A merry, merry christmas to everyone!

Ramil, Mateo and I spent our first Christmas at home. We used to spend our Christmas eves in my parents house and visit his parents on Christmas. This year, however, we decided that since my dad is not with us and we barely go to Novaliches anymore, we’ll just spend the holidays at home. We invited our parents to come spend Christmas with us for a change. So my mom went to our house on the 24th while Ramil’s parents visited us on the 25th.

It’s been a quiet Christmas break for us so far. We’re all loving bumming around the house, practically doing nothing but spend quality time with each other. I let Mateo’s yaya have a four-day break also so our family time included doing everything by ourselves. I almost dread going back to school on the 5th of January. Which reminds me that I need to prepare for my classes come January. I also need to help a friend look for health care jobs.

We’re just half-way through our two-week long Christmas break but already, I’m wishing it’s longer.

I now fully understand why the description ‘terrible twos’ was invented. Whoever thought of that line was not kidding. We’ve started feeling the terrible stage around eigth months ago. Ramil and I were in denial that it was indeed the start of the terrible stage. We were thinking that it can’t possibly be THAT stage, he’s not even two yet! However, the terribleness didn’t let up. Instead, it slowly but surely grew to the point when we couldn’t deny any longer that indeed, we have entered that dreaded toddler phase.

Between Ramil and me, he sure used to be more patient than me. Used to. Because when we had Mateo I suddenly realized that although I have my moments and outbursts, more often than not, I tend to be more patient and more understanding when it comes to Mateo. Lately though, we’d both found ourselves losing our wits with the little person in our house. We’d alternately half-scream ‘get him, get him’ to shield Mateo from our anger. Mateo has yet to turn two next month and I am desperately hoping that since he entered the terrible stage months earlier, he’d leave it earlier too. Just when I thought that we’re ready for disciplining our own child after teaching for several years, not to mention dog-training, I realize that you can never be prepared for your own child.

Still, I am grateful. Mateo still listens to us most of the time and we are still his big authority figures despite the fact that both Ramil and I are working full-time. However, it also makes us think that maybe one or both of us should have more time with him. Consistency is still the key to discipline and we’re finding it so hard to be consistent because Mateo still spends a considerable amount of time with his yaya.

But we’re dealing. There are still a lot of moments of fun, sometimes even in the midst of a sermon when Mateo would answer back or blurt out something funny or witty. However, it leaves us no time for anything else at home. We noticed that the terribleness is at its height whenever one or both of us are doing something else like tinkering on our respective laptops. Which means not much time for blogging, working, or researching on mesothelioma whenever he’s awake. I am seriously hoping this is a stage and not a permanent thing, for my sanity’s sake.

Time sure flies so fast. I can’t believe that Ramil and I have been married for three years already. It still feels like the wedding was just yesterday. After three years, I feel like nothing much has changed between us and yet I know that a lot has changed and I feel blessed that all the changes have been for the better.

Ramil and I have long gone beyond the difficulties that arise because of missed celebrations, forgotten special dates, and the like. I used to be a slightly high-maintenance girlfriend (I think…), not in terms of material things but in terms of time spent together (I think every girl is!). Both of us though, have immensely matured the past three years. We ended up planning our anniversary a few days before and come December 17, we didn’t even have gifts for each other except for some kisses and lots of loving. Haha!

We both took a half-day leave from school last Wednesday and we brought Mateo to the annual UP Lantern Parade. Having spent the early part of our relationship when we were both in UP, watching the Lantern Parade again after six years with our little guy in tow have its own significance. Not to mention that three years ago, on our wedding day, we were also in at the UP Bahay ng Alumni where we held our wedding reception. It was a very pleasant walk down memory lane.

Afterwards, we had dinner on our way home at Friday’s in Sta. Lucia. We ate a lot, even Mateo ate a lot, and we still had left-overs to bring home. Just a few more pounds on me and I might consider taking Lipovox so I can lose weight, haha!

It was the cheapest celebration we’ve had but it’s surprising to realize that despite not spending much for our anniversary, it wasn’t less happy.

Here are some pictures from our small celebration:

while waiting for the parade to start

eye candies

ferris wheel for freaks

mateo’s favorite

More pictures in my multiply account.

Yes, I admit I am a crammer – a good one at that. Despite my tendencies for OC-ness and my penchant for planning, I end up cramming most of the time. I’m not sure whether that means I am a bad planner but I guess having successfully crammed a huge variety of things sometimes gives me a false sense of dependence on my cramming skills.

I promised myself that I will never do a December 24 christmas shopping ever again like what Ramil and I ended up doing last year. However, we only have 7 days before Christmas and the only gift under our tree are our gifts for Mateo which I ordered online months ago. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to do some mad rush shopping this weekend to beat my 24th deadline. Heehee. I haven’t even finalized yet what we’ll be giving some people on our list. I want to buy my mom a pair of Seiko watches and maybe get one for myself also. How I wish I have enough budget to order a lot of the gifts we will be giving online. Online shopping makes life so much easier especially during this season when going to the malls is almost like going to Divisoria.

I still have a lot of things to blog about, especially our third year anniversary yesterday but, our school is preparing for its annual Christmas program and I barely have time to go to the comfort room lately. Once things slow down a little for us, I hope to make a barrage of posts.

It was a very tiring weekend for us. The trip to Bataan didn’t turn out the way Ramil wanted it to. Mateo had fun though despite some whimpers of ‘mama, home na’ at some parts of the trip. Although I violated my diet big time because I ate a lot of carbs, I wouldn’t be needing a Tonalin CLA diet pill yet because I think I was able to burn all those carbs. It was difficult trying to contain Mateo all by myself. Some teachers and a lot of students helped a lot with him especially during times when I needed to fix something or maybe go to the comfort room. Still, it was a good trip for us because Mateo and I bonded big time. I realized that I missed having him to myself like back when I was staying home and we didn’t have a yaya. I suddenly started looking forward to having more days like those with him.

Saying that he enjoyed the sand is a big understatement. It was impossible to keep him sand-free for more than a few minutes because he loved playing on the sand. Although he showed the same enjoyment when he had his first beach experience in Boracay a few months ago, it was totally different this time. He’s still afraid of the waves though and he never set foot on sea during our stay there. The waves just totally freaks him out and I didn’t want to force it on him. He’s okay on still waters though and enjoyed his usual bathtime even though we had to do it in the common bathroom. The clean sea air seemed to do him good because his cough and cold were better on the second day. He also enjoyed the turtles a lot. He’d go to the pond at every chance he gets.

There are so many more things to narrate but for now, here are some of the pictures from our Bataan trip.

Every year, our school brings the first and second year students to Morong, Bataan for an immersion field trip. They are brought there so that they can experience the works of the Pawikaan Conservation Project. I was able to experience it as well a few years ago and Ramil, being a science teacher, begged off from on 2006 because I was eight months pregnant then.

This year, I was hoping we’d come. We, meaning I plan to bring Mateo with me, thinking that it would be a great experience for him as well. However, due to the number of teachers who are going this year, it seemed that we wouldn’t be able to go after all. Bringing our own car and solely shouldering the gas expense is not an option. Not to mention that I can’t very well strap Mateo to the passenger seat while I drive because we don’t have a carseat for him. I was already set to spend the three-day weekend with just Mateo, I even invited my mom if she’d like to sleep over. It was a pleasant surprise when Ramil informed me that he could actually squeeze us in because some teachers will just be going in the afternoon.

It’s going to be a challenging weekend. Since I’m going not as a teacher, I know I have to make sure that Mateo and I don’t become a distraction to the children. With the way those kids come up to Mateo and play/talk to him, it’s not going to be an easy task. Not to mention that we didn’t reserve for a room so we might have to resort to sleeping in a tent. The comfort rooms don’t have Kohler faucets nor even tiles! Still, it’s going to be quite an experience for Mateo and me. I’ll be back with a LOT of pictures. I can hardly wait.