I'm still here..

Belated Happy Hearts day everyone! Well, it's been a while... I have been busy with school and other activities not to mention following the Bachelor, Survivor, Winter Olympics and catching up with American Idol.

This was a pretty tough week, I have midterm exams plus a terrible backache. This morning I had this conversation with my daughter:

Elyse: Mommy, please "arga"! (arga or karga from our bedroom going downstairs)

Me : Sorry, i can't. My back is still not ok.

Elyse: your back still ouch Mommy?

Me: Yeah...

Elyse: you should go to doctor Mom, the doctor will check you! ok, mom?

Me: you're right, i should go to the doctor.

Elyse: yes mom.. don't worry, your back will be fine.

She's really thoughtful. It melts my heart to hear those concerns from the smallest person in the house. :)

Have a good week everyone!

She's clever!

Her never ending please and unstoppable kiss will make her dad pause from whatever he is doing and listen to "any" of her wishes. Last night she did absolutely the same thing. We were at the family room watching tv when daddy was asked to get this pooh puzzle from her room. On the other hand, dad immediately went upstairs to get "her" stuffs. We caught ourselves laughing due to her cleverness! She really knows how to control her dad.

Daddy was laughing but at the same time felt weird because at 3 years old, Elyse can manipulate him according to her liking. She is smart but I’m anxious.

The Chipettes

I was wondering why she kept posing like this, and yesterday I realized that I should have asked her. Then she said, "Remember mommy, Brittany of the Chipettes? I like her! She also does that." And then she started dancing.. humming to "Single Ladies" of Beyonce. I just remembered that she is currently fond of watching "Alvin and the Chipmunks 2" movie.

So there, a major influence of Brittany to my daughter. By the way, here are the Chipettes! :)

Birthday dinner

We had a sumptuous dinner last night at Kabana resto bar just 10 minutes away from our home. We initially wanted to have dinner at Niji, a Japanese sushi bar but were drawn by the crowd at Kabana. It is a gorgeous place with "gorgeous" staffs! My husband was so pleased that we choose Kabana, and for sure he will keep coming back. :) Sadly, we we're not able to take pictures of the staffs. The resto bar has a warm trendy atmosphere and the food was great too!

Trial Video

I'm just trying out to compile the pictures thru Video. For a moment, check out this one. Have a good day everyone! :)

Hubby's Birthday surprise!

My hubby just arrived from his business trip and he brought along this as his birthday gift to me! I'm not expecting this since I know he isn't patient enough to look around and find something for me. Also, I heard that the situation in London is pretty odd due to weather conditions. I bet he wasn't able to explore London, and he preferred to stay in the airport for a day waiting for his flight. Well, obviously I'm wrong!

When he arrived from the airport, Elyse and I were at the basement watching American Idol.. He was smiling at me, like he wasn't tired, embraced and kissed me.. "Hi! Honey! I'm home!" and so I got his bag and went directly inside the house. I shut the door and immediately prepared his meal. Not knowing about his surprise, he went back to the door.. and with his shoes off, he went out.. got something from our doorsteps.... He smiled and surprised me with this bag!

Fred: "Happy Birthday Honey, kala mo ha.."

Me: Wow! Thanks hon! I really like it!

Elyse: Mommy, i like your bag!

On the other hand, the little girl was so happy with her new Teddy bear, a pair of new socks and toothbrush. She immediately got her bike and enjoy the ride with her new Teddy. :)

Bored

Recently, I was stricken by massive amount of boredom. I used to be a SAHM, but now that I'm studying and busy with lots of stuffs. I can't imagine myself staying in the house 24/7! Its maybe because my daughter is independent now, unlike before that I should change her nappies every now and then, feed her, play with her. At 3 yrs old, she didn't have much wants, or should I say, she didn't want me to be around her all the time.

And now that I want to do some LO's, my laptop is with my husband on his business trip.. while I'm using his laptop minus the software I'm using for digiscrapping. I'm pretty bored! Hayyy!

I was talking with my Auntie Ninang over fb this morning, and I missed them back home. I hope we can sneak in some time this summer for a much awaited vacation in PI. Elyse was this small when we last visited PI. It was March 2008, for the 70th birthday of my mother. I want her to reunite with her cousins too.

And this was when we attended Ninang Cha's recital at UP Theater. Ninang Cha is now in Memphis for her Master's degree. How time flies..

Christmas is over..

After a few days of being in lazy mood, plans of keeping the Christmas decors is put on hold.. but today I finally did it! all by myself! As expected, my husband was again...surprised.. "how did you moved the Christmas tree to the basement? Isn't it heavy?" and so on.. When i came home that afternoon from the daycare with my daughter... she had the same sentiments.. she immediately noticed our fireplace without decor.. and she insisted to decorate the fireplace again. I just said that Christmas is over so we have to remove the decorations. She mumbled, "haaay.." with her face looking really sad. I just told her that next year we're going to decorate the house again for Christmas, and she began to smile again.

Christmas was really over.. no decorations.. no Christmas tree.. For me, our house looks spacious again, lots of empty spaces.. Anyway, it will only take a while before another Christmas. Hoping that the spirit of Christmas will always be in our hearts. Enjoy life!

Addition to his collection

after work

with his number 1 fan, he can't stop playing

this.. his new best friend..

it was my christmas gift to him.. i don't have a choice because this was the only thing i knew he wanted.

All the best for 2010!

Happy 2010 to all my blogger friends! I was not into blogging for a while since I'm busy studying, but i'm on vacation until January 20, so I have time to blog hop and post some updates. Let me start by posting some of our holiday pics. It was indeed a joyful Christmas and New year celebration for us. I'm wishing everyone a loving, peaceful and joyful 2010!

We celebrated Christmas with our friends and their families, while adults ended up playing taboo until 4:00 in the morning. We had fun games for kids as well as for adults courtesy of our friend Allan. The party was a blast! It was indeed a memorable one. Belated Happy Christmas to all.

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!

Snow and headache

Here's the result of non-stop snowing yesterday. It is a total nightmare for commuters, the slippery and wet road conditions. I just let my daughter stay in the house today since our car is still out there full of snow! My husband is not patient enough to wake up early and remove the snow so, I just did it a while ago and caused me headache. At least i removed some, but it will take more time to remove those frozen ice.

Elyse was also out there with me making snow balls, and playing with her shovel. Now she fell asleep in the couch and snoring, I guess she had a tough day. Walking in the snow can also make me feel so tired. And also because i was out there for about an hour not remembering that the temperature today is -10, it makes me feel worse.

Anyway, it's time to cook for dinner. Good day to all! Ciao!

What I Like?

While looking inside the fridge or going to a toy store she would always say "What i like?". Kids are just smart! This afternoon when i picked her up at the daycare and we were on our way home, she just remembered her plush puppy. Accidentally she left it in the daycare. It is not allowed to bring any toy in the daycare but with the absence of any of her favorite toy, she would throw tantrums the whole day. So, her teacher allowed her to bring one but would then be placed in a box while in the school. She can only get them when it's time to go home.

So to make her stop from crying, i just said "Ok, we will buy another puppy at Maxi." After 10-15 minutes travel and we we're just into our doorway, she immediately told me "Mommy, we will buy puppy at Maxi!". I can't believe it, she remembers! Before going inside Maxi, i asked her to promise me that she will be a good girl, no more crying and should eat a lot to become as pretty as her favorite princess. And she said " ok, promise!"

And when we got home, I told her that it's time to eat her favorite pasta. She love carbonara over spaghetti with red sauce. She just said, "I like pasta with yellow sauce!" She only meant, carbonara! By the way, it's her picture with princess accessories and her favorite plush puppy. While she's playing now, she just said "Ohh my goodness!" :) Yeah.. Ohh my goodness! She really knows what she likes.

Little Princess!

Yesterday, teacher Sabina mentioned that this Monday (December 8), Santa Claus will visit the children in school. I just said, "It's too early!". And she said, "Yeah, it's a little bit early this year, they will have their Christmas party in the school! So, now I don't have a choice but to look for a dress that will suit their Christmas party theme. Teacher Sabina said "Anything red!". Good thing is I still have those red dress from Ate Sylvia. She was a good friend in Morocco. While I was talking to the "little girl", I was surprised when she said "I want the princess dress, mommy!". And even last night, after bathing her she kept on looking where was her princess dress and wanted to wear it right away. I just said, "Not tonight! but on Monday, baby!". She is just fascinated with princess and fairies now, the effect of Disney's Cinderella, Snow White and Tinker Bell. Like when our friend gave her a set of princess accessories, I was thinking of sending it to the Philippines for my niece. I never thought that Elyse would wear those, she just know how to put the tiara, ring, necklace and asked me to put her earrings on. Suddenly, I just realized that she's starting to act like a lady! And then she's calling herself Princess Elyse, with magic wand on her hand she would say "abra kadabra"!

And since she cannot wear her princess costume on the school's Christmas party, I will get her a princess-like dress that she's going to wear on Christmas. This dress from GAP and The Children's place caught my attention. I'm gonna check it in the store this weekend. I hope that they still have her size or at least i have other options. Have a great day everyone!