With diabetes running in the family and with my mom the latest to be diagnosed with it. It helps to maintain a good diet to prevent being one. We try not to have too many sweets in the house, though we don’t deprive ourselves, we try to limit dessert intake. While googling diabetes on the internet, diabetic socks came up and it is supposed to help increase leg circulation and ease pain from swollen ankles and ulcers to help prevent nerve damage that can cause the feet to lose feeling. I wonder if my mom is supposed to start wearing these now? or is it better that she does? Have to remind her to ask her doctor about it.

Ichi’s cousin recently graduated from UP College of Law. It feels like it was just yesterday when she was preparing for the Law Aptitude Examination to apply for entrance to the college (similar to LSAT preps in the US), now she’s doing Bar Review in preparation for the Philippine Bar Examinations this September. The Bar Exam is held over four Sundays with each day having specific subjects for testing. Good luck Dy!

I survived term 1 hahaha! One term down and many many more to go. I must say that E has adjusted pretty well to school and he actually likes to go (well so far, I haven’t had any days where he has told me that he doesn’t want to). I think right now what stresses me more is planning and preparing his lunch everyday. You might say that’s the easy part but hey I’m no goddess in the kitchen. Need to search for more quick and easy lunch recipes.

On homework, he’s keen to do them. I’m glad that right now he doesn’t think of it as “work”. I’m also amazed at how quickly he learns. From not being able to read at the start of term to being able to go through a short book by himself, all that under two months of being in school. He does have a tendency of losing focus though (if only you can give him something similar to a project management software just to make sure he does what he needs haha) and the teacher recognized that so she sat him beside someone who’s really focused on doing the work in class.

Last week we did parent interview with his teacher and am glad that so far we’ve only heard good things. He’s performing according to the level that they are expected at this stage. And also happy to hear that he’s good in math, he’s among the top in his class in that area. So far we’ve adopted a “relaxed” attitude towards his studies but I know that at some point we do have to push him to excel. Ichi has already slightly hinted with him that he has to go to university. Here’s hoping that he will thrive in school.

E recently received his first play date invite. It’s from one of his best buds from school and he’s all excited to go and have a bit of play with his friend this Friday.  Now, I don’t know what the play date dos and donts are for parents but here’s to more play dates for E I guess we really are starting to settle huh?!!

The place we moved to now is along the main road and some of our “neighbors” are car dealership. This one is right beside our building.

One afternoon we went car window shopping from our balcony and these are what E chose:

this

and this

What do you think? :p

On my birthday, I wasn’t expecting any gifts since we’ve had a lot of expense the past months with a new baby and with E’s school. But when Ichi went to the mall purposely to get me a gift, I started to wonder what he’ll come up with. I was thinking that maybe he’ll buy me some blouses or perfume or if he’ll splurge maybe a wii since he knows that I want that esp with the games that whole family can enjoy. So what did I end up getting for my birthday? a Nintendo DS Lite, the special mario edition and E has been the one putting it to good use haha!

We’re now into the first week of February and I feel like January just flew past. So what happened in January?

• We celebrated E’s and my birthday
• We had to do house viewings on weekends with the kids in tow
• My mom went back to Pinas after spending 3 months here. Her luggage exceeded the luggage allowance with all the gifts for her friends and she had to send some back thru a balikbayan box.
• My in-laws flew in for their turn to visit mid-January
• Prepared all the things that E would need for Kindy

And now we’re in the midst of E’s first week in big school and packing all our stuff for the move into the new place.  Hopefully we’ll be settled into the new place and the new routine by next week.

In the year and half than we’ve been here in Sydney we’re already on our third house. The places that we’ve been renting all got sold (blame the additional bonus first home owners grant given by the government) so we had to move, that’s how lucky we’ve been. It is such a chose doing house viewings and the whole application process, good thing we managed to find a unit. Since we’re moving into the part of town that is nearer E’s school, our choices were mostly flats/units so one of the things we looked at was the wireless security systems that each of the complex had. Security is also good on the unit that we finally leased and another plus is the low number of units it has. Good luck to us on the new place.

After spending three months here my mum went back to Manila a couple of weeks ago. I’m really thankful that she came over to stay with us, aside from getting to spend time with her and she getting to spend time with the family, it was really a big help for me while recovering from giving birth. Thank you mumsy! mwah!

On the other hand, my in-laws are arriving here in Sydney tomorrow morning, so yey for me!! I definitely need help with the kiddos as we’re moving homes again (the life of a renter ). And with E starting kindy next month maybe I’ll get to have some hours to myself, maybe catch a movie or something.

Siobe is finally with us and have been really adjusting to the demands of having 2 bubs. Although in general E has been real good with the whole thing and loving his siobe to bits but he seems to be more prone to having tantrums now. I guess it is a real adjustment for him having to share his mummy and dadai time. Sometimes it just makes you go crazy especially with the barely few hours of sleep you get each day. Please book me a vacation please haha .. like looking at those puerto vallarta hotels online .. hopefully in a few more months we can some vacation time.