was asking you to stop running

Bela: She kissed me twice on my lips and then she said “vav you” (I love you)

I was really touched. Kaya kahit napagod ako kakahabol sa kanya sa church, nawala talaga pagod ko. She’s really one sweet and smart girl.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I was on leave from Tuesday to Wednesday to take care of Howell while he’s at the hospital. He was discharge Wednesday after lunch, but I decided not to report to work Thursday. Tinamad ako after 2 days off from work. Then Howell needs to go to his office to sign some papers for his US Training. So we asked my dad to drive us to Howell’s office then to SM so we can buy our Christmas tree.

We got our Christmas tree at 20% off. We have long been planning to buy a Christmas tree for our house. Noong first Christmas namin ni Howell as husband and wife, di kami nakabili kse I gave birth November, kaya super busy na kami before Christmas. Last year na busy naman sa birthday ni Bela. Ngayong year, busy pa din but we really wanted to buy a Christmas tree for our house kse sila Bela ayaw hiwalayan yung Christmas tree sa Little Gym…hehehe

So kahit bagong opera pa si Howell, he excitedly assembled our tree right after we arrive home. Our motif is Gold. We bought some decors sa SM (some are 20% off din), and I bought additional decors sa Divisoria the next day.

And here is how our Christmas tree looks like:

.: With the lights off :.

.: Lights on this time :.