Mateo, together with his classmates and the rest of the preschool department, will be having their annual major field trip to Angono on March 5. Students in Mateo’s class are required to bring a chaperone with them so I will be accompanying him. We’re both pretty excited because we’ll be visiting the Petroglyphs in Angono. There will be a five-minute walk which includes going through a tunnel. I’ve already told Mateo what will happen in an effort to prepare him especially since he might get scared inside the tunnel. I’ve already told him he can bring our flashlight and he’s now happily looking forward to it. I just hope he does not change his mind once we’re there.

For this Friday however, there will be an overnight field trip for the third year and fourth year students. Since Ramil will be going with them, I asked if Mateo and I can go as paying guests. We’ll be going to UP Los Banos for a campus tour and a hike up to Mt. Makiling. I don’t think I need to check out any life insurance online quote because Mateo and I will not be hiking to the peak of Mt.Makiling. I plan to just let him walk around the campus and find an open space where he can play with his small soccer ball while everyone hikes up the mountain.

So it’s going to be two field trip Fridays for Mateo and me. I’m just hoping he’s very manageable on both field trips.

For quite some time now, I have been using a lot of organic and natural products. These are usually products that don’t contain any harmful chemicals. I started using them when I was pregnant with Mateo. I’ve continued using those products even if I wasn’t pregnant anymore. I even used them on Mateo as a baby because I didn’t want to irritate his baby skin.

Slowly, I learned of many more products that are organic and natural. As these products become even more affordable, I find myself replacing most of our often-used products with these organic and natural ones. I realized that with these products, I don’t even need to know our neutrogena skin id to know that the products will be good for our skin because they don’t contain harmful chemicals.

Now that I am pregnant, I am once again on a quest to replace our remaining skin and hair products that are not made from natural ingredients. Right now, From shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, insect repellant, and face cream, I only use natural ones. Hopefully, more and more natural products become more available and affordable.

The three-day sportsfest is finally over. The children fought valiantly and fairly in each and every game. After three days, all the players and coaches have multiply injuries and burnt skins. The number of injuries in the whole three days is worthy of a personal injury claims service, preferably on a No win no fee basis.

A service like the UK Accident Consult handles personal injury cases  and does not ask for a fee if the case is not won. Also, winning means getting 100% of the compensation awarded, without any cost to the company. Instead they recover their costs from the insurance company of the person or organisation responsible. It’s a particularly helpful service for those who have suffered an injury and do not have enough money to pay for a lawyer.

We just did our grocery shopping last Monday and I kept on thinking about the food that I should be consuming every time I’d put something in our cart. When I was pregnant with Mateo, I was almost obsessed with what I was eating. I even had a note on our refrigerator door outlining the ‘Daily Dozen’ according to the book ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’.

Although I didn’t go as far as actually counting my consumption of protein, calcium, vitamins, etc., I was still very conscious of what’s in the food I was eating. With this pregnancy however, I noticed that I’m a little bit more lenient. I’m more willing to give in to a few junk food here and there. Not to mention that Mateo provides tight competition for the apples, oranges, mangoes, and other fruits that I love to eat.

Still, I always make sure that I eat fruits at least once a day. Mateo has great skin even when he was still an infant and I’m attributing it to good nutrition while I was pregnant. Hopefully, my conscious effort to eat fruits, vegetables, and to drink lots of water would also result to a skin that does not need any eczema treatment.

I’ve also been eating a lot whenever I’m in school because the canteen provides a variety of healthy food. Also, I’ve been so lazy in preparing anything these days.

I still try to keep up with occasional ice cream though which explains the small pint of quezo real that we bought last Monday. But overall, I’m trying to avoid sweets because they are what I call empty calories – fat that would stay on long after I’ve given birth. Steering clear of them is proving to be torture though, especially for a person who MUST.HAVE.DESSERT after every meal.

I have no idea right now whether our baby’s size is too big or too small since my last ultrasound was almost a month ago. I still get to hear baby’s heartbeat anytime I want and it still gives me great reassurance whenever I hear that familiar thud-thud-thud. Let’s just hope I stay within my self-imposed maximum weight gain of 30 lbs.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my dad’s small restaurant business is not doing well. It has been operational for four months now and it is not very profitable. He has been thinking of ways to improve its earnings.

His solution is to put a lottery outlet in a portion of the restaurant. Their application has been approved already and they are eager to complete the requirements so that the online terminal can be installed already. Hopefully, with the number of people who love trying their luck in lottery, it somehow boosts the restaurant’s earnings.

On the other hand, those who have money to spend might consider gold. It’s a good time to buy gold bullion now. Aside from crude oil prices, gold prices are also rising further. With the trend of gold prices, it’s considered a reliable investment commodity. Now, if only I have money to invest.

Although I would often still find it hard to fall asleep at night, I find that it is now quite easy to take a nap in the afternoon, preferably after Mateo and I have eaten our lunch. The feeling of fullness brings about that sleepy feeling that I just love giving into.

Mateo, on the other hand, is not difficult to put to sleep during the afternoons since I often sleep beside him as well. These past few days he’s been sleeping for an average of 3-4 hours because he’d often go back to sleep whenever he feels me beside him. The amount of sleep I’ve been getting lately surely beats the best acne treatment.

I’ve been taking advantage because I’ve been noticing that it is also becoming more uncomfortable to sleep in any position because of my growing tummy. In a few weeks, I’m anticipating that my tummy will surely become heavier and bulkier which means I’d have to limit my sleeping positions. So I hope to make the most out of this phase right now. I’m going to sleep as much as I can.

My online earning opportunities are doing well right now. It has been giving me more reason to work on some of my other blogs which I have ignored for some time. I’ve been updating them and I hope to get them to earn as well. I’ve also been using some seo tools to help me in improving the site’s stats.

There are still days though when I would once again neglect them. I’m still very eager for them to start earning as well so I hope to put in more posts the next few days especially since I have several ideas for posts right now.

The past few days, I can feel my skin stretching once again, particularly my tummy skin. Ever since I found out that I’m pregnant again, I’ve been slathering body butter all over my body. Although the best night cream won’t effectively prevent additional stretch marks on my body, I was determined to make my skin as supple as possible so it would be easier to stretch my growing tummy.

Although I’ve acquired minimal stretch marks from my pregnancy with Mateo, I knew that there would be additional ones after this one. I don’t really mind that much because I still have it easy than most women. A more serious concern for me is my postpartum tummy. I hope I would be successful in eliminating that one.

My sister has been sick since yesterday afternoon and I decided to stay home today with her. She’s has body aches, headache, and a fever. She also had diarrhea yesterday. Although we’re thinking that it might be viral stomach flu, our worst fear is that it might be dengue fever. Those two are our guesses since she’s not feeling anything else. Even though we’re not very concerned, we decided that she should go for a cbc with platelet count this morning. There were many people in the lab clinic. One pair was even talking about finding a mesothelioma lawyer while another has her baby with her and waiting for some lab results. She has yet to get her lab results later this afternoon and hopefully, the results don’t show any drop in her platelet count.

Ramil and I are thankful that Mateo is never the type to get jealous of other kids and babies. Even if I carry other babies or we show affection for other kids, he never saw anything wrong with it. We knew that getting ready for another baby goes beyond buying baby stuff, picking out a name, checking out our life insurance rate, eating healthy food, or keeping our bodies fit. We knew we had to prepare Mateo as well, mentally and emotionally.

We are realistic that it would be totally different once the baby is with us every day and he’d really feel that the baby takes away some of the attention. This is why we are preparing him for being a big brother. Even with my previous pregnancy, Mateo knew about it from the start. He was very much involved with it. He’d lovingly touch and kiss my tummy as well. He knew he was going to be a ‘kuya’ and insisted that he wanted a baby sister and not a baby brother. He was also aware when we lost the baby and what he knows he is that his baby sister is now in heaven.

Although we were initially hesitant to involve him as much with this one, for fear that we might lose the baby again, we still slowly let him in on it. Nowadays he’d often be the one to remind me to take care of the baby. He’d sometimes tell me ‘baka matamaan si baby’ when I was transferring our ironing board, or ‘stop dancing mama, gulog-gulog si baby’ when I danced to the music of Lion King.

I would ‘brainwash’ him by asking him if he’ll help mama take care of the baby when the baby comes. I’d even gently remind him to be the one to teach our baby how to do stuff or even what not to do. The first thing he came up with when I asked what he will tell the baby is the rule ‘no slippers in the play area’ – although it showed that he was already looking out for his domain, it was good enough for me.

I also tried talking to him about breastfeeding by telling him that the baby will drink his milk from me. He answered by saying he wants to as well. He was initially adamant that he and the baby get a breast each but he slowly relented every time we would talk about it. I would remind him that he now drinks his milk from the glass because that’s how big boys do it and that only little babies drink from mama.

I’d like to think that he’s slowly as early as now but of course, the real test comes once the baby arrives. I just hope our little kuya won’t find it too difficult.