Livin high and takin it easy

Last Sunday, the family gathered to celebrate my only nephew and godson’s 5th birthday. Since my sisters’ kids and mine are all spaced two years apart, we will also be celebrating my niece’s 3rd birthday in three months’ time. Everyone in the family was there except for my brother and his wife who flew to Connecticut last week. My brother is starting his second masters degree in Yale University on a scholarship this fall.

I love this photo of the kids with the grandparents,

for it is actually a repeat of the photo from last year.
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The only hair salon for kids nearest to us and that I know of is the one in Sta. Lucia mall, and so that is where I took little Trellia for her very first haircut ever. The haircut costs P240.

Just like any other eager mom, I brought my camera with me and took documentation: photos, videos and such.

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These days I find it hard to leave Lia at home with the maid after I caught the maid twice on different occasions and different days sleeping while watching over her. Another reason is that Lia needs a lot of activities and supervised play time. She is so interested in a lot of things and gets bored easily that I have to put a lot of effort in channeling her energies and her curiosity into things that are somehow developmental and educational.

So every time I have to do something outside the house, if it will not take a lot of time, like an errand to the bank a block away from the village gate, I do it while she is asleep. Every time I have to be away for a longer period of time, I try to take her with me.

Like Monday this week, I took her to U.P. with me, to the DUP office, Cashier’s Office and U.P. Shopping Center. In going home, we did a side trip to CDR King in Robinson’s East, had dinner at Jollibee and passed through Sta. Lucia East.

My day-to-day schedules and activities are basically governed by Lia’s schedules.

Friday this week had us going to Sta. Lucia again to pay our water bill, buy more DVD-Rs at CDR King, do the groceries and get her a new shirt, a new pair of walking sandals and a few pair of socks.

We did a little side trip to National Book Store where Lia had a grand time admiring books. She wanted all sorts of books! I had to take her away before she made a fuss.

On our way out the mall, I got her a little chocolate ice cream cone and she slurped at it like she was older than one year. It made me laugh to see her bob her head to the music blaring out of the speakers right outside Odyssey store, one hand holding mine and the other holding her little dripping ice cream cone, while her face was all splattered brown as we were passing by.

Sure, taking her out zaps all the energy out of me, but it makes me totally happy.

Weekend is always family day so Saturday saw us driving over to Cash & Carry mall over in Makati to supposedly look at this little shop for kids that carries pretty little dresses, a shop I found on Multiply. When we got there, I was happy to see that the dresses were really nice, the look and feel of it, but was saddened by the fact that there weren’t any in Lia’s size.

We ended buying her a toy and a nice Hello Kitty pen that lights up when you write and even has nice pink little feathers on it. We also bought presents for kids having their birthdays this month.

This Sunday, we took her to a kiddie birthday party in Fun Ranch in Tiendesitas.

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I don’t think I’ve ever been a party person and I would never describe myself as an extrovert, but I think, for Lia, I will go to parties, kiddie parties that is, because she loves people and she finds parties fun.

The Mayfield Park Residences clubhouse where Kria was having her first birthday party was jam packed when we got there. For someone who only goes to family kiddie parties, I’ve never seen so many kids and adults of all ages at a party. It was just Lia and I and we didn’t see anyone we knew when we got there so the first thing we did was look for Abet, Hash and Euan.

Euan, whom we fondly call “anti-social”, was already enjoying himself, playing with his mom at the playground by the pool.

Little big boy Euan looking like his mama in this photo

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My mother, looking good despite the chemotherapy sessions for the past eight months, celebrated her 61st birthday last night with her husband and all four of her children and her children’s children.

My brother bought this cake but we didn't have anything to light the candle with so my mom is just pretending to blow the candle..

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Abet, Hush and Euan as well as Lia and I were at Vanny and Jay’s daughter Kria’s first birthday party at the Mayfield Residences Clubhouse last Sunday, July 11. I felt what is probably how it is to be a single mom at that party, since my husband only dropped us off at the clubhouse and then took off to bring our shih tzu Ewok to Tiendesitas for a smear. We want Ewok to have little pups as she is almost three years old this year.

Ewok, our shih tzu, December 2008

This was Lia and I having our photo booth time. It is quite funny. She put the funky glasses on me for the first shot. We were both unprepared for the second. We were kinda prepared for the third and it looks like she has got a nice expression on too, but its too small to see. We tried to have a solo shot of her on the fourth by having her stand on a stool but well, there wasn’t enough time.

Lia and her mama at Kria's Bday party photo booth

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I saw this on Twitter, tweeted by Flow Magazine, which I follow… and well, it was funny.

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I thought the shoot call time was for 7pm so I scheduled my last Lab Fest documentation, which is for Set B, for Sunday instead of today. The call time was moved to 4am for tomorrow – and that afforded me the luxury of spending the entire day with my family at home. And ahhhhhh, it’s good to be home today.

It’s been such a tiring stressful week. Yesterday I went to CCP to document Sets C and A. I had to spend some time with Lia first so I left the house at 2pm. I had initially asked my husband to drive me all the way to CCP so I’d make it. I told him I’d just pay him P250, hahaha. It being a Friday, traffic was bad. On the way to Ortigas Avenue, we turned around and decided I was just going to take the LRT.

I completely missed Suor Clara and more than half of Sa Package Counter, that was how long it took me to get there. I even fell asleep on the LRT2. Good thing I already have acceptable photos of both plays so I didn’t have to stress myself out too much at what happened.

I already found out who Actor23 is and have finally arrived at a conclusion on how to best deal with the situation. I already talked to my boss about the controversial blog, which she has been completely unaware of until today, and I know now where I should stand.

I have three reasons to be happy today.
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It’s been some time since I last posted anything mommy-related and I figured today is a good day as any. Lia’s favorite things now include brooms, dust pans, laundry brushes and her favorite activities are sweeping the floor, brushing sheets and walls to name a few.

Here is a link to the video of sweeping Lia on Youtube.

Not to mention wearing her Mama’s clothes, trying to put on her Mama’s shoes

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Unlike the wedding in 2006 when we did every single little thing ourselves, from sourcing suppliers down to writing on the invite envelopes, I did not want to deal with anything DIY for Lia’s birthday. Not because we can afford it but because we could not afford the time, all the effort and energy needed to do it all ourselves. Or even do it all MYSELF since this party was my idea anyway and it was what mothers did for their kids. So I looked all over the internet for kiddie party packages and stumbled onto the Cinco de Mayo Events site on Multiply. Out of all the packages Google got for me, from Metro Manila all the way to Cebu(!), Cinco de Mayo Events had the lowest kiddie party packages with almost everything I needed or wanted.

This was the package I got my eye on More