little star!

his own version of twinkle twinkle little star :) his words are not clear yet, but i'm proud of him just the same -- good job for someone who's not very musically-inclined :)

don't worry anak, we'll work on your expressive speech asap... no time to lose!

collection

i don't collect a lot of things. when i was younger, i was a sticker and stationery addict (like probably many of girls of my generation). in fact, some of them were very special that i still have them until now, unused.

as far as i remember, i didn't have any other collection, like say, barbie dolls, video games, hair clips, shoes, or bags. even in my adulthood and capable of buying my own stuff, i did not have the "mentality" of buying just to collect. i hardly wear makeup, i'm not into clothes fads, my feet are too big for designer shoes, i can be contented with cloth bags for my everyday use.

however, i do have one collection, that was not even from my own initiative of starting. presenting, my agatha christie paperbacks....



when i was in college, my sister's best friend lent her a book, which i borrowed later. i loved the plot so much that i started to get interested in murder mysteries, especially agatha christie. the book that started it all for me was "the body in the library." then i started borrowing from the... eherm, library. i love hercule poirot, her sleuth character! i'm learning about the art of deduction by reading them.

i did not buy my first personal copy until i was already working. and even then, i bought second hand ones only. after all, the author has long since been dead and never again published new works. her books were decades old. rands picked up my interest and slowly procured the books for me. he went through every booksale outlet, curio shop, art store, and just about any tiangge that sold second hand books, and bought all the agatha christies there! he would give them to me on special occasions as gifts; i wrote on the first page the date that i received them... as far as i know, the early dates were 2005.

i would read one book when i travelled to work. when i finished, i would immediately get another one from the pile. i would know that i had read that book through the bus ticket that i had inserted as marker. it also served as date when i finished reading it! i wanted to finish the entire collection asap!

unfortunately after i got married, i left my collection in our house when i moved out. i had forgotten about it all throughout my pregnancy and taking care of my baby. however, now that my son is already 3 years old, i suddenly craved for the habit of reading again. going through the books, many of them had no bus tickets inserted yet, or many still in plastic wrap... yup, it won't be long until you are all read, mon ami!

since the last post

here are some developments regarding aren since my last post:

1. he knows how to poop in the potty already! hasn't pooped in his diaper for over a month.
2. we wear diapers only during afternoon nap or sleeping at night or going out. (yey for our budget!)
3. it was my first time to literally step on po-p in the bedroom hahahah! i was crazy tired that afternoon, i fell asleep while he was playing, only to wake up a few minutes later with him already napping beside me. i stood up, my foot squished something soft and cold (we don't eat in the bedroom, so it's not food). i was so surprised, and later amused.
4. he can already pee in the toilet! since our last potty training, he can already pee standing up, and this time he does it in the big bowl itself! which brings me to the next item....
5. he's grown an inch in a month! we record his height every month on his birthdate, and for the past year, he has been registering only a few centimeters every month. i was so surprised to see the last improvement!
6. could it be his milk? for almost two months already, i've been slowly changing his milk from enfagrow a+ to nido 3+. for the first week, i replaced one scoop of formula with one scoop of nido. the next week, i replaced two scoops, then three, until finally, we're down to the last pouch of formula that i plan to still mix (half scoop) with his nido. i had no problems introducing the new milk because he never noticed the difference!
7. for the first time, i was poked in the forehead with a ballpen. yes, it bled.
8. he can spell his name (the four letters at least).

still a long way to go with other milestones. talking for instance... we barely are a month away from his 3rd birthday and he's still not speaking clearly. i still think he's going to do so in time... but part of me is already worrying...

my other projects are (still) getting him to eat regular meals during mealtimes, getting him to take vitamins and meds from a spoon. next up, i hope we can be totally diaper-free forever and not have accidents, i hope we can totally discard the bottles and drink milk from a cup/glass, i hope we can appreciate coloring/music more.

and yes, the talking. ok ok judge me and my parenting... *sigh*

success is spelled with a p

for my long sem break, i had planned on lots of training activities for aren. but two days before i return to work, i have been successful with one only --- potty training :)

however, not entirely too, because he refuses to sit for poop time. (i feel i have to defend myself with this because aren is slightly constipated because of his diet, so he doesn't poop on a regular basis, which makes it a little harder to "practice" on the potty. ok more on my diet woes later... in fact that was one of my other plans in the list) so my success with the potty is for pee! i consider this quite an achievement for my part because i do not have the same "elements" as aren that he can model. it was all basically routinary, and it was easier because he had all the readiness signs:

-irritated at the feeling of a wet diaper

-can stay dry for at least an hour at a time

-although he cannot speak clearly yet, he can signify his intention of going to the bathroom

-can pull his own shorts/pajama down

after all, he was already 2 years and 9 months old. actually, i have tried starting this before, but a weekend did not seem enough, and online literature said it was a bad idea to "start and stop" when it came to potty training. but slowly, my mom and i took off his diaper in the morning and asked him once in a while if he needed to pee. a few months ago, we always had accidents, but we simply considered it as part of the process.

day 1 of my sem break, i was determined to take this seriously. he took my hand to the bathroom and peed on the floor. that day he pooped squatting on the bathroom floor because he vehemently did not want to sit on the potty (at least it's a start, he didn't need the diaper anymore!). as the days progressed, he began to pee into the potty, he pulled down his shorts by himself, did not have to need the diaper while napping or at night (actually i'm still scared about this. i've tried it only once, and i still put a diaper on him when he's still sleeping), tried to pee into the big toilet bowl. until one time, i was in the kitchen and he was left alone for a while in the room when i heard the bathroom door pushed open. i rushed up and i saw him with his shorts on the floor, aiming for the potty! i was soooo amazed! he did not have to take my hand to take him to the bathroom! what a big boy!

i admit we're still not 100% diaperless yet. like i said, we still have to master pooping in the potty. we're still wearing diapers while napping and sleeping at night and when going out for errands or a trip. but for me, it has been a big improvement! that's 2-3 less diapers during the day, which is very timely because i just discovered that our brand has raised its price last week! and also, less nonbiodegradable trash for landfills.

well, the other plans in my list can wait, probably during the next long weekend. but it doesn't mean i will stop trying. the key i think is to set a routine for toddlers. after a few days they will realize that you will never stop or give up on what you want them to master, so maybe, just maybe they will pick up the hint. (i'm really crossing my fingers! because the others in my list are really important ones! sort of life and death sometimes :)

ms universe

It's like I won Miss Universe....

I don't know but that's how I feel :)

Maybe it's because I've never won too many raffles or contests in my life, or because I didn't have to do so much to comply with the requirements asked for.

I feel like it's a really big blessing... like a reward for all the effort I've so far put into thesis writing.

After all, a grant is no joke, I mean, all the money I spend for reproduction of materials, printing of drafts, transportation and communication expenses, representation allowance (i.e., tokens to respondents or special people who have helped me).

Well, an announcement that is posted on the bulletin board outside the Office of the College Secretary is different from a real check that I'm holding in my hands. Hmmm, let's wait and see....

embarrassing

a situation is considered embarrassing because of the very reason that it happened in a public place with a handful or lots of other people to witness it.

here are a few of my most recent ones:

1. while waiting in the jeepney stop one morning, i spotted a couple (probably in their 20s) a few steps away from the crowd. a few minutes later, a woman probably in her 40s dashed over to the couple and started pulling the girl's hair (which was long by the way) angrily while screaming expletives! the poor guy tried in vain to pull the older woman's hands off the younger woman's hair. the crowd simply looked on because it was obviously a domestic altercation. after a few more minutes, an elderly man approached the trio and gently told them to break it up. the couple walked away but i can just imagine their humiliation.

2. in the mrt a few weeks ago, a skip train came and everyone scrambled to get in as the train doors opened. i accidentally stepped on the sandal of the woman in front of me. i was so embarrassed because (i) she stopped in her tracks, blocking the way of others who were trying to get in, (ii) i still took the empty spot that was "supposedly" for her because she was ahead of me, (iii) she ended up standing and she whipped out flipflops from her bag because her sandal straps ripped. i apologized to her but i still felt bad. i got my due the following week when i wore a pair of sandals i hadn't worn for a long time, and the straps promptly pulled out from the soles just as i was boarding the mrt on my way to work that morning!

3. our school had its institutional outing at splash island last week. the daredevils that we are, my friends and i tried every slide in the facility. in king pilipit, people had to slide one at a time. i mustered my guts and went first. it was hell scary! it had to be done lying flat because for the first few feet the slide was covered, so when i pushed myself down, there was no turning back! and i was sliding really fast. after what seemed like an eternity, i reached the "open" part of the slide, and i was already anticipating my splash. but i had to go through a few more turns before i finally saw the pool at the end. i pinched my nose with two fingers as i went into the water... before i realized it, i was drowning! i was flapping my arms under the water, and i felt like i was struggling for several minutes to reach the surface. i was able to grab hold of something, which turned out to be the buoy of the lifeguard. i was so embarrassed because the pool was nowhere above five feet deep, and that in my struggle in the water, i didn't notice that my top (which was loose to begin with) had...uhurm... displaced, and as i gasped for air, no one knows how many of the handful of people sitting at the side of the pool saw my wardrobe malfunction, and how many of them passed the story on to their friends. (my friends did not notice it though)

i still think king pilipit is the best slide among those i tried in splash island. :)

letters and numbers

(pardon the voice.... just a little excited... ok, super excited!)