Aki’s 3rd Birthday Party: The Theme and a Pencil Craft Project

The theme of Aki’s 3rd birthday party was Wiggly Worms. I blogged many times on how obsessed Aki is with his uod friends.  Although the  love for worms started when he was about to turn two, I referred to Aki as my little bulate when he was still a baby because of the way he crawled and wiggled about in the bed. On Aki’s third year, the love for worms grew stronger. He would make up stories about them. Worms were his favorite finger puppet character. He even wanted an uod sibling!
When Aki suggested an uod theme for his party, I just had to do it!

The first craft project I worked on for the party were these wiggle worm pencils.

Materials: Strips of color paper with holes 1.5 inches apart, pencils, fuzzy wires, markers and of course, pencils.

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Office Halloween Decors

From Wednesday to Friday last week, I went home past 11PM and I didn’t mind it. I was part of the ad hoc team that organized the halloween party for the kids of the employees of our department. Our company (oh, let me know if you or anyone you know would like to work in the BPO industry) holds a grand Halloween party. One of our senior directors suggested that we have a mini-party. I could not be anymore excited. I was part of the decors sub-committee but I also also contributed in the programs.

Decorating for this event was a welcome break. These past few days were busy busy for everyone. I thought people won’t dress up their workstations since as it is, there were already too many things to do. But no, I was surprised to see people actually having fun putting up cobwebs. I don’t dance but when the Central team pumped up the volume of their radio and started dancing, at 12 midnight, I could hep but join the dancing. I came back to my senses after two seconds though.

Here are my favorite DIY instant Halloween decors that my officemates came up with.

Too bad, most of my teammates were working offsite. Since they were extremely busy, I volunteered to hang 50+ paper bats.

These are the decors that our committee came up with for the different activity areas.

For the arts and craft station, we used black trash bags to make spiderwebs. Found the tutorial from the HowAboutOrange blog.

Here is game area. We got the template for the pin-the-tail game from my Martha Stewart magazine.

Define Hoarding

For a change, I would like to have a post that is not delayed. Just until the month ends. I have yet to blog about the rest of our stay in Asian hospital last August and Aki’s wiggly worm birthday party this month. I received 4 Liebster awards recently. That means I have to answer 44 questions. Haha. Good luck to me! I also have 90 comments to approve and reply. Thank you and I am so sorry for the delay. Keep the comments coming. Your comments make me smile even if you are just correcting my grammar. 😛 With the number of drafts in my head, I would rather blog away when inspiration strikes rather than proofread.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my I am just as important post. I wrote that a week after we left the hospital. I am a lot better now. Hopefully, I will remember to call the nearby studio for yoga classes. One thing I learned from the 6-day hospital experience is that caregivers, after a physically and emotionally tiring experience, need to take a break before going back to their normal routine.

Anyhoo, back to pretending that I don’t backlogs. Here is the most recent picture in my camera, taken exactly an hour and 13 minutes ago.

Define hoarding..

A Spider Goes Out for a Walk

Franco’s parents gave Aki a Spiderman costume for his 3rd birthday.Weeks before the party, Aki has been announcing that he wants a Fydoman or a Ba’-man gift (now, he wants a ninja gift for Christmas). Honestly, I think my in-laws created a problem. Aki loves his Spidey costume so much he wants to wear it all the time. The only way I convinced him not to wear it to church was when I told him that Jesus might not recognize him. Oh, the silly lies I come up with.

The costume came in handy last last weekend when Aki woke up with a runny nose. I told Aki to go to the lawn to get some sunshine. He did not want to. When I told him that he can wear his costume including the mask , he suddenly wanted to go out of the house and visit our neighbor’s fishies.

bayee, mummy!

When he came back, he was feeling much better and was oh so happy!

I am just as important as everyone else..

..in this family.

I have a recent realization. Thanks to Brooke Burkes. In an interview with Ladie’s Home Journal, Brooke said ” I am just as important as everyone else in this family” . She has a point. When I read that line, I told myself that I need to be the next Brooke. Haha.

Life went on. I forgot about that line. Then the craziness came. Then Aki was hospitalized. Then we were discharged. Then I went back to work.

Last Wednesday, I found myself crying the whole day. Actually, as soon as Nurse Jaypee, told Aki  to take care of himself, I suddenly felt like crying. Maybe because I have been faking courage for several days. I can not show Aki that I am dying inside seeing him sick with a dextrose. The only time I had to have an IV was when I gave birth. Prior to that I was never confined in a hospital. I felt soooo guilty. It did no help that I was  not  exactly the best person to care for my boy as I just came from a 3-day flu.

I am normally a panicky person but when we got the postive dengue results up to the family picture we had outside Aki’s room before we left the hospital, I was surprisingly calm. I cry at the slightlest emotion, positive or negative. When Aki was in the hospital, I did not consciously hold back the tear. There were no tears. I tried to keep the mood inside the hospital room light and cheery.

However, as soon as we said good bye to the nurses, I started feeling overwhelmed. I should be happy but I was not. I cried a bit when we reached the parking lot. My oh so sweet husband started mocking me. He is sweet in his own annoying way.  So after that short dramafest, no more tears again. I still was sad but not sad enough to cry.

It was when I returned to work that I got flooded with emotions. I felt guilty, overwhelmed, helpless, unappreciated, sad , pity for myself,  you name it. I know I am stressed when I wake up at 3AM and can not stop thinking. That was the case  since we left the hospital. I felt guilty for leaving Aki. If I were the one who sends him to school everyday, I would be able to tell him which potentially sick classmates to avoid. Or maybe, I could ensure that he always has anti mosquito lotion on him. As expected, I had hundreds of emails, 500 of them not including the announcements. I wanted to go home early but that was impossible, I felt guilty for the work that I passed on to Rosie. I felt terrible for not making sure that everything was taken cared of while I was on leave. Even if I could, I did not check my office emails while we were in the hospital because I did not want any additional stress. If I only did a quick scan, maybe there would be less follow ups. I was a walking emotional wreck. I felt like I were a terrible mother and even a worse employee. I tried to avoid anyone who might ask how I was. But when my kumarseng Ebbie cornered me and asked me to tell her what happened in the almost two weeks that I was out, hala! I cried and cried and cried. I think I cried inconsolably for 1.5 hour. I cried so much that I could not breathe anymore. Maybe that was just what I needed, a no-holds-bar good cry. I felt better, not good but still better, after that emo moment.

Divi Realization

About two weekends ago, I found myself waiting for the train headed to Divisoria at 7AM. This was 6 hours after I came from work. What I like about myself is that when I want to do something, I really do it. Well, at least most of the time. That morning, actually since the night before, I had this nagging desire to go to Divisoria and buy cloths for the pillows of my sofa. Ate Dorina washed the pillow case and they shrunk! Grrrr! What i have aren’t ordinary sized pillows so pillow cases are not available in the mall.

So, even if I was in dire need of sleep, I woke up at 6AM and headed to Divi. I told myself that I need to be back by 12noon. When I arrived at the terminal, the train just left. I had to wait for another 30 minutes. When the train finally came, the terminal was already jampacked with eager passengers. It was so crowded inside the coach that there was no need anymore to hold on to the rails.

But even if that was probably the most crowded train ride ever, the trip made me realize that it really is great to be a Filipino. Most of us, passengers, probably wished that we stayed in bed. I am sure none of us liked having the hair of the passenger in front of us touching our faces. You know what? More than 4 times, I tried to look around, found someone looking back, lifted one shoulder, exchanged smiles (or sometimes one sided smiles) as if to say “oh well.. I think it is funny that despite being sleepy, we are all here like  a can of sardines. Have a great day!” I knew silently we were saying whoooo in our heads whenever  we all swayed as one to left and right. What I am trying to say is that I think it is great the Filipinos can find something amusing and inspiring in the worst conditions.

Aki, this is for you. I hope these pictures move you. I am hoping when you are old enough to read, there won’t be similar images  because we no longer have a flood problem in Manila. I hope you remember that typhoons, monsoon rains and flood come and go but the Filipino spirit is water proof

Akisms @ 36 months

One of the inspirations to start a blog was the Pochanginamo blog. I read that blog even before I became a mom. When Poch decided to stop documenting online, it felt like my favorite TV show came to an end.

Now that Aki is very talkative, I am very excited to document the silly funny things that he say and can’t pronounce properly yet.

Enjoy!

I was sitting on the floor when Aki hit me with a toy.
Me (nanggigigil sa inis): Aki that hurts!
Aki: I soli, Mummy! –  I am sorry, Mommy!
Aki (stood in front of me and gave me a big hug with matching closed eyes and big smile) Mummy, I so love..
Me: Love you too, Aki
Aki (patted my back while still hugging me) Good gohl. –  Good girl.
Me (talking to myself) Nauto nanaman ako.

~~~~@@@~~~~~

Tina, my sister-in-law’s helper was teaching Aki how to pronounce the word WATERMELON. At the age of three, Aki is still struggling to pronounce W and -er.

Tina: Watermelon
Aki: Yoto-melon
Tina: Woh
Aki: Yoh
Tina: Ter
Aki: Toh
Tina: Melon!
Aki: Melon!
Tina: Watermelon!
Aki: Tubig-melon!

~~~~@@@~~~~~

Aki just came home from my in-laws and saw me with the laptop.
Aki: Huh? Laptop again!? No laptop day, Mummy. Fanly day lang! – Only family day!
Naguilty naman ako.

~~~~@@@~~~~~

Aki’s teacher noticed that one of his classmates always eats chicken for lunch.
Teacher to classmate: Do you really like to eat chicken everyday?
Aki (over heard the teacher and decided to interupt): No, Milo everyday!

Something for the Baby Eggs

Egg molds from Japan Home!

I have been looking for these for more than a year. Hello Jean and Leslie! Hello also to Anney, my bento idol!

How to use:

Open

Put the eggs

Close and leave them alone for 15 minutes

Adobo Pasta, Two Ways

Adobo will remind me always of the best time of my young adult life, being a dormer. Every time I went home to Elbi, my mom would give me a big jar filled with adobo. I would keep this jar in the shared ref, hoping no one will steal my food. Whenever I am sick of eating instant noodles, my mom’s adobo was always a welcome change.

Here are my takes on adobo pasta. Both recipes were adapted from my Yummy cookbooks.

Shred the adobo meat and fry until crispy
Heat some oil. Add a syanse (ladle) full of all purpose cream and another syanse of adobo sauce.  Mix-y mix-y. Add more adobo sauce if you like.
Put the cooked noodles in the pan and mix until noodles are coated with the yummy creamy adobo sauce.
Transfer the pasta in a plate and top with the crispy adobo bits.

We Love Eggfants

Aren’t these baby eggplants the cutest?

The eggplant on the top left picture is a preschooler. It was the size of my pointer finger.

After one week, this is how our babies looked like.