House hunting

Belated happy hearts day everyone! For the past couple of months we've been busy looking around, finding for our possible new home. We didn't limited our search in Brossard but visited nearby area like La Prairie, St. Hubert, Greenfield Park and Longueuil. House hunting is fun yet stressful. We are not in a hurry but everything happened so fast. We've seen houses of different styles, bungalow, two storey, split level, semi-detached.. and after careful consideration of it's value including location, community and accessibility, we've finally decided to get the house at C section of Brossard, this is the golf course area in Brossard and is now under development.

We've seen a lot of houses in that area including condominiums. My husband once loved a house in La Prairie but the area is not like Brossard, the accessibility and location is not good. So since I'm still on the way of learning to drive and it would be a hassle to take public transpo, we've agreed to stay in Brossard. We are accustomed to this area and we feel that this is really our home. This area is good for children and young families like us. Compared to the other cities in Quebec or Montreal, Brossard is not crowded. Some said that they didn't like the South Shore area because of the Champlain bridge, but for me and those living in the South Shore, they never know how we feel since they are not living here. Each day I'm traveling , that bridge serves as my relaxation. Who wouldn't be amazed of the magnificent view of the St. Lawrence river and downtown Montreal as the backdrop? In the morning, the sun rays added reflection and change the color of the river and the buildings around the river becomes as precious as sparkling gold. At night, it is totally different. The lights of the buildings and darkness pleased the eyes of a passerby.

So, now we are in the process of documentation and we've agreed to move at the end of May. This will be our 1st year here in Canada. How time flies! Have a great week to all.

La fete des Neiges

Last Saturday we were at Jean Drapeau park along St. Lawrence River for the celebration of La fete des neiges in Montréal. The temperature that day was around -30C, we're all chilling except Elyse. She had fun in the ice sculptured slide, had picture beside the seagull and rode the mini car. She didn't want to go home that day. In spite of chilling temperature she kept on saying... It's not cold, I don't feel cold! while removing her mittens.
That same day, we had brunch at tutti frutti with Suzette.
Have a great week to all!

My thoughts

I'm a fan of magnificent author Paulo Coelho. He captured many readers through his books and in such way influenced them as well. I'm one of them. It's been in my daily routine to read his book . On the way to school, at the bus and metro, while others are holding a cup of coffee , I'm holding his book that serves as my vitamin for the day. It totally inspires me to go on, move forward and pursue my dream.

In a couple of days, I'll be a year older. But, I'm just beginning to live and be what I always want to be. They are saying that life begins at 40, but for me life begins at 30.

I'm fulfilled but I don't want to stop dreaming. It's going to be tough but as the famous quote of Paulo Coelho goes, "When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

With my husband and daughter, I believe that everything is possible. Thanks to their wonderful and useful gift! God bless you more!

Allergy to peanuts

Babies have sensitive skin but for some reason my daughter has more sensitivity in her genes. The doctor said that I was the culprit behind this, it is because I had seborrheic dermatitis. The reason why my daughter had seborrheic dermatitis and now eczema. She have some allergies to nuts also. She never tasted nuts since she was born and yesterday she hold it and put it in her mouth, but according to her she didn't ate it. While I was having a chit-chat with friends she approached me and pointing to her mouth. Before that she was just like an ordinary girl at her age, running around with her playmate Karyl. I saw her fell down on the floor several times, the floor was carpeted and I didn't know where did she got her now swollen mouth. I just remembered that she hand me some peanuts! Until her both eyes becomes reddish, around her eyes were tiny rashes and she started to scratch her hands with rashes growing in her arms. So we called 811, to ask the nurse what we need to do. And the nurse advised us to call 911 or bring her to the emergency room of Childrens Hospital. So, we decided to bring her directly to the emergency room and then a nurse attended her, checked her BP, heartbeat, asked some questions et al. After a few seconds, the doctor arrived and checked her heartbeat, asked some questions.. that time there is no sign of rashes except for her swollen mouth.

According to the doctor, it was caused by peanuts. Now, she have to be checked by the Allergist to verify which level of allergy she had. She was prescribed to take Benadryl for the next 24 hours and some sort of injection if ever the same thing happen again and she have difficulty in breathing / the situation is worse.

All things happenned while we were having a despedida party to her playmate Karyl who will be transferring to B.C. this Thursday. I just remember that we didn't even took pictures, it maybe the last time for so many years that we will be together. We are planning to visit them on 2010 winter olympics, and they will be almost 5 by then.

There are cases that by touching or even just smelling the peanuts will be dangerous to the person allergy to it. And the doctor said that since we are not sure if she took it, we have to make sure how deep is her allergy. After an hour, we asked the doctor if we can go home and since there is no sign of difficulty / irritation, he allowed us to go home but monitor her condition and give her the medicine.

Maybe it's a premonition that before everything happened, while we we're looking at the gps for the nearest hospital in our place and she kept on saying "Mommy, let's go to the hospital." We were looking at the nearest hospital because the DQ (Dairy Queen) in our area is just located beside the hospital. We just want to get some ice cream cake for the party. So there, she had her first hospital visit!

Christmas the Filipino way

It was our second Christmas away from Philippines. It's been 4 years since we started working abroad but we are always making sure that we will celebrate Christmas with our families in Philippines. Although this year, we are far from our loved ones..... still, we spent Christmas in a traditional Filipino way. We want to pass this Filipino tradition to our daughter, like attending mass and remembering that it is HIS birthday, noche buena, gift giving, visiting friends and relatives and of course partying with fun games.

Here are some of our pictures during Christmas day.

Back to reality

Holiday is over and we're back to reality. Elyse is back in the daycare from Christmas vacation, for more than a week she stayed at home with me making a mess all over the house, playing, dancing, singing. In a middle of nowhere she would ask me "out of the blue" questions or would even tell me about a person she met / saw before. She is just adorable at this stage and continuously amaze me with her curiosity and good memory. She also love going to school and last night she said she miss her playmates.

One day while she was in the couch asking me to give her Stick-o, actually she already had a lot that day so I said, we don't have anymore. She said, "we buy stick-o at maxi!". I said, "do you have money?". She responded, "Yes! I have money!". So I asked her, "Where is your money?", "At mommy!" she said. Then, I told her "I don't have money!", and she immediately replied, "Oh, it's my daddy!", I just said, "Your daddy don't have money also!". "We buy money!" that's what she said! I was speechless for a few seconds and can't help but laugh out loud. At first she was in awe but later on laugh with me.

I have a video here showing her favorite moves! Have a great day!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I just want to greet everyone a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Please bear with me, i know it's a late greeting. I'm also trying to change the look of my website and I hope to finish it soon.
Again, a peaceful and happy new year to everyone!