random q's tags (by yummylicious sis G)

thanks G for the tags! hope to see you next week as i will be in makati. =)

The rules are simple. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
that was 1998, the year i graduated from college, and if i remember it right i was a BUM during this month as i  just resigned from a forex trading company and waiting for my appointment in department of trade and industry.

2. What are the 5 things on my to-do list today?

• finish my forecast report and action plans for amspec's export business ( i need a lot of imagination here =))
• print our new pricelist for our products in bogzzi
• call shagri-la mactan for booking confirmation (yes, we're off for cebu on march 2009!)
• iñigo's haircut (can someone remind me that this should be done monthly as my son's hair grow fast???)
• another blog entry here in our multiply site

3. Snacks I enjoy

paki-explain G why konti lang nasa list mo? hehe.

mine are arroz caldo (all-seasons favorite), red ribbon's palabok, hen lin's siomai, fish cracker, growers' roasted peanuts, yellow cab's pizza, jack and jill tortillos, hain's (resto here in cabuyao) pancit bijon...

4. Place where I lived
manila, makati, quezon city, caloocan city, san juan, mandaluyong. i was everywhere!

5. Things I’d do if I were a billionaire

invest and buy company shares, shop, travel, donate to charities, build a nice house in tagaytay or palawan (jude and mine's dream retirement destinations) 

6. People I want to know more are

bless, jah, pinky, ails, momai, and rhea

what did the little tot receive for his birthday?

imaginarium's wooden block farm set:

this toy caught my eyes when i was looking for the best gift for iñigo for his second birthday. i had other toys in mind, which are slide (a second-hand though) so we're already done with his playground; leap frog's leap pad, but we don't have the budget for this one as of now; or a new bike but jude insisted that iñigo's old bike, which was a gift from my ate for his frist birthday, is still in tip-top condition.

thank goodness i spotted this toy after two hours of scouring the shelves of the toy shops and finally, toys r' us in robinsons-festival. it did not only fit my budget (the 50 pcs. block set is priced at 1k) but it also met my standard for toddlers toys. should i tell here that i'm veering away from battery-operated toys as much as possible? it's not only expensive for us but i feel that it doesn't help my son's gross and fine motor skills development. while this toy hones more every kid's creativity and imagination.

iñigo's favorite pieces among them all:

he likes to give the horse and the carriage a walk within the farm. and mommy's favorites (yes, this toy made me giddy like a kid. hehe):  

the animal-shaped blocks are such a cutie especially that pig. top view of the blocks set:

and i wish to buy the city version of the blocks set soon as iñigo loves to build towers and buildings, and drive cars...

and the daddy wants to get his hands busy with those blocks, too. =D

missing, musing, and mountaineering

i miss, we miss, our pre-wedding days. it's the time of our life when we didn't care about other things but how to spend our leisure time--and we have lots of it!  and we have a lot of people to spend it with, too! it only takes one text message and we already have a date, "saan ka? ano gawa mo 2nyt? tara, meet tayo sa shang (or megamall perhaps)!" that easy. and we killed time either inside the mall or over a bottle of booze inside a middle-end bar, with chitchats as our pulutan.

i also miss the days when you only have for yourself the money you earn. when upon receiving your bonus you go straight to the mall to buy the item you've been drooling over for a period of time. or join the gimmick or travel your friends are planning to have.

hay! those were the days... i love, we love, our life right now. but there are times that we get the pangs of self-indulgence, but we resist it of course with all our might. but there are moments when the flesh is stronger than the will... =D and we give in.

***

and we also miss our mountaineering group--metropolitan mountaineering society--and its people... uhm, some of its people i mean (or jude might pull my hair). hehe.

we miss the climbs and the sidetrips. we miss the gimmicks and the parties. we miss the meet-ups and the tambay na wala lang.

and so last saturday, after haggling for a lower price of the ticket (hello, feeling nila rich lahat ng members! =D) we--jude and moi--decided to attend the graduation party of this year's batch. iñigo was in tow as we still can't leave him with our new househelp. that also explains why we have to leave early. siempre wala akong picture because i forgot to bring our camera kaya i snagged some photos from the other members (sshh!)

they have igorot as a theme, btw. (kaya andali nakacollect ng penalty fee for non-compliance... hmp!)

batch 2008

 

the rowdy crowd, including jude.

year after year, there is a batch of new faces i welcome in the group. and almost every year i get the feeling that i've already met some of them in the previous years only they wear a different face now.

to be more specific they also have the mr. hunk wannabe, the kikay girl who has no qualms of showing what she got (meron nga ba?) and can do, at aba... meron din gustong biktimahin ni mr. "toot-toot"! hahaha. there's also the kuya ng bayan who seems to be the knight of the damsels of the batch, or the ate ng bayan for that matter. i want the list to go on but i think i better stop as there are also members in my contacts who attended the party. 'kala n'yo, huh! hehe. =D

and as usual it was a night of fun and inuman. booze and foods were overflowing, kahit 4 dishes lang. =D but since iñigo was with us and he has a sleeping time that we should consider, we bid goodbye much earlier than the others. =(

'till next event.

***

and since we were already there, i managed to ask the new batch on their roster of open climbs (climbs open to members and guests as well). i asked because jude and i, for the longest time now, are itching to wear our trekking shoes again and step it on on a rugged terrain. just one climb for us before the year ends will do! i would really love to climb again; to shed the unwanted fats in the middle portion of my body... hihi; to go outside our turf and see the breathtaking sceneries of far-flung places; to breathe fresh air and greet the fog in the morning; and just to be there up on a mountain, it's already something for me.

but it's just a plan. i am not sure though if we could still squeeze it in in our busy schedule (naks!) or i can already leave behind our now very amusing little boy even just for one night. the tot can't even stand not seeing us for more than five hours and he'll already kulit his caregiver with "mommy... daddy... why? (he still has to learn the word "where". hehe.)"

and with this, i began to miss again our pre-wedding days. it's when we can easily decide if we can join a climb or not. take note, not even our jobs can stop us! nyahaha. the only things that can get in the way are lack of budget (but i know some people particularly students who pawn their bikes or other valuable items just to join a climb) or typhoon... "can you take the risk? we'll still push thru." sounds family! =) again, it just takes either one reply thru email or text to confirm if one will join. even the pre-climb meetings were something to look forward to... kasi may gimmick afterwards. hehe.

hay... those were the days...=)

 

 

it was a snake for the little boy!

the weather was perfect this afternoon so i thought of playing ball with iñigo outside our house. for over a week now, the little boy was bugging me to allow him to go "outshide" and play but i refused and just told him that we stay home as it's either "hot" outside or "yaining (raining)". poor kid, eh?

but this afternoon was different. as i went to the porch and observed that the sun was hiding behind the clouds, and there's no sign of rain either, i immediately called iñigo and asked him to wear his sandals as we will play outside. oh, the kid was jumping with joy upon hearing this! =D

and so we played football--kicking and throwing his soft rubber ball at a manageable distance. but after a while i realized that he's no longer in our game and instead was busy looking at something behind his ride-on-car.

me: why iñigo?

iñigo: saike, mommy! saike!

me: (cluess on what he's saying) what?

iñigo: saike! saike!

me: (slow ako, it took time for me to remember that iñigo calls snake "saike") OMG! snake... where??!" and i ran fast to iñigo hoping that i could snatch him away before the snake could bite him.

me: where's the snake?

iñigo: ayooon, saike!

me: (bewildered and relieved at the same time) iñigo! that's a caterpillar, not a snake!!!

mabuti na lang bata pa ako (bata pa ako promise! =D) and is still far from having heart attacks.

oh well, kids are really something, isn't it? hehe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

almost a terrible-R two

two more weeks to go and our little boy is already two, yey! we're still undecided though if we're going to have a party, or just take a day off from our usual routine and bring iñigo to places he would love to be like paradizoo in tagaytay and enchanted kingdom in sta. rosa (we have three entrance tickets in EK given to us by jude's company). the latter is winning for the daddy while i favor the party since we've already bought the lootbags and prizes for the guest kids... sayang naman. but it's also okay for me to just spend the day hopping from one iñigo-will-surely-enjoy place to another so we can relieve ourselves from additional stress and expenses as we already have tons of these right now. =D

well, i just hope that whatever happens on that day, the little boy will have a great time on his "beeyday". 

but am sure he will. =)

*****

but more than the preparation for his birthday, his daddy and i are bracing ourselves for a more action-filled and exasperating moments with him in the coming months. MORE MULTIVITAMINS, please? what do we expect? the little tot is going to be a certified terrible-R two in two-weeks time! can i say both "yipee!" and "oh no!"? =D

but inspite of his KAKULITAN, KALIKUTAN, and KAPILYUHAN (these words really deserve to be in all caps) iñigo is still one bundle of joy for us as he never fails to surprise and amuse us everyday with his new antics... and even his bloopers. you should see how he dances with the "low" song, his favorite recently; he even made up his own choreography, which made the daddy and the mommy amazed.

iñigo is such a wonderful boy and in almost all aspects he is someone we are proud of and adore so much.

walkie-talkie

along with the big progress in his motor skills is the remarkable improvement on his communication skills, which made me erase my worries that my son has a problem on... uhm... erase, erase. and now we're afraid that we have a mynah bird for a son as there are times that he doesn't get tired of talking. he can speak in phrases now and is even trying on simple sentences, "babye toys! seep... mommy (i'll sleep now with mommy).

his "a-po" (opo) and "aibuu" (i love you) are music to my ears and are sure to make me smile. hihi.

and he'd say "burp!" and laugh off after he belched and "pupu" after he farted. our son is gross, i tell you. =D

it's always that he tells us on what he wants or what he feels, even his lolo jun observed this on him. hence, we never had a hard time communicating with iñigo even at his age. though i hope when he says, "mommy, hurt" he really mean it and not just to make paawa so i would stop being mad at him.

attorney-in-the-making

my son is very good at making palusot. we already noticed this when he was younger--15 months or so. he'd easily get his way out by making valid excuses as he knows what gets our approval and what's not. he'd say "water" when i see him rummaging on what's inside of our refrigerator even if it's not really water but yakult or the sweets that he's after to. but he's quick to say water because he knew that it's a good excuse for him to open our refrigetor and just touch anything inside it. see???

the great imitator

imitating is what toddlers love to do and our son is no exemption on this. with his keen observation, he can do exactly what we're doing just by watching us once. he can put on the charger of the celfone and plug it (horrors!) and put on lipstick or lip balm as how he sees me doing it (jude is more horrified with this. haha)

he'd also surprise his daddy when he tinker the tool box and demonstrate how a screw driver and wrench work. and once in while, our little tot would remind us that we have to save as early as now for his very first car as he is already learning the ropes of driving. he'd go first in locking or unlocking the door, turning on or off the engine and removing the car keys and dig this:  "seatbet, mommy/daddy", reminding us to fasten our seatbelts. sorry po! hehe.

he also loves to explore and that includes getting inside our refrigerator to check how cold it is as he'd usually complain "hot, mommy." 

foodaholic

one thing we like about iñigo is he's not a picky-eater (hmm... well, there are times but very seldom) and is not a hard-to-feed kid. i think it's already given that he loves to eat foods from jollibee and mcdonald but he also has the same enthusiasm to eat when we tell him that chicken, fish, or veggies is in our meals. a lot of people who see him eating alone would remark, "ang sarap kumain." =)

there are even times that he would eat non-stop which made me thinking, "bundat na kaya anak ko?" hahaha.

i really do hope that his appetite won't change.

mommy's boy

and he's indeed my adorable little boy who i love to cuddle and shower with kisses morning till evening, but with some bellowings and chidings in between. hehe. i would complain of him being clingy or too demanding for my attention but the truth is i love the fact that my son's world revolve around his mommy. i am a celebrity in my son's eyes, with all the "mommy" calls he'll make in a day, i doubt if my son would trade me for jollibee or barney... or even for his daddy =D

and yes, he likes to pose in front of the camera and would even ask for "pityur mommy". =D

 

 

 

it's daddy's time to shine

thank you for pitching in for iñigo when i'm not in the mood to do my role as a mom;

thank you for driving us to anywhere we wish no matter how tired or sleepy you were;

thank you for providing for the family even if it means no new running shoes or accessories for your beloved bike;

thank you for the extra patience you've shown us--me and iñigo--when in fact we deserve to be strangled;

thank you for dreaming big for his future and for the times that you were the first to notice how smart we have for a son;

thank you also for your kind words and gentle hands, such things make him a happy kid;

thank you for supporting me all the way in my advocacies and decisions that i think would benefit our son--that includes quitting my regular job;

thank you for always being there for us inspite of the strong urge for a boys night-out or gimmicks;

thank you for the little sacrifice that you can't go hiking or mountaineering for the meantime, you can't go without me anyway; =P

thank you for the spontaneous laughters, even our son appreciates that;

finally, thank you for being a good daddy to our son. sorry if i couldn't claim that you are the best because it means i have to compare you with the other daddies, which i don't have to as no one can take your place in the family. =)

happy father's day from me and iñigo!

 

''we will survive!'

it's our battle cry right now. =D

our househelp cum yaya to iñigo left for good last saturday. i wanted to share with you the whole story on why and how she left but i cannot afford to stay long in front of the computer... naghinhintay pa ang mga tupiin. nyahaha.

but we are on search for her replacement. it's actually three weeks or a month ago when we started but unfortunately, with the good ones flying to $-paying countries, we cannot find someone at par or better (she should be) than the previous maid until now. it's frustrating you know when you ask a friend for a referral and she'd answer you with, "tatlo na kayong nagpapahanap...'' =( to the guys who will be reading this post, i now know the feeling of being busted by the girl you're enamored with. bwahaha! =D

having a househelp is still a necessity for us since, as some of you may know, i still work and i have to devote a few hours every day to attend to it. add to that is the daily regimen for our recently-opened bogzzi sizzling haus, which includes, but definitely not limited to, purchasing of supplies and raw materials, monitoring of operations, and accounting and auditing of sales and expenses. so you can just imagine how i am coping up with all these aside from tending our uber-kulit and likot toddler whose favorite lines these days are "mommy, come!" and "padede"... and doing the house chores. ay, kaloka!

but looking at the glass half-filled, it's during this trying time that we get the satisfaction of being married to the right person. even without saying anything, we can always count on each other to help or make life convenient for the other. all the more that we can say that our marriage is for better or for worse.

we are surviving and i think we can survive longer without much help from other people. we don't know anyway where the tides will bring us so we take problems like this as eternal preparation for the bigger challenges in life--and we have to deal with them all by ourselves to give us room to grow. =)