My Driver’s Driver

My husband and I are alike in a lot of ways. However, in a lot of ways, we are also very different. One very notable difference is our love affair with the camera. While I like to take pictures of anything and everything, Franco can hardly be bothered to take the camera out of its pouch. Before he left for El Sal, I told him to take a lot of pictures. I want to see the food that he’d eat, the people he’d meet and everything that I won’t see here.

In his 3 and a half weeks in San Salvador, he managed to take 300 pictures! Only!  I can take 300 pictures in 3 hours. He even forgot to bring his camera when his best friends toured in California during his stop over.   Anyway, it is the effort that counts, right?  Of the 300 pictures he took, only a few were really interesting.  This one caught my attention.

This is Luis and he was Franco’s driver throughout his stay there. He is almost as cute as my husband, noh?  Hehe. I wonder if most El Salvadorean drivers look this good.

Christmas Ornaments from El Sal

My husband is great at a lot of things. He is great leader. He is a martial arts black belt. He is everybody’s friend. However, gift giving is not one of his forte.

I asked him to get me El Salvadorean ornaments from his business trip. I told him I want something that would remind us of the 3 week separation. Look what he brought home for me.

I am sure El Salvadoreans are more creative than this.

Look what we have here. Christmas lights………. made in China!

Excited for Summer

My holiday to-do list is long, sooo long. For one, we haven’t put up our tree yet. I have not even started or even thinking about Christmas gift shopping. There is a lot of things that I want to do now. One of them is to just lay down in my bed. Two, I just want to get all giddy with excitement over my summer project.

Spending four summers in UP Diliman ( I did not have back subjects by the way) made me associate April and May with sunflowers, fire trees and the tiny yellow flowers that cover the sidewalks of the business admin building. Unfortunately, we don’t have a space for huge trees. And I don’t have the patience to wait for years until they flower. So for now, I will just be picking  sunflowers every summer.

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Aki’s New Bath Toys

Remember the embudo? Well it is got company now.

Green Tea and Blueberry Cheesecake Kitkat, Anyone?

Oh sorry, I am not sharing!

Before Franco left for El Salvador, I asked him to get me only 3 things: magnets for my ref magnet collection, el salvadorean Christmas ornaments and kitkat bars from Narita Airport. He did get me all three but it is the chocolates that I love best.

These are the most expensive chocolates at US$ 26 for two small boxes.

Green Tea

This is sooooo yummy!

Pardon the bite. A little mouse kept trying to interrupt our photoshoot.

Our Daddy is Home!

After 3 weeks and a half, Franco is home! He arrived last Tuesday midnight. Aki and I slept in the sofa so we can welcome him as soon as he arrived. Because we missed him soooooo much, I prepared some surprises to make the homecoming a little more special. Heck, I even wore a sexy mini dress.

In the garage I wrote a welcome note.

In the dining table, we served his favorite Filipino food.

Flowers for Me!

Last Saturday was my 29th birthday. Just like my past birthdays, I was not in the mood to celebrate. This year was extra unspecial because my husband was away.

I received several gifts and I am thankful for all of them but these were my favorites.

Surprise surprise! My husband who is not known for romantic gestures, sent me flowers. He even remembered that I love gerberas. And it came with a cheesy video. Hahaha.

From my son, a bunch of forget-me-nots that came with big smile and a tight hug. 🙂

Spray Painting Plus

other unplanned activities.

I got the idea from my Child’s Play book.

To make the paint, I just heated a mixture of water and rice flour. I am sure ordinary flour would also work but we only had rice flour in our pantry.

As usual, Aki got a kick out of using food coloring drops.  We transferred the homemade paint into these sprays that I got from Edsa Central for only  40 pesos for 3 pieces.

I was afraid that the paint might permanently stain my walls so I put up a Manila paper before letting Aki spray away.

 

The Signing Toddler

This is a very delayed post!

Before Aki’s “Speak Now” button was pushed sometime when he was 22 months old, he liked to resort to baby sign language. I have blogged about baby sign language a couple of times here. Until now, I wonder if it somehow attributed to the delay in Aki’s speech. I just try to move forward and be thankful that we were able to effectively communicate with him most of the time when he was still pre-verbal.

I used “most of the time” because there were times when sign language actually got us quite frustrated. Whenever I taught Aki new signs and he immediate applied them, I was very happy. But what happens when he comes up with hs own signs? Crazy, I say.  How were we supposed to know that the impatient toddler was demanding for french fries when he raised his two pointer fingers? He was in my in-laws house when he first did his french fries sign. My MIL, Manang and Ate Pati offered all the food available in the kitchen before they thought of making fries.

Playing with Blocks @ 24 Months

Of the many toys that we have in our playroom, this set of wooden blocks is one of my favorites. I bought it when Aki was I think,  less than 4 months old. He used to like sucking their corners, stuffing them into his shirt and later on toppling the works of art that I create.  Now at the age of two, he still likes his blocks.

I have lost track of the the most number of blocks that he can make a tower out of