Still Alive :-)

Yup. Was just being a bad blogger....

I've been busy these days, that's why. Lucas is at this stage where whenever he sees me, he automatically becomes my shadow. I can't eat, I can't go to the toilet without him making a big fuss. Hay, it's hard I tell you but I am pretty sure this will pass soon so I might as well treasure the days when he simply can't be without Mama when he sees me.

I checked out the Guess, Mossimo and Mango Sale yesterday and I am so glad I went there. A lot of great buys! I almost crossed out everyone in our shopping list (keyword = almost). We're planning to go back there to finish the list and buy stuff for us too. We also dropped by the Richwell warehouse sale in Calle Industria. There are lots of toys on sale but it will be difficult to buy gifts for kids in the family given the state of the boxes. Our last stop was the Anvil booksale where I was able to get Archie comic books for P10 each (though there were only two titles left!) and several P10 and P20 books.

I am hoping to recharge with this long weekend.

Enjoy the long weekend everyone!Obviously, someone didn't get what he wanted....

Our little Spidey... at EDC trick-or-treat

Haha :-) I swear this was not a planned shot! As if I can ask my son to pretend to yawn.

Daddy's 29th Birthday

What he does whenever we're checking out houses....

Oratio Imperata

Almighty Father, we raise our hearts to You in gratitude for the wonders of creation of which we are part, for Your providence in sustaining us in our needs, and for Your wisdom that guides the course of the universe.

We acknowledge our sins againsts You and the rest of creation.

We have not been good stewards of Nature.

We have confused Your command to subdue the Earth.

The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing, and now we reap the harvest of our abuse and indifference.

Global warming us upon us. Typhoons, floods, volcanic eruption and other natural calamities occur in increasing number and intensity.

We turn to You, our loving Father, and beg for forgiveness for our sins.

We ask that we, our loved ones and our hard earned possessions be spared from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made.

We beseech You to inspire us all to grow into responsible stewards of Your creation, and generous neighbors of those in need.

Amen.

Lucas' 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Munchkin's first birthday at Shakey's in Shopwise Sucat. Despite the SLEX traffic, we're thankful that our loved ones were there to celebrate the day with us.

Lucas - we just arrived at Shakey's

The birthday boy dressed-up for his big day

Lola Mami and Lucas checking out the place and the party items.

Family snapshot before the guests started arriving.

Chocolate Fountain.

This is sort of a DIY project for us. Ate Michelle (Lucas' godmother and hubby's cousin) lent us the chocolate fountain. We just bought the chocolate fondue syrup (melted and ready to use) at Chocolate Lover's in QC with fruits and pastries as dippings. Voila! Chocolate fountain station na :-) As predicted, it was a hit with everyone. Lucas' cake from Goldilock's.

Before Lucas blew his birthday candle

With Lola Mami and Lolo Dadi

Lucas with Lolo Pops and Lola Momsy

Thanks to Tita Nice for taking photos and Tito Patchu for being the videographer :-)

Happy Birthday Lucas :-) We hope you had fun. Love you.

And we now have a toddler...

Happy First Birthday Lucas :-)

Daddy and Mommy love you very much.

Party kuwento and pics to follow...

Happy 11th Month Birthday Munchkin!

Our little boy is now 11 months old :-)

11th Month Update:
1. He has five teeth already and he lets me clean his tongue and teeth with a soft cloth and cold water.
2. He loves the song "I have two hands.. [yun ba title nito?]" taught by Lola Mami and Tita Nice. He imitates their actions pa. Whenever he puts his hands up, it's a sign that Lola should sing na :-)
3. He loves spaghetti and bread. He even eats ampalaya! He doesn't eat baby food na and prefers table food. A few weeks ago, everyone laughed when he pushed his Gerber Broccoli away [ his favorite since his 6th month] and pointed at the viand on the table.
4. He signs "milk" and "more"[when prodded but he usually makes this impatient sound when he wants more of something]
5. He understands the concept of "No" but wouldn't always follow.
6. He can say "dede","dodo", "dada", "a-te" (usually just "te"), "ti-ta" (usually just "ta"), "ti-to" (once), "mamam" [for water], "papa", "mama" [only when he has a problem :-)]. Whenever I tell him, "Lucas, say Mama", he'd say "Dada! Dada!" with a smile on his face. Feeling ko he does this intentionally :-)
7. He points to the door whenever he wants to go out of the house. He'd point pa left or right pag nasa may gate na :-) Just ask him "Where?" or "San tayo pupunta?".
8. He can stand on his own na for a few seconds and walks when he's holding on to something [like the shelves near our bed and when he's on his playpen]

Happy Birthday anak. Thank you for bringing joy into our lives. Daddy and Mommy love you much much :-)

Hello!

It's been a while [insert sheepish grin here] since my last post and as much as I would have loved to write updates, I've just been too busy the past weeks.

Since I have no time for a full-blown, paragraph after paragraph of kuwentos, I will just leave you guys with pictures of my son Lucas :-) The pics themselves would [hopefully] tell you what we were up to the past weeks...


My guapo son in a barong [sniff. sniff. he's growing too fast for me..]. We attended bestfriend Pao and Chiqui's wedding at Caleruega.

Celebrating Lucas' 10th Month birthday with Smores cake and Nachos...

He has four teeth already... It's war whenever we try to brush his teeth and clean his tongue...

At Shangri-la Mall, happily eating ice cream...

Taken at Ate Laine's home, when we visited little Isabel [she was born last May 23]

That's it :-) Hope I'd get to post again soon..

100 Truths

Thanks Joanne. After 100 years, nagawa ko rin...

001. Name → Tess Marichie
002. Nickname(s)→ Chie
003. Missing....
004. Zodiac sign → Scorpio
005. Male or female → Female
006. Elementary → OLACS
008. High School → Masci
009. College School → UP Diliman
010. Hair color → brown
011. Long or short → long, for 5 years now
012. Loud or Quiet → depends on who I am with
013. Jumpers or Jeans → Jeans
014. Phone or Camera → phone
015. Health freak → not really
016. Drink or Smoke? → drink, occasionally
017. Do you have a crush on someone? → MTM (haha) Brad, Kimi, Rafa....
018. Eat or Drink → Both
019. Piercings → Ears
020. Tattoos → None
021. Social or Anti-Social → depends
022. Righty or Lefty → Righty

FIRSTS:
023. First piercing → Ears when I was three
024. First best friend → Gerrovi
025. First award → Most Friendly
026. First crush → Ronel Victor (That's Entertainment! :D)
027. First relationship → JJ, when I was 18
028. First pet → dog
029. First big vacation → US
030. First big birthday → based sa pictures, naghanda naman ang parents ko nung 1st bday ko... :-)
032. First Surgery → none so far
033. First sport you joined → volleyball
034. Orange or Apple juice → orange
035. Rock or Rap → I prefer other types of music
036. Country or Screamo → country
037. NSYNC or Backstreet boys → Backstreet boys
038. Britney spears or Christina Aguilera → Brit Brit.. before she got wacko
039. Night or Day → Day
040. Sun or Moon → Moon
041. TV or Internet → Internet
042. Playstation or Xbox → PS
043. Kiss or hug → both
044. Iguana or turtle → turtle
045. Spider or bee → bee na lang
046. Fall or spring → Spring
047. Limewire or iTunes → Limewire
048. Soccer or baseball → Soccer

CURRENTLY:
049. Eating → grapes (na binili ko pa last week, puede pa naman :-) )
050. Drinking → water
051. Excitement Level → 100% excited! na umuwi sa wednesday
052. I’m about to → answer the next question
053. Listening to → the hum of my laptop
054. Plans for today → sleep early
055. Waiting for → my darling son to sleep so the hubby can go online and chat
056. Energy Level → 40%
057. Thinking of someone → yes, my two boys

YOUR FUTURE:
058. Want kids? → have one now, at least one more in the future
059. Want to get married? → again? in 5o years. for our golden wedding anniv.
060. When? → December 28
061. How many kids do you want → at least 2
062. Any name on the mind → secret na muna. but we have a name for a girl na. and one name for a boy
063. What did you want to be when you were little → no specific career, i just wanted to be rich :-) haha
064. Careers in mind → housewife, maybe? I am wondering if it's for me.
065. Mellow future or wild → mellow future
066. Something you would never try → nothing comes to mind...
067. When do you want to die → I don't want to think about it yet. I hope when I am good and ready. And when my son is all-grown up and with his own family already.

WHICH IS BETTER IN THE BOY/GIRL YOU LIKE? can I change "LIKE" to "MARRIED"?
068. Lips or eyes → hmm, lips
069. Romantic or Funny → funny
070. Shorter or taller → taller
071. Protective or Caring → protective
072. Romantic or spontaneous → spontaneous
073. Nice stomach or nice arms → definitely arms :-) Hi OB1!
074. Sensitive or loud→ sensitive
075. Hook-up or relationship → relationship
076. Trouble maker or hesitant → NA
077. Muscular or Normal → with love handles
078. Kissed a stranger → Hope not
079. Broken a bone → not sure, i think to some extent he might have...

HAVE YOU EVER
080. Lost glasses/contacts → not yet
081. Ran away from home → nope
082. Held a gun/knife for self defense → not yet
083. Killed somebody → are ants counted? :-)
084. Broke someone’s heart → not sure.
085. Been arrested → nope
087. Cried when someone died → yup
088. Liked a friend more than a friend → yup

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
089. Yourself → yes
090. Miracles → yes
091. Love at first sight → yes
092. Heaven → yes
093. Santa Claus → no
094. Tooth Fairy → no
095. Kiss on the first date → depends
096. Angels → yes

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
097. Is there one person you want to be with right now → make that two. hubby and my baby
098. Are you seriously happy with where you are in life → yes
099. Do you believe in God → yes
100. Post as 100 truths and tag 20 people - tagging those who haven't completed this long one yet

8 Things...

Tag from Thet... tagal na nito :-) better late than never...

8 Things I am Looking Forward to
1. My flight back to Manila on Wednesday
2. Hugging my boys
3. Preparing for Lucas' first birthday (wala pa, as in, wala pa akong nagagawa)
4. Our plan to go to the beach this September (sana matuloy! with Lucas, of course)
5. August... is a month to look forward to for me and JJ (work-related)
6. DVD nights with the husband
7. Transformers II
8. new books from my fave authors

8 Things I did yesterday
1. Went to Bandung
2. Had back to back meetings
3. Skipped lunch because of No.2
4. Ate steak and ice cream
5. Went to factory outlet stores
6. Surfed the net
7. Mancom reports
8. Read several chapters of Wickham's "Wedding Girl"

8 Things I wish I Could do
1. Travel, travel, travel
2. Drive a car
3. Bring JJ and Lucas with me on my trips
4. Be in two places at the same time
5. Eat lots of chocolate and ice cream and still have a great body
6. Breastfeed Lucas until he's at least a year old
7. Read all the books I bought the past months
8. Find Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos crunch in Jakarta

8 People I tag
1. Ann
2. Em
3. Sujee
4. Joanne
5. Jan
6. Pheng
7. Jannesse
8. Mec

Lucas turns 9!

... months old :-)

Belated happy 9th month birthday munchkin :-)

I miss my boys :-(

I've been away from my boys since last week because of work. I am counting the days 'til I get to ride that SQ flight back to Manila (4 more nights!).

I was excited and sad when I left Manila. Excited because I've never been to Indonesia before and of course sad, because I'll be leaving JJ and Lucas for two weeks.

The first week was adventure-filled. We went on several long drives to visit potential sites for our projects. The icky things were staying in a hotel far from the city and eating padang style as there were no restaurants up in the mountains :-(

Here's how it goes. Padang style is their version of the turo-turo. Unlike our style, they serve all available dishes to the customer and then only the consumed food is charged. The "untouched" food is brought back to the stand and served to the next customer. Icky right? I ate fried food for days since I felt that these were the safest options. I also drank a lot of Coke since my colleagues were telling me that the acid will kill "some" of the bacteria. hehe :-)

Above is the Nasi Goreng Especial. Typical fried rice with a spicy kick.

This is a shot taken at Lake Toba. Lake Toba is the largest crater lake in the world. Much much bigger than our Taal Lake.Of course, the icky nights were worth it as we stayed at the new Marriott hotel in Medan. Nakabawi :-) The massage after the long drive was just heavenly.Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni. A Hindu-inspired Catholic Church.

That's the gist of what I've been up to the past week. I am now in Jakarta to finish our other tasks before going back to Manila. Can't wait to see my boys again. Tata!

No longer a baby :-(

.. and it saddens me.

Lucas had his first haircut last night. It was some sort of an instant decision on our part since my dad discovered that Lucas have "bungang-araw" in his head. I immediately texted our pedia cousin (hi Ate Mai :-) ) and she told me not to put powder (baby powder or cornstarch) on it and just keep the areas infected dry all the time. Since my baby has a lot of hair, we immediately decided to have his hair cut the same day.

After hearing mass, JJ and Lolo Dadi went to Dadi's trusted barber and asked him to give Lucas a cut at home.

Lucas: pre-haircut.

Lucas: moments before his haircut

I took a video and it was 7 minutes of near-torture for me. Lucas was cranky before the haircut and he started crying 1 minute into it. There were times when he'd look at me and wail "Mama, Mama, Mama..." which simply broke my heart and made me want to cry with him. Good thing he stopped crying immediately after the haircut.

And now, presenting my little boy, looking all grown-up (which is what made me sad). He's growing soooo fast.

He has swollen eyes pa from all his crying last night but I am glad he's the happy baby we all adore when he woke up this morning.

Just an update :-)

Lucas turns 8 Months Old

Happy 8th month birthday munchkin :-)

Charming mommy and daddy :-)

Sporting his new shoes :-)

Lunch with daddy

Candle-blowing with Mommy

Just plain ADORABLE :-)

We love you much much anak :-)

Maddie is here :-)

...and I couldn't be any happier :-)

I've been looking for Madeleine Wickham's (also known as Sophie Kinsella) books for a long time now. I even tried Amazon but some titles are being sold for more than US$80 (whattt???).

I searched for the publisher and after checking out their site (it was a publishing house from the UK) I found out that they are selling the books online. The only thing is, they don't ship books to the Philippines :(

Good thing I was still in touch with my former colleague Boy who was sent to Scotland for work :-) I just had the books shipped at his address in Edinburgh and two weeks after that Boy came home and handed me the goodies :-) Thanks Boy, or should I say Florence?

Now, all I need to do is find time to start reading them.

One Cool Dad

Background: JJ's into playing Magic cards and collecting Transformers since he was a kid (highschool for Magic). He takes good care of his toys and even buys special plastic sleeves for his cards for them to be in mint condition for a long time. So imagine my surprise when I saw him hand our 8th month old the following to play with:

Prime too?

The Magic card could've been one of the cheapest in the stash but the thought of him letting our little boy play with his most prized toys is really something.

Lucas had his eye on Prime for a long while now. JJ even bought him a small Bulkhead to play with. But, the little guy still wants to play with Prime...

Just heartwarming to see what JJ can do just to make Lucas happy :-) (Starcream and the other leader class TFs naman anak? ;D) Thank you daddy.

The Wait is Over...

... for my nephew, LUIS JACOB GONZALES LUGUE, born last March 19, 2009 via CS. Congrats to Tom and Carmy :-)

Ilocos Pics

Sharing pictures from our Ilocos Norte business trip. Well, these were taken after we completed the "business" part of the trip:-)

with Jules :-) she took all the nice shots that will follow.

Yup, that tiny thing is me :-) Parang postcard!

This was a torture room back then.

That's me again :-) Inside Sta. Monica church

taken at the Lighthouse :-)

Thanks Jules :-)

My Wow Philippines!

My schedule's been really hectic the past few weeks, mostly because of my workload. I've been traveling a lot the past weeks and here are the places I've been to...


Zamboanga City - I took the morning flight and left the same day via the PM flight. My colleagues had a great time shopping for shawls that were really nice and cheap.

Davao: I wish the place in the pic is where I've been to. I had a seminar at the Grand Meng Seng Hotel and when it ended by early afternoon, we were off to the market place to buy pomelos and other fruits. Mangosteen was really cheap at P60 per kilo. Pomelos were at P70 per kilo. I also bought durian for my dad.

Cagayan de Oro: I was dreading this trip because it was the first time that I will be leaving my son overnight :-( I was honestly thinking of backing out from this one but I just can't let my boss down. I tried not to think about him during the trip but I cannot help it! Whenever I missed him, I'd ring the house and have one of the Ate's turn on the speaker phone so I can hear his voice and let him hear mine. Only after these calls will I feel relieved, somehow. We had dinner at this place by the sea, some 30 minutes drive from CDO. Then we had dessert at this amazing place called Candy's in CDO proper. The sylvanas and chocolate cake were really super. I brought slices home for JJ :-)

Laoag City: I've been to Laoag a couple of times the past years when I was still with the Wind group of our company but it's the first time I visited Santa Monica church.

Legaspi City: Third time's a charm. The first two visits, I didn't get to glimpse Magayon. This time, she was visible in all her glory when we landed. It was indeed breathtaking, making me feel sorry I didn't bring my camera. Good thing my colleagues had theirs :-) Will post pictures as soon as I get copies from them.

I am now writing this from Cebu airport (they have free wifi and it makes we wonder why NAIA doesn't have it...same terminal fee of P200 :-( ) while waiting for my 7:35 PM flight. I am looking forward to the Holy Week and the much needed rest. The Ates will be on vacation the week after Holy Week so I will be on mommy duty then (which is also why I cannot refuse my boss when I was asked to travel).

Hope everyone gets the much needed rest we all deserve. And may you all have a blessed Holy Week.

Munchkin is now 7 Months Old

Lucas turned 7 months old last weekend. Sometimes, we'd just look at him and say, "Ang bilis bilis no? Ang laki na ng baby natin". I guess time really flies when you're having fun :-)

He's having solid food for more than a month now. Here are the stuff that we had him try and his reactions:

• potato - he makes these gagging sounds often. we never let him have it again.
• broccoli (Gerber) - to say that he LOVE this one is an understatement. he can have this thrice a day and i am sure he'll never complain. but we're really wondering why he loves this one so much when it doesn't smell that good :-) the smell even prompted JJ to ask if it has gone bad already.
• carrots (Gerber and homemade) - initially, we had him try the one from the bottle. When we realized that he liked it, we decided to try and do some ourselves. Easy lang naman pala and cheaper pa. Lucas loves carrots too.
• Sweet potato - he likes camote but not when he eats it consecutively. Gusto niya mga tipong once a day lang. We usually add a little breastmilk to make it runny.
• Mangoes - I thought he'd love mangoes but he doesn't. I ended up eating the jars of mangoes we prepared for him.
• Applesauce (Gerber) - never liked it. He'd close his mouth when we try to feed him applesauce. I guess, unlike me, Lucas doesn't like sweet food that much which is good for him.
• Squash (Gerber and homemade) - he'd eat it once in a while.
• Avocado - he loves, loves avocadoes :-) magagalit pa yan when you stop feeding him. Hindi talaga mana kay Mommy, I don't eat avocado kasi.Though I taste his avocadoes now to see if they're okay pa.
• Cerelac - His favorite is the Mixed Vegetable and Soya flavor. But we're trying to lessen his Cerelac intake as JJ thinks that it has lots of sugar.

Lucas loves to put his index finger inside his mouth.

He also loves watching daddy play with his PSP

Mommy loves to think that Lucas looks like her.

But people say that Lucas looks like him.

Whether he looks like dad or mom is not really important, as he's very guwapo as seen here :-) (spoken like a true mommy :-) )

Happy Seventh Month birthday honey. Daddy and Mommy love you much much much :-)