I miss my stay-at-home days with my little one. I always find myself wanting to spend more time with him and the time I have never seem enough to do all the things I want to do with him and for him. Ramil and I are talking about my possible return to staying home next year. It’s still going to be a sacrifice for me because I love teaching! But I guess something’s got to give and I can always go back to teaching but I cannot go back to Mateo early years. I just need to prepare for it and I am praying that we will be given the means to push through with our plans. I might start checking out a more real and regular online job unlike blogging which can be very irregular at times. I have a friend who’s also looking for work from home IT jobs. I just hope we both find something for us.

I’m so dying to watch the Eraserheads concert this Saturday! Unfortunately, Ramil is scheduled for a tooth extraction next week which can be very expensive. Lest commercial collection agencies, I had to control my huge urge to just throw everything up in the air and just to click the buy button. Right now, I’m still trying to find some wiggle room in our already very tight budget so that I could squeeze in two concert tickets. Let’s just hope I get to do that before all tickets get sold out.

Ever since I learned how to drive, I ‘ve been more afraid of trucks. Since the place where we live in is a hill, a truck driving behind me could be very terrifying. There have been one too many instances of trucks whose breaks would malfunction and the results would rage from heavy traffic to an uprooted tree or (God forbid!) a pedestrian’s life. It’s great if you know somebody like a Nebraska Truck Accident Lawyer but how about if you don’t have enough money for one? Trucks will always be one of my most feared road entity. A big old truck and an unrealiable driver behind its steering wheel would spell a nightmare.

Long weekends are always such a treat. The 3-day weekend last week was reduced to a 2-day one because Ramil and I both had whole-day engagements. He had to accompany some students to a competition in Ateneo while I attended a training in Alabang. It was the first time all three of us were in different, far-away places at the same time. Usually, at least one parent is with Mateo or on instances when Mateo is left with the yaya it’s usually because we’re both working in school. I was set to make the most of the next 3-day weekend.

I initially wanted to bring Mateo to the nearby Club Manila East. Ramil and I have been there several times already but those were when we weren’t married yet. Ramil immediately turned down the idea because of the weather. August is not actually a month to go swimming. After much thinking, I suggested that we go to Avilon zoo instead. Montalban is still relatively far from Antipolo, despite the fact that both of them are in Rizal but we’ve always wanted to visit that zoo. Also, Mateo loves animals. Although he gets icky at times and doesn’t want to hold a particular animal, they still get him very interested. The school where we work has a lot of animals and he knows them all. He’d sometimes drag me to the area in the school where the two crocodiles are housed and he’d eagerly point and say ‘croc-dile’. He also loves saying ‘Hi Klas!’ to Kulas, the school’s eagle owl. Or he’d point at the cages of the two Burmese python, Snaggy and Snappy, and say ‘neks’ for snakes. He already bravely touched Snaggy and was even bitten by a flying lizard that Ramil found in one of the trees there. Of course, the usual domestic animals also get their share of attention from our little animal-lover. He considers Ledi, my parents’ golden retriever, his playmate. He loves looking for lizards around the house and he’d eagerly chase cats and chickens outside. Needless to say, a trip to Avilon sounded like a great idea.

Despite deciding that we will be going to Avilon, we didn’t really plan when. Yesterday morning, I told Ramil that maybe we should just go that day. We impulsively agreed on it and everyone rushed to get ready. We didn’t know how to get there and the map in the site looked like a crude, general map to us. Ramil resorted to checking out Google Earth. I made us directions by tracing roads on Google Earth and knowing my husband’s lousy sense of direction, assigned myself as the navigator. We got there easily after an hour and a half of traveling. Entrance fee is 208 pesos per head regardless of age, only those less than a year old gets in for free. Since the zoo is several hectares and it didn’t look like it was easy to go around, we hired a tour guide for 350 pesos.

At the entrance, we were greeted with a big man-made lake housing several big arapaimas.

The first attraction for Mateo was a pair of rat statues. He sat on top of one of them, pressed on the rat’s body with his index finger and said ‘indot’ just like the rides at the mall, haha!

A group of animals that Mateo knows so well are ducks. The zoo has a lot of different kinds.

lots of ducks

The zoo also has a lot of crocodiles. Mateo wasn’t too impressed with them because he’s used to seeing them already. Nevertheless, he was still happy to pose with one.

my boys and a croc

the zoo's biggest croc

The most diverse collection they have, I think, are the birds. Hence, the name of the place Avilon which means a place of birds.

posing with a hornbill

mateo likes the color too

staring at a lesser rhea: 'that's also a bird, dada?'

checking out a kangaroo

come closer lioness

with a pooping tiger, mateo: baho!

tired but happy

It was a fun and happy adventure for us albeit very tiring. We love spending days away from work especially because we always bring home work. For several hours, we didn’t think about checking test papers, researching mesothelioma, or making lesson plans. Mateo was disappointed though that there were no elephants. He kept saying ‘elpant’ the whole time, blame it on Barney’s Zoo Adventure which he loves watching. Until the very end, he was looking for the ‘elpant’. We plan to go back after a few years, maybe they’ll have ‘elpant’ then.

See more pics here.

Yep, it’s my excuse for my long online absence. It’s definitely not easy being a regular, full-time teacher, a hands-on mama, and a decent enough cook. Ever since I went back to full-time teaching, I try to give Mateo all the free time I can somehow squeeze out of my busy life as a teacher. I also find it such a struggle to plan our meals and to cook them when I get home at 5:00 pm. On more than one occasion, we got home past 6:00 pm and I’d often succumb to eating out (expensive!) or delivery (equally expensive!).

Despite my rants up there, I am courageously (or stupidly?) trying my hand at some part-time work-at-home job to help alleviate the brunt of rising prices of different commodities. I am saddened by the fact that my earnings from blogging has decreased immensely ever since my blogs’ pagerank got hit by google. Not wanting to affirm google’s decision to play god, I thought ‘to hell with google and everything else that went with my pagerank’, including the extra earnings I used to get with them. I’ve discovered that there are other ways to earn online. They may not pay as high as $10 a post or even $5 a post but there are some that promises a more regular and more reliable stream of income. I still LOVE payu2blog though, almost all my paid posts nowadays come from them not to mention that I discover really interesting sites from them like the site where you can buy the moon.

Ramil and I are praying for a lot of things next year. There’s of course, our plans of starting a small business of our own, and hopefully, a baby sister for Mateo. To be honest, if we have more than enough money right now, we’d immediately try to have another baby. After almost two years of having our own son, we realized we’d like a daughter too. Not to mention that Mateo is such a social animal now, we’re sure he’s almost ready for her.

So expect even less updates from me (boohoo!). Nevertheless, I’m always online. Even though I’m just reading and not commenting on other people’s blogs.

I was one of those who never got too interested in cooking until I got married and I had to do it. Although there are still times when I’d get lazy and would opt to resort to canned meals, I still like trying out new dishes every now and then. I just get so frustrated every time I would like to try a certain dish and realize that our kitchen is poorly equipped. How I wish I have all those nice cookwares like pans in all sizes, a paella pan, some really great knives, and so much more. I know I could whip out better dishes if only I have a spanking kitchen. It’s one of those that I know I’d want when Ramil and I gets the chance to build our own house. For now, I guess I just have to make do with what I have and my family will just have to make do with what I cook.

Yup, after more than 18 months of breastfeeding Mateo is finally almost 100% weaned. He’d still wake up at dawn though to ask for ‘dede’ which I don’t mind because it helps us both cope with it emotionally. Slowly, he’s learning that even though he gets most of his milk from the bottle, nothing will ever change between us. Same goes for me, hehe. So finally, I can try some of the diet pills that my friend has been taking. Although a 5-pound loss is good enough for me, I’m too lazy to diet or to exercise, LOL! Nevertheless, as I’ve said in my bringing sexy back post, I WILL try to exercise before taking any diet pill. Now that my body don’t produce as much milk anymore, I need to use up the extra calories. If only I could be as active as Mateo, I’d surely lose a lot of weight!

A few months ago, Ramil and I made a decision to limit Mateo’s TV time. We were successful for quite some time but when classes started, I wasn’t able to take note of his daily TV time unlike before. We were adamant when we first implemented it but tell me, if your son sings, claps, dances, and even jumps along his favorite characters on TV, would you think that TV is bad for him? Among Mateo’s faves are Barney (along with Baby Bop and BJ), the Backyardigans, Po from Kung-fu Panda, and Mumble from Happy Feet. Good thing we only have TV in the living room otherwise he might insist on watching inside our bedroom. We can already foresee the future wherein Mateo would also excitedly watch movies with us, or even help us choose a plasma stand for our future home entertainment room. Right now, whenever he’s at home we let him watch TV most of the time. He’s in school with us the whole week so letting him have a few TV time wouldn’t hurt right?

Yes, I am. Or at least I hope to. I must admit that although I am still okay at 118 lbs 5 ft.4 in. I still miss my slimmer body. I don’t plan on going back to my skinny days when my clothes would hung loosely on my body and my jeans would be a size 24. I love my filled-up body what I don’t want is the fact that most of the filling up is around my middle area. Taking a diet pill is not a solution because that would only make me thin which I don’t want. What I want is a more subdued Jessica Biel body. Big dreams, eh? I am optimistic, I just need the willpower to at least jog everyday. Let’s bring sexy back!

It’s my grandmother’s birthday on Sunday, August 10 and we’re going to visit her in Cavite. It’s usually her annual routine to go to Manaoag for her birthday but after suffering a stroke a few years ago, she could only go whenever she has someone to go with her. Unfortunately, the place is too far for us to accompany her. Right now, she’s living on her own and very happy about it. It would have been so much better if she has her own farm and all she’ll worry about are cattle supplies. I even tell my mom that they could buy a farm in Tanay instead so that they have a place they might want to keep as a retirement place. Not to mention that it’s near Antipolo which is where we live. It’s going to be a tiring day on Sunday but I hope we make my granny happy by spending the day with her.