Konti Na Lang

Longer, flatter hair for Yakee maybe.

But really, I see Pappie's face in him everyday, 80% of the time. He only looks like me when he grins.

Oh and okay, I think our son's mouth is a lot fuller than his father's was. So he took after his grandfather alright, which is probably why FIL adores Yakee so much.

Pappie Acknowledged

Unfortunately, Father's Day dawned on us with Yakee being fussy, starting at two in the morning. He's majorly constipated and I had to spend an hour with him downstairs at past 3, feeding him cereals and encouraging him to strain and push his poop out.

I was stressed. Pappie was stressed because I was stressed.

But still, Pappie Jojo woke up to this:



That's Yakee's foot and hand print. It was hard getting it done so I had to settle for one of each. Plus, because I was hung up and losing sleep over NCIS, I forgot to do it earlier. But anyway, that's what Pappie woke up to.

I cooked a lunch of beef salpicao and squash soup. Then for dinner, I cooked fried chicken and tuna pasta. Hubs bought an ice cream cake to complete our Father's Day feast. And true to form, he also went and bought our son a new trumpet and recorder (because he's already broken the drum and trumpet I bought him last Wednesday).

Living up to the name of provider though, hubs spent the whole night till around 6 or 7 this morning working.

Happy Father's Day Pappie... we love you!

An Uncommon Night Out

Twas not really an official date. I attended a bloggers event for Newport City (check out my post on Maxims Hotel) last Thursday. It so happened that hubs is in charge of the installation of the PABX system for their hotels and offices so hubs knew where I was going. I just asked the contact people if my hubby could follow and they accommodated him. It also gave him an opportunity to see the Newport City bosses (who he meets with and reports to sometimes) in a more casual setting. The president of Global Alliance even ended up learning baccarat with us.

This pic was taken in the bedroom model which we got to see. Hubs kidded me to never ask him to stay in one, hehe, because the rooms (once the hotel is finished) will start at $500/night.

It was almost midnight when we finished learning to play the casino games (we realized that we're both unlucky in gambling) and picture taking. We dropped off two of my fellow bloggers near their work and got home at around 12:30 AM, with our darling son sort of waiting for us. Poor baby, both Mommy and Pappie were out! But his Ninang read to him naman :)

We got Enduranz capsules and Slenda dance videos for giveaways. Hmmm...

Feast ala Dead

Doesn't your BP rise just looking at these pics?








it doesn't look it, but this orange spare ribs dish
is a super fave by all!




supposedly, this is gotong batangas but
it tasted more like papaitan (tagaytay marketplace)






cake from Conti's

I think it's because of the weekend binge that we've vowed again to start eating healthy.

Scary, Funny Episode

I started re-reading Pet Sematary by Stephen King... it's about a family who moved to a new place where an old Micmac burial ground had powers that could bring the dead back into life. Usually, people used the place to bring back their dead pets but circumstances drove a father to bringing his 2-year old son back from the dead.

I asked hubs if he thinks he'd ever want to bring me back from the dead. I believe he said something mushy in reply, like, he wouldn't need to since i'd be remain alive in his heart or something like that.

Anyway, I decided to finish the novel last night. I was at the part where the father, exhausted from all the grave robbing and burying he did, fell asleep while waiting for his son to come back. I was reading about the arrival of a bad smell, of soft feet thudding in the dead of night, lost in Stephen King's description of how the dead baby is slowly making his entrance into his parents' bedroom... and then I felt chomping at my chest! My blasted son was dreaming and decided to bite one of my boobies in his sleep!! Man, was I scared enough to not have been able to shriek!!!

This is the last time I read horror novels with my son on my lap! And seriously, aside from the sad thoughts it may bring, don't read about (or watch) baby monsters when you have a child of the same age :D

Weekend Feast

Weekends at the in-laws usually mean two things: food and bonding.

Since it was my two SILs and BIL's birth month, we had a major feast during the weekend. Steamed crabs, big pots of shrimp and orange spare ribs, an entire lechon from CDO and four different ice cream flavors. That was Friday night. Saturday, we went to Tagaytay for bulalo and gotong batangas at the marketplace, raisin bread at Bag of Beans dipped in the hot chocolate of Mushroom Burger (and of course, Mushroom Burger for take out).

In between, we all had japanese corn bought at the roadside.

Our car's clutch had problems so we had to leave it to be fixed after our brief stop at Ilog Maria. Good thing the 13 of us (2 grandparents, 5 sons and daughters, 3 in-laws and 3 grandkids) could still fit in FIL's starex.

Sunday, there was Chowking food, lechon paksiw and more ice cream and this luxurious mango cake from Conti's.

The kids were yelling, we were yelling after them, the grandparents were doting. We exchanged notes and tips as well as shared stories on parenting and growing up, since kids on sugar high can be pretty handful (esply since they also sort of know that the grandparents will dote on them and protect them from their 'mean' parents). Yakee at least doesn't really love chocolates... but Iya and Lianne feasted on them (as well as my meringue).

Sure enough, we had a blast. And we're already planning future trips and asking the grandparents to invest in a mini-coaster to accommodate all of us (since we do plan to further multiply).

Pictures to follow.

Pappie Challenged

Thanks to Jennie, I learned of a Parenting talk by Pastor Clem Guillermo. For only P150/person, it was a cheap and yet very wonderful way to date my husband.

We did binge at Tramway Garden Buffet for lunch first. I don't know, I was craving their sweet and sour pork last yesterday. Then we went to NIA for the parenting talk. Pastor Clem was engaging and Pappie dug his wit and humor.

One very significant part of the talk was the results of a recent McCann Erickson study that basically suggest that a lot of fathers in our society are still absentee fathers, regardless of whether these fathers are with the mothers of the kids or not. Filipino kids are still not growing up with a good father figure and this spells disaster usually, for both girls and boys alike. The fathers may be providing more materially, but that also usually means that they are working longer. It may also be that their pastimes do not include their kids at all so a really good relationship with each child is not established.

Hubs said it really gave him food for thought. I also tried explaining that, not to glorify mothers, even working moms just really spend more time with their kids. They prepare things, they nose around, they holler and snoop and do all their best to get involved. Maybe it's that instinctive guilt of being away, but mothers just simply cannot tune out of what's happening in the family like the fathers can.



So Pappie Jojo is challenged to be a more visible, intentional father (and we strive to be more responsible parents). And we really love dates like this because we learn new things as well as get to gauge how far we've come, and how much farther still we have to go.

We capped our date by having dinner at Casa Reyes and coming home to our hyper son.

May Baby Girl Na Kami!

I wish! Hehe.

We borrowed my niece for this photo opp instead. The girl is Bianca, who was born two months premature (she's super thriving no?). Good thing Yakee was not at all jealous when I carried little Biancs a lot.

But eventhough I am having major PMS cravings right now (and temper tantrums) on top of my allergic rhinitis, I think I have succesfully embraced the fact that we may really have to wait for Baby Number Two. I'm just really going to spoil Bianca and my friend's coming baby girl Agatha. Hehe.