Monthly Archives: July 2007

half a year today

Posted on by
6
Mateo is half a year old today and it's time for some updates on him. About a week ago, he has started doing this:

He can now support himself on all fours and would do some back and forth rocking movements while on this position. He can now do crawling moves with his legs but his arms always seem to be stuck to the mattress. He is also a mainstay on the floor now because we absolutely do not want to leave him on the bed since he's been moving around and doing some 360 degrees while on his tummy. I don't want to leave him on his playpen too because the space seems too little for me. What we do is put a thin mattress on the floor and he gets to roll around and learn to crawl as much as he can.

In celebration of his sixth month, Ramil and I, together with my mama and sister, brought Mateo to Pic-a-Boo in SM North yesterday. We all had fun choosing costumes for him and putting them on him. Unfortunately, he was already fussy when we got there so he refused to smile more than half the time. Prints will be claimed next week so I'll just post them then. We also plan to go back sometime before his first birthday to have more cute shots taken :)

Before we went there though, we decided to have our own picture taking outside my parents' house.


me&Mateo           Mateo&Tita


our small family
We are also starting to see small white buds on Mateo's gums, which explains his irritability at times coupled with frantic attempts to gnaw at something. I've been looking for some Gerber teething biscuits but I couldn't find any. Mateo doesn't like usual kind of teethers and I've had to resort to putting my thumb/forefinger inside his mouth and massage his gums. I've also given him Calpol on occasions when he would cry out as if in pain.
My mama has also been bugging us that Mateo is thin (huh?) and has discreetly given instructions to yaya Cat to feed him more. Hehe! According to Mateo's pedia, he is heavy for his age but I've noticed that he hasn't been gaining weight as much as before. I attribute this to the tsismoso in him. Feedings would often be interrupted whenever he would hear someone talking. The only way for him to have an uninterrupted feeding session is to isolate him.

I can't believe our little baby is half-way through to his first birthday already!

single motherhood

Posted on by
12

When I was still in the corporate world, my days would consist of a lot of chikahan with my then-officemates. During one of these chikahan with a male officemate, we got to talking about some people we know from high school specifically about a girl we both know. This girl got pregnant a few years back and has had several boyfriends since then. 

Suddenly, a female officemate interrupted our conversation and asked what happened to the baby. My male officemate told her that the baby has been with the girl ever since. My female officemate commented "Kawawa naman talaga ang girls pag ganyan no?", referring to the girl's predicament with disdain clearly showing on her face. I sincerely doubt her kawawa statement and I can tell that just from listening in on our conversation, she has already passed judgment on this girl. I retorted by saying "Ba't sya kawawa, she gets to keep the baby!" She was taken aback, considered what I said and wisely chose to say nothing more.

This just goes to show the stigma that sometimes go with being a single mother. Although eyes and minds are more open now than years ago, there are still some people who look down on these women.

Let me give you another example, I know of a single mother who have been turned down for a job several times simply because she had a child out of wedlock. The fact that she is applying as a teacher in several schools (nope, she wasn't turned down by our school) makes the discrimination all the more maddening. What kind of values does this promote? It sends a deafening message that reeks of disrespect and injustice.

Now that I am a mother myself, I feel all the more indignant whenever I hear stories like these. Whatever the circumstances might have been for them to be single mothers, I will never look down on them but instead, look up to them.

Being a mother is hard enough, doing it on your own makes it all the more difficult. That these women can nurture their child even without the support of a partner is admirable. That they can give enough love, care, and affection as a mother and as a father is unbelievable. That they can bring up a healthy, well-rounded individual on their own is incredible.

Some people might think of their circumstances as a mistake. Some of them might have thought so too when they found out they are pregnant. I'm pretty sure though that none of them would think of it as a mistake everytime they look at the product of it. We shouldn't be judged nor defined by the choices that we make but by how we chose to live after making those choices.  

share the files

Posted on by
Reply

Ramil and I have been thinking of buying another laptop for quite some time now. With me doing part-time work and some blog opportunities, he hasn’t been able to bring our laptop to school. It really pays to have your own laptop if you’re a teacher. Ramil would usually have a lot of powerpoint presentations to show to his students. Not to mention that our laptop has been having some problems.

It would take us some time and a lot of money though to be able to buy a new one. So right now, we’ve resorted to backing up our files every now and then. We’re also exploring some file sharing so that he can access files even when he is in school. There are also times when we stay in my parents’ house in Novaliches and it helps to have access to our files even without our laptop. Good thing we discovered Driveway. What’s really good about this new online file sharing service is that it is free! Also, we can upload as many files as we want because it offers unlimited total storage and it has no download limits. Which means we can upload files for our students for download. Since one of our school’s thrust is caring for the environment, we’ve been pushing for a paperless mode of instruction and this just might be a good option. I guess Ramil and I will try it for ourselves for a few days and see what happens.

the faucet’s on

Posted on by
6
He's now officially the spit monster. Yep, Mateo just found this initially-cute-but-turning-into-an-irritating habit:

He has learned that his mouth and tongue, together with his saliva, can function as a fountain. He now greets us with his tongue stuck out and a shower of saliva. He looked so adorable during the first few times but with the amount of drool that can now be constantly found on his chin, on his neck, on his hand, on his shirt, on our bedsheets, on our arms, on our shoulders, and on our faces, we are slowly trying to make him understand that it's not very funny anymore. LOL. Seriously, we still find him very adorable. We'll let him have fun with this new habit for now, until the next new trick he will discover ;)

it’s better to give and to receive

Posted on by
2

I have been on the prowl lately for more ways to earn online. Since January of this year, I have stayed home to be a hands-on mama to Mateo. Good thing I discovered PayPerPost! It has been keeping our small family afloat for several months now.

Before I joined PPP, my old blog earned dollars for me though very few to be considered significant. I put Google Adsense in it but for the life of me, can't seem to figure out how they compute for the earnings. According to some probloggers, Google Adsense can be very profitable as long as you know how to place your ads and to write posts that effectively targets good paying ads.

Ever since opportunities in PPP have been going (gray) in the blink of an eye, literally, I've figured that I should start considering other options that would let me earn more. There are a lot of sites out there that provides revenue share for its members! In some sites, not only do you receive money, you could help to give it to others too by earning with them. Aside from money, some sites also give away free stuff like computer games, iPods, and CDs.

I've been trying to explore some but I think I'm going to need more online time. Hehe! With my part-time work as a teacher, I also find myself inevitably bringing home work. Not to mention that Ramil and I need to share computer time since we only have one laptop. We plan to buy another once finances get a bit better. Hopefully, I can explore these sites some more. The freebies are enough of a come-on for me ;)

7 random facts about me

Posted on by
6

I've been tagged by Daisy and Jeng. So here goes…

1. I used to be called <i>talbog</i> by some of my former officemates because according to them (I always try to refute it), I like to bounce and skip around. Huh? Undecided

2. I love staying at hotels. Ramil and I used to have overnight stays at different hotels. We try to stay at a hotel we haven't tried yet. So far, we've tried Dusit Hotel, New World Renaissance Hotel, Edsa Shangri-la Hotel, Richmonde Hotel, and Linden Suites. We still have a lot on our list but a hotel stay can hurt the pockets especially since we could use the money instead for Mateo's vaccines.

3. I used to work as an actuarial specialist in one of the country's top insurance companies and has already passed an SOA (Society of Actuaries) actuarial exam. So what was my work before teaching scraggly, boisterous kids? Among my many regular tasks were valuation – how much should the company keep as a reserve to be able to pay all its liabilities to its planholders, product pricing – how much should the company charge the planholders to make sure it can deliver its promised insured amount upon due, projection – given assumptions by management what are the company's figures in the next five years, reports – mountains and mountains of them, and a bunch of other mediocre tasks.

4. I've handled kids with special needs – kids with autism, ADHD, learning disability. Teaching them can sometimes be more rewarding than teaching other kids. There were many difficult times when fulfillment from teaching would come from them.

5. I used to know several languages – Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese – aside from English and Filipino. My course in college has a lot of electives in its curriculum and I decided to use them up by learning several languages. Sadly, language is a skill and skills are on a use-it-or-lose-it basis. Hence, I can barely remember much from them. :(

6. I love mangoes. Mango shake, dried mango, mango pie, mangoes and cream, yellow mangoes, green mangoes, indian mangoes, apple mangoes, anything mango!

7. Contrary to what other people might think, I was never the model student. When I was in second year high school, I was almost on probationary status because of my attendance record. My mama was surprised because I go to school every single day. My guy classmates when I was in fourth year high school called our group <i>delingkwente</i>. Note: there were only girls in the group. And when I was in college, my classmates and teacher wouldn't know that I am a student in that class because they would see me only during exams. I still get good grades so I didn't feel any urgency to start attending classes. 

Done! I'm gonna violate the rules though and not tag anyone :)  

i hate

Posted on by
9

I've been tagged by Nice.

1. Food you hate – um, pakbet? (read #3 for explanation)

2. Fruits you hate – I love all kinds of fruits!!! :)

3. Veggies that you hate – Ampalaya and okra. 

4. Celebrities or people that you hate – People who are ma-<i>papel</i> and people who are very judgmental and self-righteous.

5. Event/Incident/Situation that you hate – any situation that makes me feel helpless

6. TV shows or movies that you hate – WWF shows (sorry wrestling fans)

7. Type of music that you hate – Hate would be a strong word for it but I usually have little tolerance for metal.

8. Household chore that you hate – Ironing, mainly because I don't know how :)

9. Things you hate about the world – discrimination, poverty, injustice

10. Things you hate about yourself – I'm a crammer and a procrastinator. Of course, it comes in handy whenever the situation calls for it but my life would sure be easier if I learn to do things early.

Next… I'm tagging Jeng, Hannah, Daisy, Mai, and anybody else who'd like to do this.