Category Archives: Ramblings

excited for his 2nd

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Last week, there was a power interruption in our area amidst the strong rains, thunder, and lightning. Naturally, we had to bring out the candles that we rarely use. Mateo initially enjoyed looking at the flames of the candles especially since those were our only lights that night. He then got interested in blowing them out. He’d reach the tantrum point whenever we refused to light the candles again. Everyone in our household would even sing the ‘Happy Birthday’ song and he’d wait for the song to finish before blowing them out. I told Ramil that he seems excited to have his 2nd birthday party. We have six months to go so we better save up for a good one.

centennial date

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Ramil and I celebrated our 100th month as a couple last July 7. We initially wanted to go for a vacation somewhere even if we just stay overnight. Since we’re both not fans of bringing luggage, not to mention our tight budget will not allow it, we’ve opted to have dinner at a small, quaint Swiss restaurant nearby called Vieux Chalet. We had fun especially since it’s been awhile since we went out on a real date. The food was a bit expensive but it was worth it because it was really good. We had shrimp ravioli which costs around 400+ and is good for 3-4 persons.

This pasta dish was way better than what I was expecting. I was about to go for the safer Fettucine Alfredo but decided to be more daring and try their shrimp ravioli. I was so happy that we got to try it.

We also had beef tenderloin in mushroom sauce which was very pricey at 700+. Although the dish is good for 2-3 persons, it didn’t come with anything else except for a few leaves on the side. The sauce was really good, very similar to Razon’s sizzling bulalo sauce which Ramil and I love very much. I would have liked the beef to be more tender though.

For our drinks, we both ordered lemonglass cooler. It was a refreshing, cool drink which we’re sure to order when we come back for another visit. Since we felt that we spent a lot already on that restaurant, we opted to have our dessert and coffee in a coffee shop on our way home. All in all, the date was a great one especially after a very long date hiatus. We only wish we could do this more often.

celebrating our centennial

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Ramil and I will be celebrating our centennial monthsary on Monday, July 7. It’s been 100 months since we officially became boyfriend-girlfriend. Ever since we had Mateo, we don’t really celebrate our monthsaries anymore. However, we wanted to make an exception for our 100th month. Since we won’t be able to celebrate our centennial anniversary anyway because we’ll both be long dead by then, might as well take the next best 100th.

To commemorate the day we committed to each other, Ramil and I have started a new blog. We already have our respective blogs and we thought of starting a new one, a shared one. Hopefully, we get to update it more often than our own blogs.

Despite our plans to make an exception for our 100th monthsary, a dinner at Vieux Chalet is enough for us. It’s already such a treat considering that we barely had any real date with Mateo around. So on Monday, we’ll leave Mateo with his yaya and my sister. I’m thinking of planning something more but I have to see if we could still afford it. Haha!

off to a good start, hopefully

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We’re now entering the second week of school and already, we missed a day because of typhoon Frank. I would have expected myself to be ecstatic about it. Even though I was grateful for the extra day that Ramil and I get to stay home and spend more time with Mateo, I was surprisingly a little bit pissed off because it would delay my schedule. I would lose precious meetings with my classes which means my lessons would be delayed by at least a day. Since I’m still pretty much on time with my preparations (read:a week ahead), the OC in me got frustrated over not being able to keep up with the academic budget I’ve set.

I’m off to a good start this school year. Still not as great as I would want it to be but good enough especially since we’ve got a spanking, newly-constructed, air-conditioned teachers’ lounge. My little pleasures as a teacher are my own personal space and an air-conditioned place I could stay in during breaks. Certainly puts me in a good disposition. Everything looks nice now in our lounge, everyone has their own cubicle and despite some CAT6 cables scattered here and there, the place is pretty much organized.

On another note, it’s such a relief that Mateo and the new yaya are getting along great. Sometimes too great, much to my dismay. I guess it’s just the jealous mama in me, which I’m trying to squish by the way. Mateo would definitely be better off if they fall in love with each other. They’re now certified playmates and sometimes, Mateo would call out her name as if asking to be saved whenever Ramil and I are berating him for some naughty deed. He’s also adjusting well to being in school everyday. It’s good that out of his 5-6 hours stay in school, 2 hours is spent on nap time. Also, his social skills are now superb. He’d willingly say hi even to students he doesn’t even know. It’s also great for him to always be surrounded by teachers. I am so grateful for our co-teachers, they also make it a point to converse with him and check on him whenever they see him around school. I’d even often catch some of them teaching him things and some tricks.

So yes, after weeks of terrible adjustment, we’re all okay now (I think). I’m optismistic about the next few weeks and months ahead. I just need to remember to keep my thoughts and actions positive.

still here

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Classes has officially started last Friday. Tomorrow will mark the end of the first week of classes and I am still alive, thank you. Mateo, on the other hand, had cough for more than a week. He’s been very choosy with his food lately. He’d prefer to socialize with the many people around him. I’m really hoping that things get easier the next few weeks, once we get used to our school routine. In two weeks, teh preschool department will also be starting their classes and I think Mateo will be more than happy with that since he’s been granted permission to sit-in on classes from time to time. I still have a ton of paperwork to do for submission tomorrow, it feels like a gold chain is slowly tightening around my neck. I can’t afford to be lax in my work since my time with Mateo si what’s going to suffer. I think I’m going to need a lot of energy in the next ten months.

another baby

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Not for me and Ramil! A friend of mine recently announced that she’s pregnant again. Although it made me reflect on when we’re planning to have another one too, it’s just not for us right now. I’m excited for my friend though. Other friends are planning a baby shower for her and I might be asked for help with the baby shower invitations. They already have a son and they are hoping for a girl. They’ll find out the gender of the baby this week and then we might be able to schedule the baby shower finally.

laptop for rent

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Aside from being so busy with my preparations for this schoolyear, one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to blog much lately is my sister. You see, she has a really old Toshiba laptop that doesn’t even have a wireless receiver and a LAN port. We have a 1000 Mbps Globe Broadband subscription and we have a wireless router at home. Now this makes her want to go online every night. The problem is, she’d often borrow my laptop whenever she wants to use the internet. Which leaves me with nothing to work with. I’ve told her time and again to go buy a newer laptop otherwise, I’m going to start charging her for every hour that she uses my laptop, LOL. Of course I was just joking with her. She already asked our dad to buy her one since he’s in the US right now. She’s praying (and I am too) that she gets her Compaq soon.

fit not thin

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A year and five months after giving birth and I’m still not so happy with my figure. Well, of course it’s difficult when I wasn’t that happy with it even before I gave birth. Haha! I don’t want to lose weight, I think I’m still pretty slim with 115 lbs. at 5’4″. Back when I weighed more, there were times when I’ve thought of taking Phentermine no prescription pills but now, all I want is to be fit. Despite my weight being okay enough, I could barely run for 20 minutes straight. I couldn’t stretch my muscles the way I used to. Heck, I used to have toned arms and legs. Not to mention that I still have dreams of getting my abs tight and toned. I don’t have any problem losing weight. Stress and a rice-less day or two could easily make me lose a pound or two but the body that I want would need work, lots of work. I just hope I find the time to make that happen.

updates

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I haven’t updated my blog in quite awhile. Blame it on my decision to go back to teaching full-time! Hehe! I’ve been so busy the past week trying to prepare for the opening of classes tomorrow. Mateo has had two yayas in a span of a week. Ramil and I have resorted to getting one from an agency since we really couldn’t find anyone. The first yaya we got from the agency was okay but still really young. We were willing to let her stay but after a few days with us, she got a call from her mom in Zamboanga informing her that her younger sister died. So we had to let her go and the agency gave us another one. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the new one is better so far. She’s only been with us for three days so we’re still keeping our fingers crossed that we finally found someone for keeps.

Ever since I’ve been reporting for work full-time, Mateo has been a regular schoolgoer too. Ramil’s work hours are from 7am to 3pm while mine is 9am to 5pm. Mateo and the yaya goes to school with me at 9am while they go home with Ramil at 3pm. Since our house is just a mere 5-minute drive from school, he’s adjusting well to the set-up. Although I cried for several nights over our time together that will be lost, I’m lucky that I still get to see him at least every 30 minutes whenever we’re in school. My little boy is growing up so fast, it’s so easy to get sentimental lately. I even fixed a lot of his baby clothes last weekend so I can keep them in the cabinet because they don’t fit him anymore. He’s such a talker now and would sometimes easily say phrases. He also likes to sing with me even though he’d only end up singing the last words of each line of a song. I still worry that we might be ‘sending’ him to school early, though we’ve noticed a big improvement on his social skills. Here’s a picture of my boy from two weeks ago, definitely not a baby anymore.

not so baby anymore

going full-time

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When I was still pregnant with Mateo, I was sure I wanted to be the one to take care of him. I left the decision of resigning up in the air and thought of not making a decision until things settle down and everything is clearer. I gave birth on a January, which actually leaves two more school months for me. Since the two months maternity leave would end just when classes has ended, I decided to simply resign.

Since I gave birth last January 2007 until May 2007, it was just Ramil, Mateo, and me. No helper, no yaya, no nearby relatives to help us out. We were on our own and we were proud first-timers. When May drew to a close, however, I played around with the idea of teaching on a part-time basis. Although I love staying home with Mateo, I missed teaching and I missed the kids. It was more than just a job for me and that’s when I realized that I want to be a teacher for a long time, that it’s the work I want to do. So I made arrangements with the school, found and trained a yaya for Mateo, then started teaching once again when June came. My classes were from 1:30-4:00 pm, giving me just around three hours away from my baby. The arrangement worked perfectly. I was able to do two things that I love, being a mother and teaching.

The school year ended with some people in school asking if I’m willing to work on a full-time basis this coming school year. A lot of math teachers resigned and it would help a lot if I can work longer hours. It was a seesaw of arguments with myself during the summer months. Ramil and I tried to think of a system we could use to accommodate a full-time workload for me. When Mateo’s yaya left and then sent a text message that she won’t be returning anymore, I wanted to go full-time – as a mom. Since I already expressed my intent to work as a part-time teacher, I was left with no choice but to look for a yaya. The yaya hunt almost left me looking like I took a lot of weight loss pills with the stress I was feeling. Good thing we found one, I just hope we found a good one.

Last weekend, Ramil and I was able to agree on a schedule for us – his work hours will be from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm while my work hours will be from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, both of us working full-time. After much consideration, including our financial state, we’ve finally decided that I’ll be going back to teaching full-time. It was a hard decision. I’ve cried about it every night after informing the school about it last Monday. If I let myself dwell on what it entails, I’d start feeling this ache in my heart and I would feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching and I am actually excited to once again be a part of the school. I will miss the times though when it was just Mateo and me at home. I will miss doing everything for him and with him. My only consolation is that I will be bringing Mateo and the yaya with me in school. They will be staying in the library until the daycare center the school is planning is usable already. It’s a good thing that Mateo loves going around the school and that he knows almost everyone in school already. I get to visit him anytime during the day. At least we still get to see each other even though I am technically at work.

I just really pray that he and the yaya get along really well soon. They’re okay right now but it would ease my mind big time once they love each other already. I really hope that Mateo adjusts to the set-up really well. I can’t believe he now ‘goes to school’ from 9:00am to 3:00pm. Beats any pre-school student. And to think he’s only a year and four months old. I don’t know whether to be proud of my boy for being so ‘grown-up’ about it or to cry because it seems that he’s not a baby anymore. I hope that when classes start we all won’t be stressed with the arrangements. I really hope too that Mateo knows I love him just as much even if we’re going to spend less time together.