Bagyong Ondoy

It was an unfortunate weekend for residents of Pasig and Cainta and other nearby towns as typhoon Ondoy left hundreds of families homeless and about a significant number losing lives.

We thank God our families are safe and we pray for those afflicted.

Mommy Moments: That's my favorite

This is late from the Friday schedule of Mommy Moments but I'm filing this contribution nevertheless.

Neo is just barely two years old but he had shown particular inclinations/ likings to some animated characters. Among them are Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train, Lightning Mcqueen and Jollibee.

His earliest favorite was Bob. Even before he turned one and way before he was able to call me Mommy, he can already call out "Bob".

And then, he was introduced to Thomas. For a time, he had forgotten about Bob and had careered on alternately playing four CDs of the animation. He refers to Thomas as "Mat".

Lately, he came to like Lightning Mcqueen of Cars. From constant loading, the DVD of the movie has been corrupted! He would still ask for it to be played that is why I will get another set soon.

For this week's theme, I share pictures of Neo and Jollibee. I just got this doll last Friday. Since the toy is not anymore available in the stores, I have directly called the company to see if I can be able to get a unit. And, here it is! A Jollination USA version doll!

I cannot forget the smile he gave me when he saw the toy.

Oh well, we have a long way to go and many other Neo's favorites to handle.

Holiday

The holiday gave me time to buy some things and do some projects.

1. In the morning, I ran some bedsheets in the washing machine.
2. I went to Megamall and got -
= diapers - Huggies pull-ups
= a green cup for Neo to replace his old one that was already damaged.

= a Cars t-shirt

= a curtain rod
= a Sesame Street and Cars activity book and a roll of double adhesive tape

3. I got curtains installed in our bathroom. I was also able to wash clean the wall organizer

4. I made this wall for the little boy so that we'll have some learning activity to do in our mornings and weekends.

Well, I say, this was a productive holiday for me.

Cavite

Ritzie, me and Neo went home to Cavite this Saturday. Mommy, Daddy and Rodneil are happy seeing the little boy again. Neo will always be grouchy at first to the lola and lolo but he will eventually be at ease sometime after. Neo presented his newest skills much to the enjoyment of the tito, lolo and lola (and the Rowie, the masahista)

I wish I could get to bring Neo in Cavite more often.

On Sunday morning, we strolled around some stores and got these from the local bookstore.

Thomas and Neo

Neo has a new Thomas bag given by Tat Ritzie. He also has a new set of Thomas tumbler and mug bought from ebay.

He likes carrying the bag around, feel na feel!

Neo's first Kumon workbook

Today, we (officemates) had lunch at the Shangri-la mall. But, before lunch, I sidelined to National bookstore to get Neo these ...

Tackling the workbook with Neo will be fun, and I'm excited!

The Sorting Game

A game participated by Neo and the yaya and played Tuesday. This process aids the yaya on one of her tasks around the house thus making her life a little less stressful ;-)

The mechanics:
1. Yaya collects clothes from the sampayan
2. Yaya dumps the clothes in the sofa
3. Yaya folds each item of clothing
4. Yaya presents each folded piece to Neo
5. Neo identifies the owner of the clothing (i.e. Mommy! Pap! Tat! Baby! - with conviction!)
6. Yaya piles each clothing according to owner as dictated by Neo
7. Yaya brings up the sorted clothes to each of our rooms

Yaya's work is done!

One time, Ner brought in a pile of my sister's clothes to our room by mistake. When Neo noticed, he gave out a sort of angry face, pointed at the clothes and shouted out "Tat!" (interpreted as "What are those doing in this room, those are Tat's!). Heheheh. Patay si yaya!

Thursday night

I arrived home around 9:00 last night. I found Val in our room, as usual, with his laptop. Neo was fast asleep. Our chit-chatting disturbed the little boy thereby extracting him from his slumber.

As Val was hungry and since Neo was up anyway, we all went out and had a meal at the nearby Tropical Hut. Neo got a toy car from the store which was destroyed already even before we got back to the house. It's either the make of the toy car was so poor that even a slight snap would really break it, or our little boy has entered that phase of destroying and wrecking things.

Mommy Moments : Treasured pictures

One day, in the morning of March 2007, a happy surprise revealed itself by way of two red lines. We are pregnant!

On the night of November 08, 2007, we collected that happy surprise of eight months back from the Medical City. A little boy, all 7.5 lbs, popped out of my tummy and announced his arrival with a very vibrant cry.

a sight to behold ...

a little boy's first day into the world ...

an event to begin a path to motherhood ...

a picture forever to treasure...

Have a weekend filled with mommy moments!

Sleeping Neo

I was expecting to catch Neo awake as I left the oftice at 7 PM tonight. But, to my disappointment, I had him at this state already as I entered our room. I'll try to leave the office earlier next time.

Pedia sched

It was our doctor's appointment yesterday. Neo had his last shot of the ipd. We only have two more vaccinations left and we are done! Quite an accomplishment for a parent. Except for annual flu injections, we take a respite for two years to have the boosters when Neo turns four

Header

We have a new header up today.

I must say that the picture doesn't quite connect with our blog name, our caption and the details we convey. But Val is so proud of this shot he took himself that I am compelled to give it proper exposure.

So, there you go.

Mommy Moments : Hat day

As my pilot contribution to Mommy Moments, I post this picture of my little boy when he was just a wee 7 -month old munchkin. We practically had to cajole him to wear this hat and pose for picture. He really isn't a fan of hats. I would buy him different types now and then but he just yanks it out from his head and throws it away.

Here are some more of those rare hat-occassions:

Half day off

The yaya was out last Tuesday afternoon. She asked permission to take 1/2 day off to attend to some school requirements of her daughter. With no one else to cover, I took a leave from work.

Me and Neo just played the whole of the afternoon.

I found an educational pad (the white one) from some of the still unopened gifts Neo got from his birthday.

Neo @ 22 months

My boy is only two months away from turning two. The months really went fast! About this time last year, I was busy preparing for his first party. Although, no more party this year, we are all so excited on this major milestone.

He is really a boy now, no traces of him being a baby. He knows many things, speaks many words and imitates many actions. Just the other day, I was waking up Val, "hon, gising ka na." I just heard the little boy say "hon!" hahaha! And now, everytine I call out "hon", there's a little echo somewhere.

He calls Nemo (Finding Nemo) "Nunu". He started off at "Noni" then changed to "Nunu"
He knows the letters "A" and "E". Ask him to point at the letters in any word and he will show it to you.
He knows the color red and blue.
If he feels hot, he turns on the aircon. That's why sometimes I will wake up feeling cold, yun pala Neo turned on the aircon!
If he wants his "mam" he will open the refrigerator to get his "mam".
The newest parts of the body he learned is forehead and feet. He has learned from previous months his hands and his pisngi.
I show him flashcards and he can identify easily. One time, out of the card display, I asked "Neo, where's the bear?" he picked up the card with the bear drawing pointed at the drawing and then stood up. I watched him as he pulled his big bear toward me and slumped down. He pointed at the card and then to the stuffed bear! as if saying, they are the same. Very, very good, Neo!

He asks a lot of things by pointing. If you are watching his favorite cartoon and he points out a character, you should be able to say the name. If you don't know the answer he will either cry out or give you the name himself!e touches th

If his food is hot, he will say "hot". He will also declare "hot" if he touches the back of the electric fan or the connector of the laptop.

Weekend

We just stayed in the house on Saturday. I was able to do some cleaning even though the yaya did not report. I am aiming to remove as much clutter in the house to eliminate possible breeding grounds of mosquitoes. Our next door neighbor's two kids got inflicted with dengue. The farthest door in our compound got confined too because of dengue. Our street had 6 cases of the fever and another street not far from ours had 16 cases, with 4 fatalities. Those numbers are too alarming! There had been two rounds of fumigation done in our vicinity. As an added precaution, I have made instructions of not letting Neo out muna for maybe a week. I have also instructed the yaya to apply off lotion and I have placed mosquito coils outside the house. You can never be too sure!

On Sunday, Neo and I went with Ritzie to Shangri-la. We heard mass. Had lunch at Green Tomato and had Fro-Yo at H&B after. We had Neo ride the merry-go-round, but just like the first time in MOA, he didn't like it. The other day, Neo was introduced to "Cars". That's why when I brought him to a Disney store, he shouted out "Cak!" (meaning car) when he saw the Cars displays.

Around 5:00 pm, after Neo's nap. We went to the grocery with Val. Right after, we went to Jollibee. As expected, the boy was delighted.

He reads! (as if)

I was impressed and surprised with Neo tonight.

Another Jollibee story, hehhe.

Although there's no doubt that he really knows Jollibee when he sees a picture, I didn't expect that he can also recognize and associate the spell-out of the name. While we were goofing around before going to sleep, he pulled out something from the trash and I already saw that it was a box wrapping of Jollibee's tuna pie. The wrappings do not have any picture on it, just colored texts.

With the aim of just testing him, I pointed out the words and then asked, "What does the word say, Neo?"

He stopped for a moment. Shortly looked hard at the words. And then blurted out, "yayibi!" And now, he reads! Hahhahah! Just noticed that the way he said it tonight was closer to the actual sound of the word. Before he would say, "Yabi-yabi".

Again, I made another test. Heheh. To prove my case. I opened Bob the Builder's site on the laptop. The start page did not contain pictures, just the logo. I pointed, "Neo, look, o".

He readily recognized, pointed out on the screen and shouted, "BOB"!

Hahahha! Marunong na magbasa ang anak ko!

_____

Most children begin the process of reading by learning what is called SIGHT WORDS. These are words that are taken as wholes or units. Children learn to recognize these words by sight.

Again! Fro -Yo!

I had another take of the frozen yoghurt of Hobbes and Landes today. After a meeting at Bonifacio Highstreet my companion and myself made a short trip to the shop before heading back to the office.

It made my day, again!

At Hobbes and Landes, I bought two new in "indestructible cars" to add to Neo's collection.

Super absorb

May I just share my liking on this towel which was given by Ritzie a few months back.

CUTTING EDGE
TOWEL TECHNOLOGY
AQUAZORB
HYPOALLERGENIC SUPERSOFT SUPER ABSORBS
GENTLY EXFOLIATES CLEANS DEEP DOWN TO
YOUR PORES RAPID DRY TIME EXTREMELY DURABLE

You dont even have to rub to your skin to dry off. Just wrap it around and wetness will be absorbed quickly.

Pyjamas

I bought another set of pajama's from the tiange last week.

The boy

look at him,
the boy we love so dear

time will come and he will be independent and free

and as he pull away from our hold
we will let him be ...

but
to this boy
we give the promise
that each time he looks back,

its papa and mommy he'll surely see!

Shoes, then and next

Neo's old ones. Done with. Served its purpose.


Neo's next ones. Still a few inches big. For his future adventures.


and, these? these he really doesn't like...

1st day of September

Wow! we have just entered September! Pretty soon Christmas thingies will be all over. But before the Christmas excitement let me fix my focus on Neo's 2nd birthday. We haven't got anything in mind yet on what to do on this day. I have to think about it soon!

Also today is the birthday of my Mommy. She's 63. I just called and greeted her on the phone this morning. I was not able to join the sisters going home this weekend because I have work Monday. Maybe we'll have a post celebration next weekend.