Working Mommy No More

M's Birthday Party Series: Lootbags

2011-11-23T17:50:00.001+08:00

Since my baby's party theme is Pirate, I gave out treasure chest lootboxes. Bought the boxes from Chocolate Lovers for Php 89 for pack of 10s. Then inside I placed treasure-themed items (well, at least majority of them):

- RING pops
- iced gems cookies (Gems = treasure)
- Goya gold coins and golden balls bought from Chocolate Lovers
- gold/orange colored candies like Butterfinger, TofiLuk, Orange swits
- silver foil covered goodies such as mallows and choco crunchies
- non-themed food items are pixy sticks and oreos

for non edilble items I placed the following
- bubbles (bought these from eBay. they are angry bird designs so I just covered them using my own design)
- mini yoyos from Toys R Us (these are actually Ben10 yoyos. I covered them with my own design)
- play doh

I over estimated the amount of candies I bought. I wasn't able to put alot since the box was a bit small. The excess chocolate coins and balls, I placed them around the cake. Instant candy bar for the kids during the party

M's Birthday Party Series: Passion Cooks

2011-11-09T16:44:00.001+08:00

Ever since I've tasted Passion Cooks during a birthday party of a friend, I knew that once in my life I should try to get them for an event. Sadly, their packages are always out of my budget. Not that they are THAT expensive cause they are reasonably priced. There are other caterers that are far more expensive. Maybe it's all because my budget is THAT small. I considered getting them for M's baptism since my husband gave me a reasonable working budget. However, since I only had a little over a week to prepare, looking for a venue was next to impossible hence getting PC was out of the question.

For M's first birthday, I've considered other caterers but a nagging feeling told me to inquire with them and see if they can accommodate my budget. From the very start I told the ever affable Maja Martinez that I'm working on a very tight budget and would only want a simple merienda cena menu. This is a practical choice since my party is only for 2 hours (an hour of playtime and another hour for eating). She did not brushed me off and simply said she'll see what she can do. After the long holidays, her AE Melissa was the one who contacted me. She presented the proposal and with a few revisions, we came up with this final menu:

Classic Spaghetti Bolognese

Meat sauce served on a bed of spaghetti with a good sprinkling of grated Parmigiano cheese

Quiche Lorraine (Bacon and Mushroom / Mint and Spinach)
Eggless, and baked to perfection in a pastry crust

Wild Mushroom Vol-au-vent
Savory wild mushrooms stuffed in a small hollow case of puff pastry

Chicken and Ham Crepe
Chicken, Ham and Cheddar cheese, rolled up in a sweet crepe, topped with gravy Sauce

Panna Cotta
Topped with caramel or strawberry sauce

The initial proposal for the desserts were Cream Puffs and Gelatin shots. But I so love their Panna Cotta that I must have that during M's party. Besides, my Tita Joy of Big Al's Cookie Jar provided her best seller Decadent Chocolate Cake and Butter Cake. Desserts overload!

Days before the party I was afraid that the food might not be enough. I ended up ordering cupcakes and mini taisan cups from Shoppersville. Also on the day of the party, I ordered mini corn dogs from a store near Gymboree. Totally bad idea. The food provided by Passion Cooks was more than enough. We had so much leftovers. My mom, lola, cousin and brother brought home some. We also gave a lot to some friends and to the guards in our condo but we still find ourselves swimming in leftovers. Not that I complain cause the food is really good.

Melissa and her team came early to the venue. The waiters were very courteous and attentive to the guests. My only complaint though was the head waiter did not clear with me first if they can plug the water heater for the coffee. Well, I didn't know they will be serving coffee. So Gymboree charged me Php 500 as electricity charge. I had to force my husband and his friend to have coffee there instead of going to Starbucks just so my Php 500 won't go to waste. But other than that slip-up, Passion Cooks delivered excellent service.

If you're interested in getting Passion Cooks check passioncooks.multiply.com

M's Birthday Party Series: Invitations

2011-11-09T15:13:00.001+08:00

After I got the Pirate Pocoyo images from my brother, I started working on the invitation. I was able to download a pirate digi-scrap kit from the internet. I used some of the elements to come up with this:

I mostly gave this out as e-vites (electronic invitation). But for those who received printed copies, they received theirs looking like this:

I made use some of my cupcake toppers to seal the envelopes. Double purpose! Cute eh?

M's Birthday Party Series: Theme

2011-11-09T14:53:00.000+08:00

I have always wanted to a Pirate Themed birthday party. But hubby was not totally sold on to the idea because with the skulls and crossbones and the dark color scheme, it is not exactly a child-friendly theme. But I bargained that if I'm able to find a way to make it look lively, he should allow me to do a pirate themed party.

First, I asked my brother to make me a pirate character based on Pocoyo. Why Pocoyo? Cause that's one of the very few cartoon characters M is familiar with. You see he rarely gets to watch tv. The only time he got a lot of tv time was when he hospitalized for a week last September for pneumonia. Yes, 2nd hospitalization for year 2011. Unlike when he was 3 months old, this time it was a lot harder to make him stay still. His IV was re-inserted so many times that I lost count. The only thing that can make him stay put was watching cartoons and Pocoyo was one of his favorites. Even now when you show him a picture of Pocoyo he suddenly gets excited.

This was of our initial peg:

I asked my brother to make him look like a pirate and then change the candles from 100 to 1. He gave me this initial sketch for approval:

After I ok'd on the image, he started putting color into the image. It took some revisions before hubby and I both agreed to these two final images:

My brother got what I wanted

This one I used on my cupcake toppers

Cute eh? The kids' yayas (nannies) said the character looks a lot like M. What do you think?

M's Birthday Party Series

2011-11-09T11:13:00.002+08:00

The little boy is turning 1 on the 17th and we're throwing a party for him on the November 20. We decided on having a small play party for him instead of doing a big party for two main reasons. First, we don't want him to get exposed to too many people. With his pneumonia scares this year, we're trying to limit his exposure. Second, we want to give him a party that we know he'll truly enjoy. Definitely, he will not remember his first birthday party but at least we know that he enjoyed it. And one thing he enjoys a lot now is Gymboree. Oh you just don't have any idea how much he loves Gymbo the Clown. So here's a quick rundown on how we are going to celebrate it. I'll go into details after the party:

Venue: Gymboree

Caterer: Passion Cooks

Theme: Pirates

Invitations/Thank You cards: DIY

Cake: Les Sucreries (this I will still have to finalize)

Costume: Carter's Pirate Costume by Twinkle Toes (a multiply seller)

Lootbags: Treasure Chests; contents I still have to buy

I still have a million and one things to do for this party. Wish me luck!

Beer Can Chicken

2011-11-07T17:54:00.000+08:00

Have you heard about Beer Can Chicken? Well I haven't until an expat friend told me over dinner to try this stall in the Saturday Salcedo Market. They sell what you call Beer Can Chicken and it's supposed to be sooo good. Well going to the Salcedo Saturday Market is out of the question (ummm, I usually wake up late on weekends). So with the help of Mr. Google I was able to replicate it. The one being sold in Salcedo is grilled but since I don't have the grilling space in the condo, I decided to bake it.

Things you'll need:

a whole chicken

half a can of beer (for my first try I used Red Horse)

salt

pepper

olive oil

whatever spices you use for your favorite baked chicken (I used dried rosemary and a little of chili powder)

1) Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C

2) Using a paper towel, pat dry your chicken. Make sure you remove the giblets inside the cavity.

3) In a small bowl, mix your oil, pepper, salt and spices. Rub this into your chicken as well inside the cavity

4) Now, insert the can into the chicken and place into an oven safe dish. It should look like this:

5) Bake for an hour to an hour and a half until it's no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear.

6) Remove the beer can. Let the chicken rest for a bit before serving.

According to the hubby the chicken is very tender and juicy. It has that distinct flavor of the beer but it's not overpowering. Next time I'll try using premium beers like the Guinness.

Tell me how yours turns out...

Recipe: Mackarel Pesto Pasta

2011-11-06T08:00:00.000+08:00

Sharing you my I'm-not-in-the-mood-to-cook recipe. At Php 150, this is good for 4-5 pax depending on your appetite

Mackarel Pesto Pasta

a can of mackarel (i usually buy Master or Ligo), remove brine/water and the bones of the fish - around Php 30 per can
Ideal Penne Pasta - around Php 50 per pack
half a pack of McCormick Pesto powder - around Php 30
3 pcs of tomatoes
a whole garlic chopped
a cup of olive oil (once when i ran out of olive oil, i used the regular vegetable oil i used for frying. i turned out ok)
a third to half a stick of butter
cheese cheese

small can of mushrooms (optional)
salt
pepper

1) cook you penne. make sure not to overcook it cause you will have to cook this again with the sauce
2) in a pan, put in you oil, garlic, tomatoes and pesto powder. For the pesto powder, I usually put a 3rd of a pack. You can always add more if you want. Make sure your heat is in the lowest setting. You will be cooking these slowly. Add your butter, mackarel and mushroom. Add salt and cracked black pepper to taste.
3) once your tomatoes are cooked, add your cheese.
4) Add in your pasta once the cheese has partially melted. You may add oil if you find it a bit dry.
5) Mix well. Served with bread sticks

Mateo's Baptism

2011-11-05T15:12:00.000+08:00

We initially planned to do M's baptism somewhere around April to coincide with my mother-in-law's visit from Europe. But after his scary pneumonia hospitalization during the first week of February, we decided to do it early. You know how superstitious the oldies are: that he got sick because he has not been baptized. So to pacify them and also to get the Church's blessing, we decided not to wait anymore for MIL.

With just a a little over a week to prepare, I had to do away with the pomp and decided to go with simple elegance. We decided to do it last March 12. Yes, a day after the infamous March 11 Japan Tsunami. (side kuwento/story: S was baptized a day after the October 19 Glorietta Bombing and believe it or not, I was there to pick up some baptismal giveaways. I was in Glorietta 4 but had to rush to SM Makati since all BDO atms in Glorietta were down. I was on my way back to Glorietta when I saw people running toward my direction yelling at me not to go there because there was a bomb. And with M's baptism happening a day after the Japan tsunami, my mom kept insisting it's a sign for me to repent and change my ways. Sometimes my mom can be too hard core. Lol!)

Photo credits: http://www.myweddingphilippines.com

Ceremony/Church: The Christ the King Parish, Greenmeadows Libis Quezon City

For the Church, we decided to do it at Christ The King Parish Church. This is where S was baptized in 2007 and it is very near our place. We wanted to do a private baptism so as not to expose M to a lot of people, but sadly all solo weekend baptisms has been booked for the next 3 weeks so we had to join the Mass Baptism. Saturday Mass Baptisms are done every Saturday at 10 AM. You can register as late as 30 minutes before the baptism. What to bring: your baby's birth certificate (original and a photocopy). You have to provide your own candles. For inquiries, you may call the Parish Office at 633-0280/638-4838.

The dining room has the simple elegance that I was aiming for

Reception: Eastwood Cafe, The Eastwood Richmonde Hotel

Since Eastwood is very near to our place, we decided to do the reception in a restaurant there. We inquired in Sambo Kojin and in Somethin' Fishy, two popular places in Eastwood to do receptions. But we found the two places very crowded and since we didn't want M to get exposed to too many people, we had to remove these off our list. We decided to inquire with The Eastwood Richmonde Hotel . They have a lovely private dining room in the Eastwood Cafe. The size is perfect for our small guest list. We only had 22 guests, mostly aunts and uncles plus a few close friends. Instead of ordering ala carte, we availed their Php 888/net lunch buffet. They had mostly Asian selections but my husband loves their cheese and dessert choices.

Theme: Teddy Bears and Blue and Chocolate Brown motif

Since I didn't have a lot of time to prepare I decided to go with the easiest motif for baby boys: blue and teddy bears. I got S's old teddy bears and replaced all their bows with chocolate brown and blue grosgrain ribbons I bought from Carolina's in Megamall. It was a plus as well that the function room did not need extra decorations since it is elegant already by itself. I placed the bears together with my giveaways at one end of the room and viola, instant decors.

Giveaways: Chocolate Chip Cookies and Royce Chocolates in Chinese Takeout Boxes

Let me say this...I'm allergic to souvenirs that does not serve any function aside from cabinet display and future dust gatherer. That's why I don't give out those cheap figurines, towels, snow globes, teddy bears, magnets with the baby's name, date of baptism, etc plastered or etched on it. Sorry for the fans, but it's just me.

I always give out something functional or if not something edible. For S's baptism, the craze then was caramel apples. I ordered a couple of those then attached a thank you card. Something sweet for the guests to eat when they get home. For the Ninongs and Ninangs, I got them Cross Pens with their names engraved on it.

For M's baptism, my ever generous Tita Joy of Big Al's Cookie Jar baked a couple of batches of her best seller chocolate chip cookies. I placed them inside Chinese takeout boxes (bought from Chocolate Lovers) and then I placed brown and blue grosgrain ribbons around them to finish the look. I also placed a monogrammed 'M' logo downloaded from the Martha Stewart Weddings website. I loved how the end product looked like...very elegant and chic!

For the ninongs and ninangs, instead of choco chip cookies, I placed a couple of Royce Chocolates inside. Royce was my favorite chocolate at the time when I was pregnant with M.

Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out despite having only a little over a week to prepare.

Busy Days Ahead

2011-11-05T11:29:00.000+08:00

My apologies for the lack of posts. I've been busy these past few days. You see this Working Mommy No More is now a Working Mommy From Home. The offer is so hard to refuse. I'm on my trial period now so let's see how it goes. I work 8 hours a day from Mondays to Fridays. I'm still adjusting to the work schedule hence the lack of posts. Plus I'm starting to get busy already for little M's 1st birthday party.

I have a post in draft now. Will share that with you soon. Hope you enjoy this another long holiday.

My Pride and Joy

2011-10-27T15:40:00.000+08:00

Aren't they cute? These were taken from The Picture Company months ago.

DIY Series: Personalized Apron

2011-10-26T14:36:00.001+08:00

During S's 3rd birthday, she had a small school birthday party. I had a lot of plans but again budget was the issue. Unlike during S's 1st and 2nd birthday parties, when I was still working and had money to augment the paltry budget my CFO gave me, this time the "working mommy no more" had to be extra creative and resourceful on how to make the party special at the same time stick to my budget.

S and her classmate getting busy with the activity

Her school only allows simple parties in school so no games and program. But I wanted to add an activity aside from the usual eating and blowing the candles. I decided to do a cupcake decorating activity. The kids decorated cupcakes I ordered from Frupcakes using candies, sprinkles and fondant decorations while wearing these cute little aprons. I got the idea from The Loot Fairy. I initially wanted to order from them but they have a 24 pcs minimum order. It came to a point I was tempted to order all 24 thinking the rest I can give out as Christmas gifts. Tee hee! But at that moment, I did not have the money to order all 24 pieces.

With no sewing skills, I tried asking my friend if her mom who dabbles in sewing can make the aprons for me. It was fairly easy to make so she asked me to send her the template and the materials. I'm sure your friendly neighborhood mananahi (seamstress) can do that for you.

For the materials, I used katsa / local cheesecloth. I got it from the Fabric Warehouse for around Php 30/yard. I could have gotten it cheaper from Divisoria but I did not want to go all the way there for just 4-5 yards of cloth.

Then I bought Iron Transfer Sheets from National Bookstore for less than Php 300 per pack. Each pack contains 3 pcs of sheets which was more than enough to make 9 aprons. Using my Photoshop skills, I made the following designs with the Strawberry Shortcake Theme. I made use the color scheme of the cartoon series then also printed some small strawberry elements:


Each student got an apron with their names printed on it

I got this from a Strawberry Shortcake digiscrap kit.

My cake/cupcake supplier also referred to this same palette for the cake's and cupcakes' icing

Now, before printing your design make sure you read the instructions that came with your iron transfer sheets. With my mine, it says that I have to print it in mirror image. I could have used my printer's function for this, but I wanted to maximize the iron transfer sheets. Using Photoshop I transformed it into mirror image. Here's how you do it:

See it is fairly easy!

So now the image looks like this:

Next, using Photoshop again, I arranged the pictures and names into a canvass with size similar to the actual iron transfer sheet. It looked like this:

No wasted space!

After, printing I then painstakingly cut each element then proceeded to iron these on the aprons. Again, just be sure to follow the instructions. The finished products looked like these:

Folded into neat little packages

Btw, since I had a lot of leftover katsa, I had my friend's mom make these drawstring bags for my daughter's guests for her small playdate party in the afternoon. I got the idea as well from The Loot Fairy. I decorated it using my leftover transfer sheets. For the drawstrings, I used green and red grosgrain ribbons:

Soccer themed bags for the boys


And Strawberry Shortcake ones for the girls

All filled up with goodies!

All in all I think I spent more or less Php 1000 and that was already for 10 aprons (I had one extra made in case I make a mistake with the iron transfers) plus 11 drawstrings bags. Not bad eh?

DIY Party Series

2011-10-25T09:21:00.002+08:00

I've been busy lately planning for the little boy's party. And I only have less than a month left. Yeah I know I'm cramming which is so unlike me. S's party was planned 7 months in advance. I initially had a hard time deciding where to do M's, whether to go big or intimate. So until I sorted that out just last weekend, I cannot go into the nitty gritty. Every waking hours now are spent on Photoshop and soon cutting and gluing papers.

Photo Credit: Psprint.com

One thing I love to do for my kids' parties are the DIY projects (do-it-yourself projects). Aside from these are labor of love and add up personalized touches, it is a way for me to save money. You see the hubby is no believer of big parties. He grew up during the communist times in Europe where everything is rationed. Birthday means a homemade cake and a small salu-salo in the house. No fancy gifts and definitely no fancy parties. Which is so unlike Filipinos who throw big parties during the first and the seventh birthdays. During S's 1st birthday party he set up a budget which made think "Are you serious?" So while my mommy friends had the opportunity to hire party planners, I had to do everything own my own: from looking for a venue, making balloons (there are a lot of tutorials in YouTube) to making my invitations and other decors.

It is very easy to do DIYs. All you need is a little creativity and a lot of patience. But it is hard labor too. I know I'm exaggerating but have you tried sitting for 3 hours straight cutting small pieces of pictures for your paper tole invitations? You will also need to do alot of researching. I usually get ideas from Marthe Stewart and Tip Junkie. Forums such as GirlTalk and Smart Parenting will give you ideas what's "in" in the birthday party scene in the Philippines.

One helpful tool I use is Photoshop. I learned using this during my Multimedia class in college (see Ms. E I did learn something from your class). After graduation, I totally forgot about it then was forced to re-learn it to make S's baptism invitation. I'm still no expert in this and I only know the basics. BUT I do think I'm able to make fantastic invitation layouts (I'll share some of it next time). Back to Photoshop, it takes sometime to learn the software but once you get the hang of it, using it is quite easy. However, if you don't have the time to learn a new software or do not have the intention on investing on buying the software, you can easily do your layouting in PowerPoint or in Paint. These have limited functionalities compared to Photoshop but it can help you accomplish the task.

From time to time, I'll be sharing my DIY Party ideas. Hopefully, you mommies who are planning parties for their kids will learn a thing or two from them.

Meet Mateo Nicolas

2011-10-21T11:13:00.001+08:00

Meet Mateo Nicolas. He was born almost a year ago on November 17 weighing 7lbs 4 oz.

Unlike with his Ate (Big Sister), my labor was fast (active labor was only over 2 hours). My EDD was supposed to be on November 27. We only stayed in the hospital for a day but it felt like we were there for weeks. You see S was in and out of the ER for fever, diarrhea and dehydration since November 12 and was finally admitted last November 15.

November 16 (Tuesday):

1:30 PM: I texted my OB and asked if by any chance he is having clinic that day (it was a holiday). I've been stressed out (emotionally and physically) since last Friday and I was afraid that it will have an effect on the baby. After an IE, he said my cervix is already soft but I'm not yet dilated. I asked him jokingly if I'll give birth tom. He said not yet since the baby is still "mataas" but definitely within the week I will.

My mom, who's taking care of my daughter during night shift (I dont stay in the hospital at night since I cannot take proper rest because of the residents and nurses monitoring my daughter round the clock) pleaded I shouldn't give birth yet. My lola was scheduled to have a liver procedure done on November 17 and my mom is supposed to monitor and coordinate with her doctor.

8:30 PM: We arrived at our condo. I was super tired so I decided to skip dinner. Decided to load some of the dirty laundry (our maid was staying with my mom in hospital so all household chores were neglected). I finally slept at 1130.

November 17 (Wednesday):

2:00 AM: I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. Since we were scheduled to leave the condo at 530AM (our car was banned that day so we had to be out of the house early to get to the hospital before 7am), I decided to take a bath early, hoping this will help me go back to sleep. I even blow dried my hair and put on makeup and ate a handful of M&Ms. Hey I didn't have any dinner. Lol!

3:30 AM: I was still up when I felt that a sudden gush down there. Never had that when I gave birth with S so I thought it was a case of pregnancy incontinence. When I went to the bathroom, I saw that there was blood on my underwear. I woke up my husband and calmly told him he should wake up now and have his coffee cause we will leave earlier than scheduled. I wasn't even having contractions that I was even able to pack up our clothes and even had a pan de sal.

5:30 AM: We went straight to the DR & an IE confirmed that I was already 1-2cm dilated. the baby was still high. They didn't let me leave the DR anymore and was instructed to change into a hospital gown. Still no contraction pains

7:00 AM: The contraction pains started coming in but still it was tolerable. I was only 3-4 cm dilated by this time. My husband was on the phone with my OB. He was out in a meeting in Marikina and was scheduled to be there at the hospital before noon. He said that based on the inputs from his residents, the progression of my dilation wasn't that fast and I might give birth birth in the LATE afternoon. He'll order daw that I'll be brought to my room and allowed to have a small breakfast.

7:30 AM: The pain was untolerable that I actually requested for sedatives. By this time I was 5-6cm dilated already!

9:30 AM: I was ready to push but the nurses and the residents were telling me to wait. From what I gathered later on, they werent expecting the progression will be that fast that the OB, anes and the pedia were still not there in the DR! That's why they were asking me to hold on first. My OB called my husband that he is on his way already but wouldnt arrive on time, his chief resident will be the one assisting me. But he was hoping I will still be able to hold on for another hour.

9:50 AM: I gave birth to the baby. my OB arrived at exactly 10:20 AM.

12 NN: I was wheeled in to my room...just 2 rooms away from S.

2:00 PM: S was discharged from the hospital.

Recipes: Pork Kinamatisan

2011-10-17T07:02:00.000+08:00

I came from a family who loves to cook. Almost every family reunion revolves around food. I remember my maternal Lolo (grandfather) waking up as early as 4 am on a Sunday to go to Farmer's Market to get the first dibs on the freshest produce. Then he'll slave away the whole morning to prepare the most sumptuous lunch. So you can just imagine his disappointment if we miss our Sunday reunions. It was almost as if you committed a mortal sin.

I do not have any formal training in cooking. But I did get my Lolo's love for cooking. And over the years I have collected a lot of recipes - my own, family recipes and some I gotten off the internet and then tweaked a bit. From time to time, I'll be sharing some of these here.

Pork Kinamatisan is my mom's recipe. I'm not sure where she got this but this has been a staple in our home. If you're a novice cook or if you don't like the prep work, this is the recipe for you. Pork Kinamatisan got it's name from one it's major ingredients - kamatis or tomato in Filipino. Hope you enjoy this!

Pork Kinamatisan

ingredients:

1 kilo Pork Ribs (if ribs are a bit expensive for you, you can use liempo)
6-8 pcs red tomatoes medium sized (cubed)
2-3 tablespoons of patis or fish sauce (you can adjust this to taste)
1-2pcs finger chilis (same thing you put in sinigang)

In a shallow pan, put in your ribs, tomatoes and patis. DO NOT PUT ANY WATER. Cover your pan and put it in a very low heat. You'll see that water will eventually come out of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally. Once your pork is tender, add you green chilis. Let it stand for 3-5minutes then turn off heat. Serve with fried eggplant and rice.

A Year of No Word

2011-10-16T16:01:00.001+08:00

After more than a year of severely neglecting this blog, I've decided to 'resurrect' it. I have realized I should more diligent in keeping track of things...starting with this blog!

So what have happened in a year?

In November, Sofia got hospitalized for dehydration. Then days after that, I gave birth to our baby boy Mateo (I'll be sharing my birthing story soon).

December became so hectic because of relatives' visiting from Canada. We also spent our first Christmas and New Year in our new home.

Come summertime, my mother-in-law visited us from Europe. My daughter also attended theater school. Then, towards the end of summer, we decided to go out of town for some R & R.

My daughter started with Nursery last June and again I've been busy with her school activities left and right. She also had a Princess party back in July, which almost did not push thru cause my Lola (grandmother) died a few days before the party.

This was my year (and more) in a nutshell. I promise to tell you more about this next time.

The Day She Turned 3 - The School Party

2010-08-02T12:20:00.003+08:00

My daughter turned 3 last Friday. For this year, we didn't have the same big parties we prepared for her when she turned 1 & 2 years old. Gotta be prudent about the money since I'm giving birth in November. We prepared though a small school party for her in the morning and playtime in Timezone with her playmates in the afternoon.

We started the day with surprising her with a small birthday cake and gifts:

She was extra happy when we told her that it was her daddy who will bring her to school that day. While the two were in school we finished packing up the food:

Since her school is a bit strict on parties (simple ones only; no balloons nor games are allowed), I asked Clarissa of Frupcakes to prepare cupcake decorating kits as an activity for the kids before eating time. She provided the cupcakes and the icing bags along with fondant cutouts and sprinkles. I bought additional sprinkles, chocolate toppers and containers from Chocolate Lovers in Cubao.

Overall, albeit simple, the kids especially the birthday girl enjoyed the party.

I'm Still Alive

2010-08-01T17:11:00.000+08:00

Oh my! Almost 3 months since my last post. Been busy with a lot of things. Anyway I 'll try to post a longer entry tomorrow. Hope all is well with you!

Sofia With Charlie Green

2010-05-08T06:27:00.002+08:00

We were on our way out of the Eastwood mall when we chanced upon Britain's Got Talent contestant Charlie Green who was waiting for his turn to perform onstage. Good thing though that one of his security escorts was the guard who usually mans the entrance nearest to our condo. A little sweet talk and he allowed Sofia to take a quick pic with him.

Such a charming little man!

The Life of a Stage Mom

2010-04-29T08:00:00.002+08:00

As much as I want to deny it, I have stage mom tendencies. When S was smaller, I would submit her pictures to publications hoping to see her face in a magazine one day. It became a reality in 2008, when she appeared on the cover of Baby Magazine's May 2008 issue:

More pictures here

I was soo happy with it that I started submitting her pictures to different ad agencies. Her next big break came for TVC for Johnson's and Johnson's Baby Oil:

After landing this TVC, her agent started sending her to more go-sees. We did attend a few and it wasn't such a happy experience. Some casting agencies would mismanage the audition process. The hassle of going through all these headache is not worth it since you'll just end up getting rejected. After a few unfortunate experiences, I told her agent that unless S has a big chance of getting the project, we are not attending any go-sees. See, I'm not only a stage mom, I'm also quite a diva. Lol! But seriously, my husband also agrees with me. We are doing this just for the "experience" sake so it is not worth it to let S go through the tiring go-sees. The agent said that this will limit the chances of her landing on a project but we told him it's a consequence we are willing to take.

Expecting that there will a be a dearth of projects, it came as a big surprise when her agent called that my daughter was short-listed for a project based on the pictures he submitted. He immediately asked us to fix my daughter's work permit in case we get the project. She did get it.

Months after that half-day shoot at a posh subdivision in Laguna, we started seeing her face in the broadsheets and in the mall kiosks. There is a billboard too somewhere in Laguna but since we rarely go there, I haven't seen it. Finally after a year, they placed a copy of the billboard along EDSA:

We almost got into an accident after asking the driver to go slow so I can take a decent picture of the billboard. This is located near Timog Ave. My husband is teasing me that I can finally retire as a stage mom since my daughter already appeared in a magazine cover, TVC, newspaper and billboard. I will have to think about ti first.

How about you? Are you a stage mom too?

The BIG News

2010-04-28T11:42:00.001+08:00

After a two-week hiatus from blogging, I'm BACK! The past 2-weeks had been quite hectic because of the last minute things I had to do for work. Plus, it doesn't help that I've been having morning (well more of evening) sickness lately. Oh yes that's my BIG BIG News. I'm 2-months preggy!

It was quite a surprise actually. After a month of being delayed, I took a PT and tested negative. I thought that the delay was stress-induced because of the house transfer and work. When I started having a bad bout of diarrhea and stomach cramps when I was about 2-months delayed, I decided to see a gastroenterologist. When he started prescribing me medications, he asked if I was pregnant. The medicines are known to cause birth defects and he wants to make sure that I'm not. I told him that I have been two months delayed. He asked me to take another PT again before he put me on any medications. To make the long story short, I did the test the following morning and was surprised to see the PT like this:

(Photo credit: Wikimedia)

Truthfully, initially it wasn't a welcomed surprise for me. With me quitting work that will mean that we will be a one-income family. That setup works for us now for our small family of 3. I'm just afraid that with the new baby coming on the way, things will be quite tight. I will definitely have to get a maid in the later stages of my pregnancy and that will also mean additional expenses in the house. We will have to go through again with the expensive vaccines. And not to mention my daughter is starting with pre-school this year with an eye-popping tuition fee of Php 100k.

Days after, I've come to terms with the reality and started happily looking forward to the new addition to our family. Thinking about it, cliche as it may sound, babies are blessings. Before having S, my husband was working as a consultant, a job that pays really well but can be terminated anytime when the company thinks that you are no longer needed. There was no job security. But months after I gave birth, he landed a permanent job with a bigger salary and bigger perks. A big blessing indeed. I'm also exploring at the idea of starting a home-business to cover whatever lost income from me quitting my job. I have some leads now and hopefully everything pushes through.

Human Piggybank

2010-04-17T20:36:00.000+08:00

This week has been a busy one for me. I've been quite tied up with some last minute projects in the office, with a big one launching tonight. And oh, it doesn't help that I received a BIG, BIG, BIG news earlier this week. I'm still in a state of shock and still trying to comprehend things. Will tell you more about this once things have settled down.

Anyway, my post today is about the importance of baby-proofing your house. You see since we moved to our own place, this became the last of my priorities. I assume that since my almost 3-year old daughter is a bit bigger now, there's no need for it. Well, I was all wrong.

This morning we had an emergency scare. My husband was out for a check-up with his ortho and it was just Sofia and I in the condo. Since I was busy doing the laundry, I let her watch a little tv while playing. I saw her got her small Disney Princess coin purse that she usually carries with her whenever she pretend plays. She's been quite independent and can amuse herself so little supervision is needed. All I have to do is to check on her from time to time to see what she's doing.

A few minutes after checking up on her, she shouted "Mommy, vomit" and heard her making choking sounds. Scenarios like this is not new to me. You see, my daughter has a long history of constipation and there are times when she strains too hard, she ends up vomiting. I went to our room where she was playing and escorted her to our bathroom to vomit straight into the toilet bowl. After a few gagging sounds I heard a loud "plock". I was shocked to see at the bottom of the toilet bowl was a shiny 25cents coin!

I started scolding her for trying to swallow a coin...started scaring her with the bad things that could happen to her (yeah I know bad mommy). This was the first time she EVER did that. Even when she was younger, she was never the type to put non-food items into her mouth. When I asked her how many coins did she eat, she said two. I started to panic even more that she may have "successfully" swallowed another coin.

I immediately dressed her up and changed my clothes as well. When we went down, I realized my husband got the last of my money so we made a mad dash to the ATM at a nearby building. After getting the money, I hailed a cab and instructed the driver to rush to Medical City Ortigas ER (I'm so glad we are living in a commercial area where atms and cabs are very accessible. Had we've been still staying in my mom's place and an emergency happens, I just don't know what I will do).

Upon arriving at the hospital, the doctor immediately ordered for a neck to abdomen xray. We had to wait for my husband to arrive so he can accompany my daughter inside the xray room since I wasn't allowed to stay with her in there. All the while they were inside I was fearing the worst. I was imagining my daughter's xray film will look like this:

(Photo credit: http://premedofcolor.wordpress.com/)

It was big relief that her xrays turned out clear. I am sooo guilty with what happened. In a way it was my fault for being too complacent on making sure our place is safe for our little girl. So the moment we went home I started with the baby-proofing. Here are the things I did:

1) Place sockets covers on all electrical outlets
2) Sift through her toys and throw away choking hazards i.e. small toys, coins, etc.
3) Place cabinet door and drawer locks
4) Place door knob safety covers on the the bathroom doors. This will ensure that she will not go inside the washroom unsupervised.
5) Moved all medicines in a cabinet where she cant reach them
6) Made a schedule with our condo's maintenance to setup the safety gate to cordon off our kitchen

One hard lesson learned for mommy today: unless I want my daughter to look like a human piggy bank or get into an accident, I shouldn't be complacent. After all, even though my daughter looks older now, she's still a baby and is very curious of the world around her so who knows what will she think of the next time.

Playing Dress Up

2010-04-11T10:23:00.001+08:00

My daughter Sofia loves to play dress up. She loves to rummage in her closet and would sometimes come up with the weirdest combination of clothes. There was a day when she insisted on wearing a tiara with her dress and refused to be called anything but Princess Sofia. There was a time before she was a belly dancer/fairy princess/cowboy:

Playing dress up has numerous benefits for your kid:

1) It stimulates the kid's imagination. One moment they can pretend to be a princess, the next pretend to be a pirate. There are endless possibilities.

2) Your kid will be able to absorb more things about the world and people around her. When S was first hospitalized, she was so afraid of the doctors because of all the trauma she encountered in the ER. Her pedia suggested to buy her a toy doctor's kit. From then on, she looks forward to the nurses'/doctor's hourly visit. After they check on her temperature, heartbeat etc, she would do the same to them.

3) It improves their communication skills. Whenever my daughter plays dress up she would like to narrate what she's doing during her pretend play. I grab this opportunity to introduce to her new words. Amazingly, at 2 years 8 mos, my daughter has a wide vocabulary and speaks in complete sentences already.

To encourage your kid to do pretend play, make sure you have some costumes on hand. My daughter's Halloween costumes come in handy for these. I dump everything in box so anytime she'd want to play with those, she'll just get it from there.

Choco Banana Muffins

2010-04-10T17:35:00.002+08:00

Not wanting to throw away the over-riped bananas, I decided to make some Choco Banana muffins. I think mine came out a bit over done. I got a bit side tracked by some issues in the office.

Here's the recipe I usually prepare:

Choco Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large ripe bananas, mashed*

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg well beaten

1/3 cup melted butter

80 gms. choco chips

* I don't finely mash the bananas since hubby likes to eat some tiny chunks of it. But if you like yours smooth and less chunkier, finely mash the bananas then.

Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees. Slightly spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combined all dry muffin ingredients (except for sugar). In another bowl, combine the bananas, sugar, egg and melter butter; mix well. Stir into the dry ingredients, only until moistened. Do not over mixed or else your muffins will come out a bit tough. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 cup full.

Bake for 18-20 mins or until the muffins test done. Cool in pan for 10 mins before removing to a wire rack.

The Shopping Itch Strikes Again

2010-04-09T16:29:00.004+08:00

Ever since moving into our own place, I've been obsessed in buying stuff for the house: furniture, appliance, decors...you name it! It such a shame though that the items in my wish list are either: a) not readily available here in Manila or b) if ever they are, it's so freaking expensive. More or less 100% markup.

So it was such a happy news that my dear Lola is going to the US end of April to visit and spend quality time with my US-based relatives. I am already starting to "draft" my list and hopefully she'll be able to buy these for me:

1) Dining Plate Set
Though I have several sets already, I believe that you can never have too many plates at home. I'm eyeing at this Corelle Simple Lines Square 16-Piece Dinnerware Set, Service for 4. Corelle are usually sold here for Php 3.5k-up ($1=Php45). So at $55, this is a steal.

2) Comforter Set

I'm on a look out for nice comforter sets for our bed. But my picky husband doesn't like the selections we have here. Those few that he liked costs anywhere from Php 5k-up. Here are some of the items he wants me to order from Amazon:

Geo Grid Black Queen Comforter Set with Bonus Pillows

7 Pieces Black, Brown, and White Suede Patchwork Comforter Bedding Set / Bed-in-a-bag Queen Size

7 PC. MODERN BED IN A BAG SUPER SET CHOCOLATE BROWN W/ MATCHING PILLOWS

And of course I am ordering as well a set or two for my little girl:

Since she's into Strawberry Shortcake nowadays, I pretty sure she'll love this:

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE 4PC TODDLER BEDDING Set Crib Girl

Or maybe this Little Mermaid set will tickle her fancy:

Disney's The Little Mermaid Special Edition Twin Size Comforter

But if I were to decide, I would love to get her these pieces from Crate and Barrel:

And hopefully I will be able to raise some "funds" before Lola leaves so she can get me this dream appliance for the house:

3) iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver

I am not too sure if this will be avalailable here anytime soon as it is very easy to get hired help here. But being maid-less now, I would love to have this. I'm just hoping I would be able to convince hubby to buy this for me

My Morning Savior

2010-04-06T09:21:00.009+08:00

Mornings are hard for me. I cannot function well enough. Heck, I can't even make my own coffee in the morning. I am that useless. And not having a maid makes it extra harder. Between preparing my husband's clothes and attending to my daughter and for the things I need for work (yes, I'm still working hence the title of my blog is a big BS for now), I usually forget to prepare breakfast and the family would have to settle for cereals. Cereals are good but it starts to taste like cardboard after eating it for the nth day.

So I'm happy to discover Betty Crocker Bisquick Buttermilk Biscuits.

(Photo credit: Buy the Case)

All you need to do is to add 1/2 cup of water and mix it until a soft dough forms. Then drop dough by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet (I use a muffin tray). Bake it for 8-11 minutes for 450 degrees Fahrenheit or until golden brown.

It looks like this hot from the oven:

What to love?
- Easy to prepare. I think I spent less than 10 minutes preparing the dough and placing in on the muffin tray. While waiting for it to finish baking, I do other things around the house.
- Tastes really good!
- Goes well with something sweet like jam or peanut butter and with something more savory like cheeses. Brie goes well with this.
- It's cheap. A 212 grams bag is about Php 50 ($1 = Php46) and can yield around 12 pieces of biscuits.

Having these for breakfast definitely perks up my mornings: