Hello :D

Wow. One year of no blogging. Well, not exactly one year of no blogging because I did try blogging elsewhere but that didn't work either. I was hopeful but real life has taken over and having a toddler andblogging is not exactly a good combination.

What has been happening? My little one is not so little anymore as he has turned 2. I'm not looking forward to what they call terrible two's but I am so happy to see so many changes with the little one everyday. T and I are always amazed with the things he can do. He can't really talk yet and that is something we are working on. He says a few words but we are hoping in the coming months he can express himself more with words. Mommy friends are saying I shouldn't really be pushing for it because once he starts talking I would wish he was not with all the questions he would be asking us.  But sometimes it can get frustrating especially when he wants something and he can't express himself verbally.

One of our favorite place for this year is definitely Disneyland. T got us season passes for Christmas and we have been trying to go as often as we could especially since we live so close. We either go when it opens or after nap time to watch the parade. Elijah loves the parade. Even watches it on the iPad via you tube all the time.

We went back home to the Philippines for a two month vacation and it was GREAT! It was nice to be with my immediate family, relatives and having the time to catch up with a few friends. In the beginning I thought the two months will be too long since on the first month, T won't be with us but the two months flew by so fast. I didn't even get to chance to meet-up with all my friends. Too many things to do plus the rain on our the last week of stay didn't help either.  Getting back to routine after the vacation is a different story all together. It was so hard adjusting not only to the timezone but also to just doing the "normal" things.

October was a fun month as we had family visiting us plus it's Elijah's and T's birth month. We also got the chance to go to Vegas again for 2 days. Out of town trips are always a treat and is something that we always look forward too. 

Hopefully this won't be my last blog post of the year. I'm looking forward to blogging about our Japan trip. I have always wanted to go to Japan so this is going to be a really exciting trip for me. Hoping  Elijah is going to be in his best behavior during the plane ride. 

Hello September

I seriously wanted to start September by blogging. I opened the page thinking of the many things I wanted to blog about but the day ended without a new blog entry. Nothing new. I don't know how I was able to blog a few years back. It seemed easier back then. Now with many things needing more attention, I have less time for blogging. I'm happy to be able to spend lots of time with the little boy though as he is growing up so fast. I wish I was able to blog about all his milestones and share more pictures of him.

Hopefully I get to finish my birthing story before he turns one (which is coming real soon). Party planning is keeping us busy and a little boy who is trying to stand up on his own and walk is keeping me on my toes.

Goodbye August, Hello September but honestly, I can't wait for October.

Random Stuff

* Summer is here. It has been hot the past few days. Hot like Manila.

*Elijah is growing up soooo fast. I was told by a lot of people that babies grow up so fast but I never thought it was going to be this fast. Everyday that I look at him he seems to be different. Chunkier legs, new tricks, more talkative and the list goes on.

*Gymboree has been fun for both of us but mostly for Elijah. He always has fun just being able to crawl around and not hearing me tell him "not there", lol. Sadly, he hates it when it's time to play soccer with the other babies. I hope he would soon overcome that.

*We had a fun vacation last week. Fun but short! Can't wait for next month when we fly to Vancouver.

*2 weeks ago, I set-up a new blog. It's still in the works but I'm hoping to finish it soon.

Driving

One of the things on my to do list is to learn how to drive and to confidently drive alone. To learn is one thing but to be actually driving is another. I took up my first driving lessons way back in college. If my memory serves me right it should be around 1998-1999. I was pretty successful with my driving lessons back then as I was able to drive the streets of Quiapo (any one who has been there would agree with me). I practiced a few times after my driving lessons but never really got to driving the streets of Manila.

A few years after, My co-workers encouraged me to practice driving again. I did and we drove around Quezon City one Saturday afternoon but that was it. Long after that I was a happy passenger. I never really took it upon myself to go drive as traffic is always bad. I felt happy being the passenger. Getting rides from other people or just taking the public transportation. To drive has been on my list to learn but then half of me didn't really want to do it as I felt driving in the streets of Manila was stressful.

After moving here in the States, I just knew I had to drive. Public Transportation in the city we live in is not easy. Just getting to the grocery can be a problem. Yes, I can walk and I still sometimes do that but not when I have bags to carry and a little boy to push around. So, a few months after I moved I took the driving test (written) and then passed the actual driving test. I started driving the side streets but not the freeway yet as cars go really fast (around 12m/hr) and I'm not to confident yet since I'm always clueless as where to go.

Finally, after more than a year of driving the side streets I finally drove the freeway. It was not as bad with the gps telling me where to go. I love the speed though. It can get stressful when the little one starts crying but all in all I think I'm doing a pretty good job.

Yey to me for finally crossing out one item off my list (and for finally being able to blog again!).

MIA

That was me.

But I am back. We are actually back. We've been gone for more than a month and it has taken me about 2 weeks to settle back in. We had a great vacation but I wish we could have stayed longer. "Tornado" definitely enjoyed his vacation and it was nice for family and friends back home to finally meet him. The idea of having his baptism in the Philippines was also great as it served as a welcome party for him.

I have so many more stories to share and pictures to upload. I hope I get to do that soon.

Vacation was great but it's also nice to be back home.

Weekend!

Finally, it's the weekend. It was a super busy week at work for T. He's been so busy that he has been going home late. So, It was just me and the little one at home since his been coming home close to midnight and he has to go home to work again early the next day. I was busy too because other thank taking care of the little one, I had to look for a car insurance. A cheap, good and realiable one. Thank God I found something online,estatecarinsure.com. Even T was very happy with the quotation we got. Atleast that was one major to do on my list I can now cross out. I still have a lot of things to do for next week but for now, we will enjoy our weekend. Happy Weekend everyone.

It's that time of the year

for Proms! I never had a formal prom in high school. I graduated from an all-girls school and what we just had is the high school dance and then the senior dance in 4th year. How I wish we did have a prom back then, I'm sure it would have been fun. Seeing all the display at the mall for the prom dresses 2011 makes me want to go to one. The dresses are beautiful! If I had a party to go to, I would totally buy one, lol.

HGTV

One of my favorite channels is HGVT. I love the houses they feature and the tips you can get from styling a house to buying a house and even to selling a house. I can stay at home all day and watch the shows from this channel. This is exactly what happened to me yesterday and I totally forgot about my Aunt's request for me to look up on massage therapy program online. The only time I remembered about it was when she called me. My bad! I'm such a HGTV lover. Now if only being a fan of HGTV would win me the HGTV dream home 2011.

Sleepy

I'm already sleepy but I have to stay up with my T. He is trying to finish on a report for work while here I am surfing, finishing tasks and then reading up on safe diuretics. I would suggest you don't ask me on why I'm reading on it. Hopefully, T gets to finish on what he is doing soon so we can already sleep. I'm keeping my fingers crossed also that the little one sleeps through the night. That would surely make me one happy mommy.

World Market

One of my favorite stores is world market. They sell everything. From furniture's, home decors, accessories, wines, food from everywhere and kitchen stuff. I love going here especially if I'm buying gifts. I made a quick visit today to buy the book about how to suppress appetite that I saw last week to give to T's friend who's been trying to lose weight. Other than the book I ended up buying a few other things.

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The cashier was probably laughing at me as I was paying for my goodies as I bought a book about suppressing appetite but bought a lot of chocolates as well.

Good Housekeeping

Over the holidays, I was able to sign up for a one year subscription of Good housekeeping for only $5! It was such a steal. I now look forward to my monthly magazine. I love the new finds I see especially for this month's issue they did acne body wash reviews, somthing I badly need so I headed to order a bottle immediately online. I have to say, so far so good. I'm liking the results. T said we might have saved on the magazine subscription but that it looks like it will turn out to be more expensive since I will want to buy a lot of the things they feature.

Tiring Saturday

Today was a tiring day as we were out almost the whole day. I woke up really early as the little one decided he didn't want to sleep anymore at around 6am. Luckily, he took a nap before 8am so I got the chance to nap also. He woke up again 30 mins later. We then decided to go out to have some breakfast. Then we looked for a receipt printer and some other gifts to bring back home. We went home to rest for like an hour and then went out again to go to the mall and then have dinner. The little one's schedule is all messed up as his naps were really short but we took the chance of going out today as T is going to work tomorrow. I'm just glad little one is now sleeping and I get the chance to finish my online tasks.

6:20am

I've been up for almost an hour now. It's very early still especially since it's a saturday. The little one has decided he is no longer sleepy and that he wants to get out of our room and play in his room. As I type this, he is having fun under his playmat and I'm looking for articles on how does lipozene work. I would probably still have 20 mins of alone time before he starts crying and wants to do something else. Hmm...maybe I'm wrong because he already is screaming. Time to go and to attend to the little one. Happy Saturday!

HP batteries

When I thought I could sleep early, T wants me to look for the cheapest hp batteries online. He actually asked me to do this for him early this week but a baby takes up most of my time. He is lucky, the little one is already sleeping so I can order the batteries for him. He badly needs this for work. He uses an HP at work and he badly needs to change the battery already. Hopefully the items are delivered early next week or else I would need to check best buy for one by Wednesday.

Time Flies

I was cleaning up my hard drives, backing up pictures and deleting files I don't really need. I was looking at the pictures of my niece and nephew and in just a year they have changed a lot. I'm not going to be surprised if the same happens to my little one. I myself have changed a lot. All that pregnancy weight I have to lose. That's my goal for the next 2 months. I'm not sure if it's something I can achieve but I will try. sigh!

Birthday Gift

I had a very quiet celebration of my 32nd birthday. My SIL took me out to lunch and then I spent the afternoon with her and her kids. We then met up with T for dinner. T got me a wok and a sony network media player for my birthday gifts. I told him if this was his way of telling me that we should get rid of our cable tv already. I tried the media player earlier and signed up for hulu plus. It was ok. I didn't like that it had commercials though. I would try Netflix next after my free subscription with hulu ends. I told him that we should now get movie theater seats so that watching movies will be more fun. Maybe we should get a good popcorn maker too. :D

Weekend

I'm counting the days until we board the plane and we go on a month long vacation. I make sure I'm busy everyday so as I won't feel for the days to be long. Today, the baby and I went to the mall again. I just wanted to walk around and had no plans of buying anything but still ended up buying a cigar humidor for my uncle. I know he has been wanting one for a long time and since it's his bday on the week we arrive, I decided to get him one. I'm sure he'll be really happy.

We still don't have anything planned for the weekend other than having to clean our house. T has to work on Sunday though. He's been very busy at work something I don't really like but I don't really have a choice. At least, we have a vacation to look forward too after his busy schedule at work.

Happy Weekend!