Happy happy birthday baby! Thank you for everything that you’re doing for us! We love you! (psst! huwag na magsungit ok?!!)

Last Saturday, we brought E to a trial class at My Gym. I was a little concerned with how he’ll do as this is the first class he’ll be attending but as it turns out he had fun. He did look a little confused at the start, trying to take everything in but he slowly loosened up and you can tell that he really liked his teachers. But the most fun he had was with the puppet fishes the teachers were using to signal the end of the class. He was really laughing out loud. Hopefully with this he can get used to attending a class for a specified time and learning to get along with other kids too. We did enroll him and next week he’s already looking forward to the stamps (on his hands) he’ll get after class.

Since we moved to Singapore last year and been remiss in being in touch with some family and friends, we decided to make a Christmas newsletter this year to let you guys know what’s been happening in our neck of the woods.

We started the year off with celebrating my birthday and E’s first birthday, both were simple and quiet celebrations. Although we did not have a big party for E as we initially planned, we had a very meaningful family celebration. E had his first taste of cake and he absolutely loved it. January was also the start of family coming over for a visit. We had tita bot, Ton and Adu that month, the in-laws in February, my brothers, aunt and mom in March and tita Bot, tita Bebs, uncle Lorenzo and family in April, and achi Mai in November. Good thing there are budget airlines nowadays. E has been enjoying these visits as he has more people to play with.

Read more »

… Ichi’s business trip to Indonesia pushed thru end of November, he was there for one week. The bad thing though was for most of the trip he suffered from diarrhea.

… We were over at R & Tin’s place last weekend to visit with them and see their cutie baby A. E was very happy playing with K (K & J’s lovely daughter) and the christmas tree which made us decide to finally buy a tree on the way home. E is very happy with his mamama (aka christmas tree), he even knows how to turn on the christmas lights. He even wants to open his gifts, I just hope that I can make him wait till christmas eve.

… Still have to complete our christmas shopping, there are still a few inaanaks to buy some gifts for and of course, Ichi and E. Will also be having a quiet christmas eve dinner at home with a few friends probably.

… On the video front, I thoroughly enjoyed watching My Girl and It Started With A Kiss (ISWAK), definitely recommended. I’m eagerly awaiting for the sequel of ISWAK which is said to be aired next year. I also watched Love Contract also starring Ariel Lin who is also the female lead of ISWAK, I liked the series for the most part but really hated the ending.

.. Want to watch : Silence, The Hospital, Love Is All Around, Super Rookie, Tokyo Juliet, Cloud Stairway (Cloud Stairs). Any more recommendations?

Yesterday while preparing to go out Ichi asked me where the hair brush was, I told him ethan is playing with it. So we asked little boy, "Ethan, where's the brush?" and itong si little boy dropped what he was doing and headed straight for where he put the brush. Ichi and I were so amazed, tawa kami ng tawa. I mean isang tanong lang namin kay little boy plus we weren't even sure he'd understand what we were asking him. This totally made my day yesterday.

polling day
It's polling day today in Singapore at least for those in the contested areas. It's actually the second time we're witnessing the elections, the first time was back in 2001 when we were here for our honeymoon.

E @ 16 mos
I can't believe it's been 16 months since I gave birth. Mabilis ba yun o mabagal, honestly minsan hindi ko na alam :p Ang daldal na ng anak ko and I still don't understand what he's babbling about. I'm sure may meaning naman lahat ng sinasabi niya wala lang talaga akong decoder. He says dada more then mama and is super excited when his dada comes home. When we go out (gala din itong si E at alam niya pag lalabas kami), he wants to walk on his own aba ayaw magpahawak. We also watch either hi-5 or barney vcds everyday (oo, walang katapusan!!!), ang nakakatuwa he would get the cd organizer and give it to me to open then he would choose which cd to play. And a couple of weeks ago he started imitating our actions na. Ang pinakagusto ko sa lahat is he's malambing, my mom always comments (whenever she sees us via webcam) na lagi daw naka-hug sa akin sana lang hanggang lumaki eh malambing pa din.

feeling down lately
I've been feeling kinda depressed lately, madalas akong wala sa mood, ewan ko I might just be tired coz ichi's been keeping long hours the past weeks.

kaaliw na photo
While blog hopping I came across this photo, check it out! What do you think?

hunt for the dress
We'll be flying home to Pinas in a month and a half's time for my brother-in-law's wedding. E will be a a bible bearer. Wala naman akong special role pero syempre kailangan maganda suot ko hahaha. So the hunt for the dress starts today!

The one thing that I noticed when we came back to Singapore was that all the malls now have baby care rooms. These are rooms that are separate from the toilets where you can change your baby’s nappies or to breastfeed. These are definitely better and more comfortable than the baby changing tables we usually see in the toilets.

left:baby room sign at suntec kidzone, right: baby care room at funan digitalife

There are also big baby care rooms in department stores, I’ve only been to the ones in Takashimaya and Seiyu. In the room, there will be a couple of stalls with curtains for mothers to breastfeed, hot water for the milk, a sink, and a number of mini changing stations. I also see a lot of dads come in to help change the nappies.

And good news for those in the Philippines, SM Megamall has opened a breastfeeding station.

I miss the times that we can just decide at the last minute to eat out or go watch a movie or meet up with friends. Times that we didn’t have to check our watches to see if we needed to be heading home or not (hmm… that was only eight months ago seems longer). Since I gave birth, our lifestyle has really changed, not that we were always out but these days we have to arrange for someone to babysit (Thank God for our families who agree to babysit ) before we can go out. Things have to be planned in advance. Don’t get me wrong we love being with our little boy and wouldn’t trade this for anything but we do need breaks every so often. I’m just happy that we have some sort of date nights now.

Last sunday (Aug. 28) was Ichi’s birthday, to celebrate we went to tagaytay with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. It was also Ethan’s first out of town trip.We started out late and ended up eating our lunch (our home-cooked spaghetti baon since we initially planned to go to Picnic Grove) at the Petron station at the SLEX. We also ordered fishballs, squidballs and crab nuggets at one of the stalls there. yummy!

After lunch we decided to go to Taal Vista Hotel (parking is P100/hr unless you eat at the cafe). When we arrived at the hotel it started to drizzle, good thing it didn’t last long and we were able to go out back and take pictures.

We had coffee at starbucks after. While we were enjoying our coffee and chatting away, little Ethan was happily sleeping in his dada’s arms without a care in the world. My other brother-in-law and his fiancee were supposed to join us but at the last minute were not able to. We just decided to leave for manila early (it was starting to pour) and meet up with them and father-in-law for a tummy filling dinner.