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!)

the face

(taken three separate days)

yup, at 2 years and 3 months, this is how he smiles in front of the camera.

he has been doing the face for a few weeks when i found out last week how he discovered it...

he was playing, i whipped out my cellphone (thus the crappy resolution) and said "aren, smile!" he looked at me and smiled that way, when i realized he was only imitating me!!! i was smiling exactly the same way!!

tsk tsk... i have to start being careful what i do in the kid's presence.

aren's first visit to mommy's office

yes it was almost two years after he was born that aren got to visit mommy's office for the first time.

flashback: december 2010. institutional christmas party at the sports pavilion. (thanks for the photos, tita amy!)

the visit was meant to be a very memorable one, too. when we were about to exit the village, rands was given the wrong driver's license. he called the attention of the person in charge at the gate, and we were asked to wait on the side while they sorted out the problem. out of the many people who were going in and out of the village that day, it had to happen that rands' license was given to the wrong person, who was a taxi driver who could have been anywhere in the country at that moment! it was already getting dark, and the two kids in the car were getting restless. they were trying to figure out the best thing to do to address the situation. we the adults were on the verge of losing our patience.

as a temporary measure, they wrote a certification in their office (which took 30 minutes i think) that it was "their fault" that rands was driving without his license. they asked for my name and promised that they will give back my husband's license the following morning. we also got their names, and they knew that they have "no escape" because they and the security in our school were from the same agency.

true enough the following morning, barely 8 am, the same guy who was head of the shift during our ordeal, came to our office and handed me rands' license. he shared that they sent a couple of people to the taxi driver's house (thankfully the address in the license was recent!) and waited there until late at night for the driver to come home and exchange licenses.

lesson: please always ALWAYS check the license you are handed back. or any ID for that matter. i'm sure it was such a hassle for them to do what they did, but i was thankful, and they were apologetic anyway. i told them i perfectly understood that mistakes such as putting the licenses in the wrong pass slots can happen on days when there are a lot of cars getting in and out of the village, especially during christmas season.

two years old!

celebrated aren's second birthday with a simple gathering with our families.

chocolate cake from "tita c's homemade cakes"

we had no decors, music, balloons (well, ok just a few pieces), but the little ones were happy to be playing with one another.

tito jojo teaching aren the "anyong" pose his twins have perfected

two months before january 15, we experienced a lot of hospital scares, disorders, illnesses, infections, viruses, bacteria (and he even actually had diarrhea during the party! haha). but now i'm just looking at all of those experiences as a rite of passage... he seems ok now (so far, hopefully no more sicky!)



you're two now, baby! not quite a baby anymore, but not really a toddler yet (that didn't sound right ahahha, but that's how mommy feels).

eating chocolate icing out of his candle (thanks tita gigi!)

turnstile tip

Two days ago on my way to work, the MRT was stuck at Guadalupe Station because of a defective train in front of us. For lack of anything better to do, I found myself observing the people who were coming into the station from the northbound side, more particularly the passengers passing through the turnstiles.

For the five or so minutes we were stranded, there may have been hundreds of people who entered the station, and yet I was able to count only probably 20 or less who DID NOT hold the turnstile with their hand to get through.

Personally, I never touch turnstiles with my hand, even in groceries or other public places. I got this tip from my sister many years ago, even before the H1N1 scare, that these things may contain germs as they are being touched by thousands of people everyday.

That's why when I pass through turnstiles, I just bump it with my hip or tummy... it turns just the same way! Look ma, no hands! That's one less exposure to hand-transmitted germs! :)

happy new year!

happy 2011 everybody! happy!!




btw, he's not really two yet... we're just practicing before the big day arrives.