Today, I am unloving...

Isabella is going to college this coming schoolyear so she will be taking driving lessons before the summer ends. 

I can't help feeling ripped off by the fact that she will be taking lessons to drive an automatic. Having taken lessons at A1 Driving School the summer before college myself, there seemed to be way better value for money learning to drive a car with manual transmission. Now that they don't need to teach the lessons on shifting gears, on getting the right rhythm of releasing the clutch and stepping on the gas (in other words, "making timpla") and on driving on an incline ("hanging"), I'm not really sure what lessons I'm going to be paying for on an automatic.

Okay, okay, they may not bring her to steep inclines...

but they''ll make her drive in busy thoroughfares... 

... (I got honking-jeepney-and-bus-filled North Edsa on my Day 1 years ago!) which I would never do if she took driving lessons from me. And yes, they'll still have to teach her to parallel-park. 

Still... the absence of the manual gear shift just seems to eliminate the lesson that requires the most teaching. And somehow, it doesn't seem to be "real" driving when you don't know how to shift gears. That seems to be the essence of driving - feeling your car's power, knowing the right moment to shift gears as you speed up on the highway.

So today, I am unloving... that Isabella's driving lessons may teach her how to maneuver her car around the city, but it might not teach her the true essence and joy of driving. 

Photos from annniegirl and americanhoney.

Click here for previous posts from the Today, I am unloving... series.

oops, my neurosis is showing...

If you've been following my main blog, you might already know how enamored I am with the idea of wearing one's children's names or initials around one's neck. Katie Holmes started it by wearing her necklace with a Jennifer Myers' diamond-encrusted disc pendant of the letter S for Suri. 

As I posted here last year, I'd already gotten a set of discs with Isabella and Noah's names hand-stamped on it (from Tea Party Jewelry).

Shortly after, I also got a set of typewriter key initial pendants (from Gwen Delicious).

But during our recent trip, I ordered 2 more sets from Etsy: a set of these rectangle pendants - hand-stamped with my children's names again (from I'm Blessed)...

and a set of these tiny, delicate square initial pendants of an I and an N (from Silver Mustangs)...

When Isabella saw my new necklaces, she exclaimed, "What? You bought name necklaces again?! How many of those do you need?" It was then that I realized that she was right! I am obsessed!

But how couldn't I be? Aren't these tiny (they're only 7mm in size!) square pendants so pretty (remember these square bangles and rings)? I also like that the charms are brass and the necklace is silver (naks, mixing it up).

Then again, why do I need 4 different necklace sets of my children's names or initials? Eeep, my neurosis is indeed showing again!

Photos from americanhoney, teapartyjewelry, gwendelicious, imblessed and silvermustangs.

P.S. I cropped the photo of Katie Holmes and Suri so you could see Katie's necklace better. But also to crop out those ankle boots that humiliates "Suri" in her burnbook. Have to say I crack up every time she disses Bennifer's girls' "style".

Click here for previous posts from the Oops, My Neurosis is Showing... series.

Today, I am unloving...

... the hubby's and my poor family vake planning skills. The last time we went on a family vake to the States was during the Christmas season. We scheduled our theme park trip between Christmas & New Year and it was our worst decision ever! Waiting time at the line of each attraction was at least an hour, 15 minutes. And the park streets were so filled with people that we couldn't scoot to each attraction. We had to inch our way slowly with the throng. 

We ended up splitting up just so the kids could experience as many rides as they could. Noah and I rode It's A Small World while Isabella and the hubby rode the Matterhorn.

Photo ops were close to impossible - unless we wanted a photo of the attraction with a mob of people we didn't know. So our best one of Cinderella's castle was one that skimmed the top of the crowd's heads and captured just the upper part of the castle.

I would have thought we'd learned our lesson after that awful trip to Disneyland. But we didn't. We recently booked a family trip to the States in April and turns out, our days in Disneyland & Universal Studios will fall during Spring Break. Aaaagggghhhh!

We're hoping it won't be as bad as our December trip. Maybe we can go around the park together as a family this time. But I expect we will again end up with photos of just the top of the castle.

With our vake planning skills, maybe the only way we can get a photo of the bottom part of the castle is if we build one ourselves. :(

Sigh. Today, I am unloving... our poor family vacation scheduling skills. 

Photos are my own and from annnniegirl.

Click here for another theme park wish of mine.

my birthday wish

*I wrote this post before my birthday but wasn't able to publish it on time.

My birthday wish... is to sleep in even for just 1 day. I just want to wake up on my own, when I've had a full REM. Not because of my alarm blaring in my ear.

Weekdays, I wake up at 520 to wake Noah up and nag (yes, nag!) him to go through the morning's necessary activities like eat breakfast, eat breakfast fast, eat breakfast faster, dress up, brush teeth, etc.

Saturdays are the same because Isabella has track practice at 730am and Noah has basketball school.

Sundays, we have Sunday School which isn't so early but Noah wakes me up early (why does he wake up early on his own on the one day he doesn't need to?!). I eventually get to go back to sleep. But that just gives me a few minutes before my alarm goes off to remind me to get ready for church.

So I just really want to sleep in...

These days, it would be the best birthday gift! :)

P.S. I was down with a really bad flu during my birthday week. And I got to sleep a lot. I felt horrible, but I did get my wish to sleep. Birthday Fairy, boy, you are one mischievous little imp! Sigh... I guess it's true you should be careful what you wish for.

Don't worry, I had a fun 5-day-long belated birthday celebration after I got well. I had 1 breakfast, 2 lunches & 3 birthday dinners with dear friends - with 2 of those birthday dates at Cafe 1771 so I got to have 2 slices of my fave coffee pie from here. :)

Photo from heritage.

my Monica-closet house

My house is not the unbelievable, disastrous mess you see as the "before" in the show Clean House. But just like Monica (see more of my Friends obsession here), I've got a closet... okay, a corner... fine! corners and drawers... that are shamefully piled high with category-less clutter.

Now that I have time on my hands (see related post here), I've been cleaning out those closets, corners & drawers that have accumulated clutter since we moved in 8 years ago. Am far from done but so far, I've unearthed 2 VHS players, 3 telephones, 3 vacuum cleaners - all in the storage cabinets under the stairs.

I also found my Advantix rolls, so organized in their special box. 

This, together with film negatives and "developed" photos, are now in the box of photos here.

I also found these casette tapes... 

I have always been an OST lover. Do you remember Ally McBeal and Reality Bites? The Apo & Michael V ones are my hubby's. No one has owned up to owning the Randy Santiago tape though. Amazing how we still have a brand new tape (which has a price tag at the back of P47, just in case you wanted to know).

The Basia CD isn't even mine! Borrowed it from my friend S in college and turns out, I never returned it! Eeep! 

Notice the masking tape label on the Workshy CD? That was for our wedding - to guide the music guy on which tracks to play and when. How primitive huh? The hubby and I scrambled to put these labels on our CDs the day before our wedding! When wedding coordinators and digitally-organized-playlists didn't exist yet.

I also found stacks & stacks of Isabella's childhood books and VHS tapes. After taking out those that can be handed down to Noah and my nieces, I gathered everything up for donation to the Philippine Toy Library. I have to admit I was teary-eyed the day I said goodbye to my baby girl's books & Veggie Tales movies. But the idea that they would now make other children happy felt pretty good.

So far, this de-cluttering has been a dusty yet delightful trip down memory lane. :)

Photos are my own and from here.

Click here for the ofdotsnthings version of this post. Click here for another ancient thing about my wedding. 

Philippine Toy Library is a group of volunteer-friends who provide the experience of play to Filipino children living in cramped, congested areas. PTL transforms idle spaces in barangays/schools/parishes into fun & educational playrooms to keep kids off the streets. Drop-off point for donations is near Ateneo, behind Kenny Rogers, at 56 Esteban Abada Street Loyola Heights, QC (zip code is 1108 in case you want to send them a box of toys just like a friend of mine from Singapore recently did). So go and de-clutter your homes, donate to PTL & bring joy to more Filipino kids.

oops, my neurosis is showing...

Discovering here that there are things I would have missed had I been at work, I got to thinking about how much I must have missed when Isabella was growing up. It gave me an awful, awful feeling.

Since I didn't have the luxury of taking a break from work then, I started to wonder if work got in the way of mothering when Isabella was a young child. I began to get neurotic, wondering if Isabella's low regard for tidy hair is my fault after all. She didn't seem to adopt the habit of brushing her hair before leaving the house so it is always quite unkempt.

And I wonder if this is because I never spent time fixing her hair when she was a young child. At most, I gathered her hair in pigtails or a ponytail. But I never gave her a fancy braid like this.

Brushing Isabella's hair took only a second or two. And maybe that's why she takes just about that much time with her hair today.

Is this one of those things I missed - one of those things I didn't get to teach her - because I was at work? Had I devoted a bit more time to fixing her hair, would she be sporting a pretty braid like this today?

Awful, awful feeling. Am I right to be guilty? Or is my neurosis showing yet again?

Photos from acupofjo. If it's not too late for you, check out Jo's blog for her pretty hair tutorials.

Click here for previous posts from the Oops, My Neurosis Is Showing... series. Click here for the ofdotsnthings version of this post.

the problem with a 7-year gap

While I was post-less since (aaacckk!) halloween (click here for my confession), I took to Facebook to post short updates.

Two FB friends recently mentioned to me that it seemed Noah was my favorite. And I realized then that herein lies the downside of my kids' 7-year gap...

True, the volume of posts (anecdotes & photos) of Noah on my FB page is bigger than that of Isabella's. Partly because a 7-year-old naturally has so much more moments of say, calling fertilizer "karabaw's poop" in a test, than a 15-year-old would. But also because Noah is too young to care if I embarrass him; and Isabella, at 15, I assume would be. So I censor my updates on Isabella and when I do publish a post about her, I refrain from tagging her. I am so afraid I will embarrass her that I ask permission to post a photo of her on FB.

In fact, I recently watched Isabella compete in her first track & field meet. Had it been a school program of Noah, I would have sat with him while waiting for his turn to perform, taken gazillions of photos of him (& his friends) at every opportunity. But at Isabella's track meet, I resisted the urge to hover. I sat at a distance from her. I still took a lot of photos (that I will NOT upload on FB without her approval), but I did so from a distance, putting my cam's zooming ability to the test. It didn't help that I was the only parent there watching. I kept wondering if she'd rather I just left. So I tried to act nonchalant and tried hard not to cheer so loudly during her events.

Yes, this is the problem with my kids' 7-year gap. It can be misinterpreted as favoring one over the other. When the truth is, I love both of them equally. I just need to show that love in an age-appropriate way. And because their age-gap is so huge, my posts about them will inevitably be remarkably different. After all, they are worlds apart. One of them is kissing only Mommy these days while the other could already be kissing boys... 

... (though I seriously hope not. Yet.). I can broadcast anything & everything about Noah - in big, bold letters & an exclamation point. But Isabella's stories need to remain thought balloons & my reaction to them, in parentheses.

Photos from pinkwallpaper & annnniegirl.

Click here for a previous post about my kids' 7-year gap & a feeble attempt at poetry.

Isabella: then & now

I was quite captivated by this series of photos. Later, I realized that I was drawn to them because they perfectly depict how Isabella is these days.

She tends to shy away from the camera.

She keeps to a little nook in the room, so quiet, you wouldn't even notice she's there...

... reading either downloaded fanfic or, like last night, The Mark of Athena.

Pretty ironic because I remember how she used to love the camera, how she would gamely pose...

... always animated & gregarious - certainly not quiet...

... and hardly ever alone. She was so sociable and desired company so much, I don't remember her ever engaging in solitary play as a child.

Truly, 15-year-old Isabella is remarkably different from her 6-year-old self. One thing that has not changed however, is her love for company. Yes, my once-chatterbox now tends to read quietly in her little nook, but it's a nook in my room. We may not be doing the same thing together like we used to, but I am perfectly happy doing our own thing - me, blogging or watching a DVD and her, reading, but both of us - in the same room. I love this...

... especially when she glances my way every once in a while.

Photos from acupofjo.

Click here for a previous post on how I get my now quiet teen to bring back the chatterbox in her.

dumb blood

As Einstein said, I am a genius (hah!). But this post is about my fish-climbing-a-tree moments.

 

As you know from here, I had a blood transfusion during Noah's birth. And I really believe they gave me dumb blood! Coz I seem to have turned dumb after. I no longer remember the many little dumb-blood moments I've had (okay, maybe the memory loss is due to the epidural, not the transfusion). But I do remember 2 big dumb-blood instances because the people I was talking to laughed out loud!

 

The first one was when I found out that pickles are made out of cucumbers. I thought a pickle was an actual vegetable, just like cucumber and asparagus. The whole pickle that sometimes comes with burgers are never as big as the cucumbers that come from the market! So how was I supposed to know that?!?!

 

The second dumb-blood moment was with Isabella. She was animatedly talking about this show Auction Hunters on History Channel. There was this episode where they spied a shark cage in one of the storage units. I was trying to make Isabella laugh by asking where the shark was. Coz I figured a shark cage held sharks just like dog cages held dogs. I did make Isabella laugh, but not because of the joke I was trying to make. Coz it turns out, shark cages hold divers to protect them from the sharks. Isabella was laughing hysterically - but the joke was on me!

 

See? Isn't it obvious the hospital gave me dumb blood?

 

Photo from heritage.

comedic births

I always thought giving birth would fall under either the drama or horror genre. Drama because I've seen so many tear-jerking mom & newborn scenes in Johnson's Baby commercials. And Horror because giving birth was my greatest fear. Little did I know that after my babies crowned, it was going to be more of a Comedy.

 

When I gave birth to Isabella, I was on epidural (as I said, my low pain tolerance made me scared s---less of giving birth). Epidural is the best, best thing! You are awake and are able to contribute to the birthing process because you need to bear down and push. But you don't feel a thing. To the point that I was still pushing and the doctors had to say, "Misis, tama na po. Nakalabas na." (Missus, stop pushing now. The baby is out.). It was quite embarrassing then, but in retrospect, it's actually pretty funny.

 

Then during Noah's birth, it got quite suspenseful. I lost a lot of blood and after Noah came out, I heard the doctors ask for a unit of blood. Then I heard panicked voices yelling, "30 na lang BP! Asan na yung dugo?!... Zero na ang BP!" (BP is down to 30. Where is the blood?!... BP is down to zero!). I heard the heartbeat monitor go from a slow & regular "toot... toot... toot..." to a very quick "toottoottoottoottoot" I remember the thoughts running in my head: "Oh no! Am I dead already? [toottoottoottoottoot in the background led to] Naaaahhh... If I were, then the sound of my heartbeat monitor would be one long 'toooooooooooooot' vs. toottoottoottoottoot, like on TV." Then I remember chastising myself, "Duh. If you were dead, you wouldn't hear anything, let alone a toot!"

 

I obviously survived Noah's birth, that is, after 4 units of blood. And now, I can't help shake my head and clap my forehead with my palm at the memory of the now-comedic conversation I was having with myself. What the heck was I thinking?!

You see? Isabella and Noah's births had some funny moments. I wonder if their comedic births had anything to do with the sense of humor I so love in both of them...

Photo from annnniegirl. 

cartoon character makeovers

Yes, the old cartoon characters we grew up with have been given a makeover! The new ones are all thinner than the original plump, round versions.

Some even say the new Rainbow Brite has a thinner face and fuller, more red lips.

And the new Strawberry Shortcake has, longer hair, larger eyes and fewer freckles!

Some people have been appalled by the change and how it affects how little girls view beauty. To be honest, this could be a chicken-or-egg kind of situation. I asked Isabella and she says she likes the new ones better. So it could be that the makeovers are such because this generation's taste has changed remarkably from ours. It could also be that Isabella's taste (and as they say, view of beauty) has already been shaped by Manga or the scrawny characters of Cartoon Network (very different from the round, chubby ones of Disney Junior, which I personally love and watch even when Noah is not around. My faves are Doc McStuffins, Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso and Word World.). I'm not really sure which came first, which affected what. One thing I do know is that there is one character that Isabella, Noah and I agree is incredibly cute...

Yes, we all agree Puss is so cute in his big-droopy-eyed sick-puppy look!

Photos from here, here, here, here, here and here.

here we flood again

Yes, what I was afraid of here, did happen. Our street is flooded. Just a few inches above gutter-level. Neighbors say it's waist-deep outside our village (hope the families in that area are okay!)... so we're stuck at home.

Isabella and Noah were getting really antsy after being cooped up in the house for 2 days so I eventually allowed them to wade in the flood on our street. In Plueys, of course!

And I gave very strict instructions...

... not to run or jump. The kids had to drag their feet slowly as they walked up...

and down...

our flooded street. (ocmominmanila, don't worry. we scrubbed ourselves well in the bath after... just in case some floodwater splattered on us and we just didn't notice.)

I really hope the flood subsides tonight... Largely because the kids enjoyed wading in the water so much, they were pestering me all afternoon to go back out to our flooded street! I think Noah secretly wishes the flood doesn't subside...

Photos are my own - taken with my Canon S-90 - and from annnniegirl.

Click here and here for previous posts on Plueys rainboots.

the runway show i DID watch

I would have liked to see Project Runway Philippines Season 3 winner, Milka Redoble's finale collection LIVE. It would have been great to see how the fabrics really look (am sure it's different on TV) and get a glimpse (though probably a far view) of the construction (was that puckering I saw on TV?). But I didn't get tickets this season.

I do remember watching Season 2 with Isabella and a few friends. I remember being sooooo excited for Isabella because at that time, she dreamed of becoming a fashion designer (she now wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up).

She had her own Project Runway sketchbook and designed some pretty amazing ensembles. And to think, she was only 11 then!

I found it endearing how she designed outfits for other people. She didn't just stick to her own style. Because early on, she declared her style as G.P.R.S. - Gothic Princess Rock Star. Imagine skulls with hearts for eyes. Yet not all of her sketches were G.P.R.S.!

A year later, she was such a fan of Project Runway that for her birthday, I gave her a "shopping-at-Mood" experience in fabric stores in SM Megamall.

Since then, Isabella has switched dreams. She doesn't even watch Project Runway with me anymore. So while I wish I could have watched this past season's finale live, if I had to choose just one time to watch a runway show with Isabella, I'd still pick that day in 2009... When it was still a dream come true for her.         

Photos are my own, from Isabella's old scrapbooks, and from here.

Click here for the of-dots-&-things version of this post - the one about this season's winner.