This is a new blog we set up at wordpress.com. Hopefully this signals the start of more blogging from me and I even roped in ichi to blog too!

OUR FIRST FLIGHT WITH LITTLE BOY
We were taking a Tiger Airways flight at Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga so my brother suggested to my mom that instead of driving us to Clark on Sunday why not just go there a day ahead and spend the night. We stayed at Fontana courtesy of Auntie S. I didn’t know how E would be on the flight so from the start I had planned that he should wake up early that day and not to have him nap until near our flight. The good thing is he “cooperated” with it, hehe. I did have the help of my family, of course this being the last hours before we leave for Singapore that all of them wanted their time with E. My in-laws even made the trip to Fontana to see us off. As soon as we took off, E fell asleep and he stayed that way for 2/3 of the flight. When he woke up he was happy to play with the seat buttons for a bit but soon started to get irritated with the small space that was alloted him. Good thing we were nearing Singapore already and his dada managed to keep him occupied.

24/7 with Ethan
These past days have the longest since I gave birth to E that I’ve been with him 24/7, although I didn’t have a yaya in Pinas I did have the help of my mom and brothers at home and my in-laws when we needed to go out or take care of things. Now, I don’t have anyone to leave him with when I’m doing chores. Good thing I’m not OC or I’m going to go crazy with all the things that have to be put off or all the things that don’t get done right away, not that I’m complaining because this is the path that we chose.

FIRST TRIP TO THE CITY TO MEET WITH DADA
We took the bus and mrt to go and meet Ichi. It was my first time to commute from the place we’re staying at and with little boy at that. First I had to take a bus to the mrt station, I almost missed my stop it was only when I noticed that a lot of people were gonna alight that I noticed the mrt station (kung saan-saan kasi naka-tingin hehehe). Once we were on the train, little boy fell asleep, even when I transfered trains got to our destination he was still asleep so I had to look for a place to sit down at the mall that I was meeting Ichi. I had to circle three floors to spot a bench. By the time we met with Ichi, Ethan was awake and ready to see the sights of … Carrefour.

MY FIRST REAL SCARE AS A MOM
Yesterday while we were playing on the bed Ethan fell backwards so instinctively I grabbed his arm and pulled him which resulted in hurting his arm. I was really afraid that it will result in a fracture or something especially when he cried for a full 5 minutes. When he finally stopped, I quickly examined him to check what hurt and as I touched his right arm he cried again. I’m not a panicky type of person but I guess it really is different when it comes to your child. I was already imagining all sorts of scenario, it took me a couple of minutes to remember to calm down and just assess the situation. After Ethan had calmed down and I was trying to get him to grab things with his right arm but he wasn’t and again when I touch his arm he sort of whimpers so finally I called his dada who told me to already bring him to the hospital the nearest of which is Changi General Hospital. So off we went to the A&E (accident & emergency) section. At the registration a nurse checked him out and based on her initial observations ruled out anything major like fractures (a little sigh of relief here), she said that it might be the elbow since he can move his fingers and grab things just that he cannot raise his arms. So she got initial information and gave us a number to wait to see the doctor. A few minutes later, she was calling us to go to the doctor’s room. After recounting what happened, the doctor examined his arm and basically told me the same thing as the nurse, no possibility of fracture since he didn’t fall on the floor (a fact which escaped me, panic remember?!). The verdict? an extended elbow seems we pulled it when I grabbed his arm. The doctor put back the elbow (I don’t know the term) and ask me to wait in the waiting area and come back when Ethan moves his arm which in his estimation would take about 15 minutes. It took no more than 5 minutes for Ethan to start moving his arms, I gave him things to grab and waited a few more minutes to see if this would keep up before returning to the doctor who also gave his test and sent us home. No medications or anything to take. Thank God! After reporting the good news to Ichi, we went home and as soon as we entered the house Ethan was already back to his old self.

Oh and did I mention that all these things happened in less than a week! Welcome to Singapore! :p

One more night until we see ichi again. For those who don’t know, he’s in Singapore since Nov. 3 and this friday he’ll be flying in. We’ll be leaving with him on Sunday. And this weekend promises to be a crazy one. With lots of last minute things to do and spending time with friends and family (not that we’re complaining spending time with them) I’m sure we won’t get that much sleep. Oh well, bawi na lang pagdating sa sing.

For my mom’s birthday (Oct. 17) we went to Steak MD on Tomas Morato for dinner. Now, my mom loves Hot Rocks (in libis), they frequent the place so much that the waitress already knows their orders. I think my mom was a bit hesitant to try Steak MD but since we insisted that we try it she relented. What’s different with Steak MD is they let you choose the sauce they put on your steak (from gravy to hot to super hot). Funny lang when the waitress, after getting our orders, came back and told us that some of the steaks ordered were not available, man your main product is steak and here you are out of them? Well, maybe it was just an oversight on the store managers part or something but I do hope that it was just a one time thing. Which one did my mom like better? Hot Rocks pa rin daw siya. :p If you were to ask me, if you like your steaks with sauce go for Steak MD, if not Hot Rocks it is.After dinner we went to Chocolate Kiss (on A. Roces) for desserts. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about this place so I was really keen on trying it out. I ordered the Chocolate Chip cheesecake but regretted it after the first bite that I felt that the restaurant’s over hyped. The sansrival’s the best though so maybe I just ordered the wrong thing.

Sansrival	Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Iced Cappucino	Kahlua Buttercake

My mom’s best friend and my mom both have their birthdays in October. Auntie Shirley on the 16th and my mom on the 17th. This year Auntie Shirley had her birthday treat at Brazilian BBQ at the Powerplant Mall. It’s a buffet/eat-all-you can bbq restaurant. You can opt to try the dishes they have at the buffet or feast on what comes off the grill. What’s different about this restaurant is that they give you a yoyo, one side is colored green and the other red. When you want to be served the bbq just show the green side and the waiters who roam around each carrying different items from the grill will come to your table and serve you. Once you show the red side, they’ll stop. We were all so full, we loved the sausages and pineapple. The down side though is the price, I think it comes to about P700 per person with the taxes.

Finally got to blog again. Been busy lately with a lot of stuff. One thing crossed off on my to-do list is Ethan’s & Fritz’s passports, we will be getting it tomorrow. I’ve been bugging Ichi to have E’s picture taken for his passport for a couple of months now but it wasn’t until we accepted the singapore job that we had to rush E’s passport. This is his passport picture, isn’t he so adorable? [Side note: a lot of people that have seen this pic commented that he doesn’t look like he’s just 9 months old kasi raw kung tumingin akala mo older na.] With Fritz’s passport we had to renew it (despite it not being expired) because a few years back I accidentally broke the laminate when I was slipping the passport out of its plastic holder (the ones the travel agencies give you) and as we did not want to have problems regarding the broken laminate we decided to have it renewed. Prior to this I’ve been hearing a lot of stories about how the laminate easily breaks, this is nothing new to the travel agencies, they’ll tell you a lot of people experience this kaya better daw not to put your passport in any kind of holder. Well, lesson learned na for me.Also, grabe how long it takes these days to have your passport renewed thru travel agencies. Ours took 8-10 days to think expedite na yan if regular processing it’ll take a month daw. My FIL (father-in-law) recently renewed his passport to and it just took 2 days (also rush) to get his from the DFA. Oh yeah, he paid only P750 while I’m going to be paying P1,200 . You just have to endure the long line, my MIL (mother-in-law) who accompanied FIL to the DFA said she waited outside for an hour, she wasn’t allowed in because only the applicant is allowed to go inside.

Been searching the internet on what good carrier/sling/wrap or whatever type of carriers are out there to buy. I’m thinking of getting one as I’m having a hard time doing chores with Ethan being mobile now. We did get an infantino carrier before but he’s now at the weight limit. The MIM sarong sling (a cheaper alternative to the maya wrap), Mei Tai (based on traditional asian carrier) and the podaegi (korean baby carrier) are some on my shortlist. Though I’m really not sure what to get, it may boil down to the price hehe. Hopefully when I do decide on what to get, I won’t regret it. Any recommendations?

A couple of Saturdays ago, Ichi, ton and I were able to catch a flick. We initially planned to watch Sound Of Thunder as its plot sounded interesting but hearing bad reviews about it from my brother in law made us think twice. When we got to the cinema we opted to see Red Eye.

STORY (per it’s website): Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) hates to fly, but the terror that awaists her on the night flight to Miami has nothing to do with a fear of flying. Moments after takeoff, Lisa’s seatmate, Jackson (Cillian Murphy), manacingly reveals the reason he’s onboard: He is an operative in a plot to kill the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security .. and Lisa is the key to its success. If she refuses to cooperate, her own father will be killed by an assassin awaiting a call from Jackson. Trapped within the confines of a jet at 30,000 feet, Lisa has nowhere to run and no way to summon help without endangering her father, her fellow passengers and her own life. As the miles tick by, Lisa knows she is running out of time as she desperately looks for a way to thwart her ruthless captor and stop a terrible murder.

I liked the movie and would recommend it if asked. Though there were predictable moments but there were also a lot of catch your breath scenes and I did find myself rooting for Lisa.

Things will once again change for us. Just last saturday Ichi signed with a company that would take us back to Singapore. Yup, we are going back after two years. This time it will be different as we have Ethan with us. For starters, Ichi will be leaving ahead not just to start with work but to set things up there like look for a flat for us. I wonder what’s in store for us this time. To our friends in sing, looking forward to seeing you.

Back online after our DSL connection failed, it was down the past three days. From a major irritating boo-boo by our maid to the blah! customer service of our provider, our connection was finally restored yesterday. Yipee!Anyways, sunday was a busy day for us as we attended two birthday parties straight! Both of our friends’ sons were celebrating their first birthday. The first party was at City Best Restaurant in Timog. They had Winnie the Pooh and some clowns. Good thing Ethan wasn’t afraid of Pooh and the clowns when he and his dada had their pictures taken. Unfortunately, little boy was sleepy so almost the entire party he was asleep. It was nice to catch up with friends that we haven’t seen since early in the year.

Next we went to Acropolis clubhouse for Riley’s birthday bash. The theme was Madagascar, the stage and the venue were decorated nicely. This time around Ethan was wide awake and taking everything in. Hmm, wonder what he thought of the party? hehe! He loved the balloons, sayang lang we weren’t able to take home the centerpiece as someone already claimed it! :p The party host and the magician was good! (We actually got his number and pencil-booked with him for Ethan’s birthday.) Food was great, sarap ng Verleo although sayang because I was still full from lunch that I only got to eat the fiorgellato ice cream.

Attending the two birthday parties, reminded me that I have to move forward with Ethan’s already. All that’s definite now is the venue. Dami pa kulang.